Day 13, 14

Well actually day 13 doesn't count. Nothing to write about..just stayed around the hotel area....later in the day went out for a walk and to get something to eat.
Day 14, a different story.... I'd made arrangements to go to Lake Atitlan. Hector, Victor's brother in law picked me up and we drove south west into the hIghlands about 100 miles to the Lake. Much of interest to see along the way.
We passed an area where a lot of agriculture is still undertaken, corn, cauliflower,onions etc. It's no wonder the unemployment rate is only at the 3.2% mark. The vegetable gardens are heavily manual....and usually small plots tended by individual farmers, who are part of the Guatemalan Food Project for Progress, a Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas) or those unfamiliar with that University)project which helps farmers improve their product and helps "others to develop process package and market their goods for export". Everyone I saw walking - note walking- along the road carried their own garden tools. Texas A&M has helped coffee growers also in similar ways.
Other heavy manual work I noticed was the roadworks we encountered. Along some part of the roads there is a white gutter strip, which was being whitewashed by hand, road repair - no big trucks to drop the necessary materials, just wheelbarrows, and shovels. The exception to this is on some parts of the main highway between Gautemala City and Quetzaltenango. At several points I did see a few front-end loaders and trucks, however a LOT of the work was much more manual. Other activity which keeps people busy is digging out the lime from the limestone cliffs that line the roads. All by hand, and not entirely the safest occupation given the way the road winds and the speed at which most vehicles move.
The market places in the towns we passed thru were incredibly colorful, not to mention the local women's clothing. Almost all of them wear beautiful embroidered blouses and woven skirts- all the colors you can think of. On the other hand the homes of the majority of the country's indigenous people in rural areas are by our standards, shanty towns, more often than not built of varying combinations of bamboo, corrugated tin/iron, cardboard, and have dirt floors. In the towns, more are built of cement brick so better able to withstand the weather.
Then comes the Lake- quite a spectacular view from road above. The sun had joined us soon after we left Guatemala City, ( I wasn't so sure as we were leaving that it was the best day to be going, it was so overcast, and a light shower or 2) and the blue of the sky, and water was so vivid. Naturally out came the camera. Atitlan is the Mayan word meaning ' the place where the rainbow get's it colors' , is a mile above sea level, and is the deepest lake in Central America. Panajachel is one of the villages on the lake. We parked and walked around the town for a bit. then down to the lake's edge. It's the first town tourists come to by road, and from there it's an easy boat ride across the lake to the other villages. We went on the the San Buenaventura Nature Reserve where I saw spider monkeys, flashes of some very colorful birds, orchids, and the butterfly farm with a few hundred species of butterflies according to the information I'd read. I only saw one so not too sure where the rest of them are.
Next stop lunch, and found a superb location to eat at the restaurant of the Posada de Don Rodrigo, with a fabulous view of the lake and volcanos on the other side - see the picture I'm in for an idea - and delicious Tilapia fish.
Back to Guatemala City just in time to beat the rush hour traffic....not a pleasure in any city, and equally true here....given that there doesn't appear to be any enforcement of emission controls. Vehicles here, mostly the buses spew out the most noxious, dirty diesel smoke. Pretty unhealthy I reckon.