Travel to Panajachel










¡Hola Amigos! We hiked up at least 8 million and three stairs to the lookout over Antigua. The view was unbelievable. We could see the volcano Fuego erupting from the top. We took a lot of pictures before hiking back down. We walked around Antigua for a little bit before going back to the hotel to leave for Panajachel.

The bus ride to Panajachel was about 3 hours, but we stopped for lunch at Chichoy. We had soup and chicken with potatoes. For dessert we had pineapple and papaya pie. The rest of the bus ride was winding through the mountains with lots of beautiful view of Lake Atitlan.

The hotel in Panajachel, Hotel del Lago, is on the edge of Lake Atitlan. The rooms have balconies with amazing view of the lake. All of our rooms are on the second floor, except Walter who is by himself on the fourth floor.

Once we were settled in we had a welcome meeting with three of the leaders of Sololá, the people we will be building a house for, and some of the people from Habitat who we will be building with. To our surprise, Gabriel was at the meeting. Gabriel was one of the members from Habitat who helped us build the stoves last year. It was exciting to see a familiar face for those of us who are returning. They told us what we would be doing and how we would be impacting their lives.

After the meeting we walked down by the lake to go shopping. We met two little girls names Tomasa and Carmen who were selling key chains and bracelets. We talked to them for a while and found out that they are cousins. Carmen goes to school in the morning because she is younger and Tomasa goes to school in the afternoon. They sell on the streets after school, but their sales were bad today since it was raining. Many of us had bought a few of their bracelets which solves that problem.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that sells pupusas. Pupusas are a typical El Salvadorian food. They are sort of a stuffed tortillas. We all had a cheese pupusa and then got to pick a second from the menu. Many of us had pork or beans, but there were lots of delicious options. We walked back to our hotel in the pouring rain.

Tomorrow will be our first work day. We will split into three groups to work on the house, the latrines, and the smokeless stoves.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Love you guys so much, see you all soon!! -Anna

I'm having the best time ever and I'm going to be extremely sad to leave. I've experienced so many things and the trip has barely started. I love you Mom and Dad and I am so excited to take you guys here one day. Also, Happy Birthday Lauren! I hope you have a great day even though I'm not there :) I'll see you guys soon! -Ava

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