Santiago de Atitlan to Antigua: Sunday, December 14

Dear Readers, Thank you so much for all of your well wishes on our pregnancy! I can't wait to blog all about it.

But I feel like there is some unfinished business to take care of before I move on to this exciting new stage: I have to finish the story of our December trip to Guatemala. I still haven't shown you some of the most beautiful scenes I saw during our travels. And there still are some stories to tell. So let me begin wrapping this up...

The following morning, we had breakfast in the lodge and, sadly, got ready to leave. This was such a relaxing place, and the physical beauty of the area was just astounding. I made sure to take some last pictures.

From our table in the lodge, we looked out onto the road to see people passing on foot, tuk-tuk, and in the backs of pickups.

I was glad I finally got a shot of the pickup means of transport that is so common around here.

I took a walk down to the Posada's lakefront property.

The scenes were just so majestically beautiful, the clouds just hovering over the mountains.

I wished we had time to stay for another dip in the pool.

Or to take a canoe around the lake...we hadn't had time for that.

The fishermen looked so peaceful and meditative in their solo boats.

Ahh, we will have to come back.

I took a last look at the lounge chairs and the little sauna hut.

And then one more time back to the lodge.

I decided to try shooting a video on my way up the path to our room, as I tried to catch my breath, due to the elevation.


We packed up, and our taxi was waiting to take us to Antigua.

We drove around Lake Atitlan, and we caught a glimpse of CFCA's Guatemala facility. When we were just about to leave the lake behind, we got this panoramic vista. It was too good to pass up -- we asked the driver to stop, so we could take some more pictures.





After that, we drove through unbelievably beautiful and little inhabited country to get to the main road. We traveled up and down steep inclines and saw meadows and streams. There was no real place to pull over and stop, and it was just a two-lane road, so I have no pictures of this part of our journey.

But I will never forget the beauty on that gloriously sunny day.

Slowly, we made our way to more and more populated areas and then to a small city, where a busy market was taking place. We started seeing signs for Antigua. And then we were back in the city that had marked the conclusion of our trip last April, as well.

Last time, we had had dinner at Casa Santo Domingo, an amazing hotel and museum that is a former convent. This time, in honor of our anniversary, we decided to splurge and get a room at the hotel. It still was a relative bargain, especially compared with the States.

Here's a tour of our room:

The Postcards from Antigua Guatemala I posted in January include pictures from that Sunday, as we walked around.

Here are two other photos from that afternoon:

The gate, ready to go from 2008 to 2009.

A beautiful courtyard from a small hotel where we stopped to check email.

That night, we thoroughly enjoyed the hot tubs and big pool in one of the hotel's courtyards and then had a gourmet meal by candlelight in the restaurant. Heaven!