Final day in Panajachel

Guatemala was supposed to be a 2 day stop. In what is becoming a theme of this journey, there was simply too much to see and do. We needed a bonus third day. The extension was also influenced by two Americans we met, David and Allison. Bright and early on Tuesday they are planning on driving to El Salvador. The combination of a caravan and accompaniment by frequent border crossers at international lines was irresistible. We are due for departure at 6am Tuesday morning.

The bonus day was well spent. We went into town for a Mexican style breakfast including fried eggs, salsa, fried plantains, black beans, salty cheese, and tortillas. Afterwards we caught a tuke-tuke ride to a nature center on the other side of town. The took-took is a three wheeled taxi that fits into all the small alleys around town. One can hitch a ride for 5 Quetzal or 75 cents. While these stand as the chief benefits of the tuke-tuke, this form of transportation possesses several key disadvantages as well. Namely the tuke-tuke is the smallest road-worthy vehicle around (road-worthy may be generous) save the moped. This results in terrifying stare downs with buses and fiats alike.

The nature center was cool. There was a butterfly garden which included lots of reading on the monarch butterfly. This region of Central American is a critical choke-point during the monarch's migration. We were also able to spot out first wild North American primates. The siting revealed the gopro's first weakness. It is not a particularly good camera for capturing distant wildlife. Hopefully we'll be able to get closer in the future.

Perhaps the best part of the nature center though were 8 ziplines set up across one of the ravines surrounding the lake. I could explain more about the experience of riding said ziplines, but I think this video will be worth a couple thousand words.