Laguna Lachua

Final weekend in Guatemala and one more place to check off the list: Laguna Lachua.  Laguna Lachua is probably the most organized, well-planned park I have seen in Guatemala.  It's a 4km hike into the camp ground where you have direct access to the crystal-clear lake and camp sites.  I lucked out with the weather and there wasn't a single drop of rain from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.  Not a bad way to end ~2 years in Guatemala.

Start of the farewells

Since the summer is a busy season for vacation, post transfers, and trainings, we had my office going away party a little early so that most people could attend.  Tere was kinda enough to offer her amazing house for some good food.

Still trying to cross a few more places off the list, I went up to Xela and the hot springs at Fuentes Georginas on Saturday morning.  It was a soggy, wet weekend, but the hot springs were nice and hot so it didn't really matter.

Back to Mexico....finally

I left Puebla in December of 2009, and am embarrassed to say that despite having lived in Guatemala for the last 2ish years, I had not made it back since I left.  With time running out on my time in Latin America, I was able to take advantage of the 4th of July holiday to make a quick trip up to relive some Peace Corps memories in Queretaro and Puebla.  Luckily the trip went smoothly, but I was lucky as the Mexico City airport was closed 2 hours after I landed due to ashes from the volcano in Puebla.  I started by visiting Queretaro, where I lived for a couple months during PC training.

Then I went to Puebla where I arrived in time to make the rounds in my old office and visit the historic center of the city.

On Saturday, my old boss and I went to her family's house in Tezlutlan in the Sierra Norte of Puebla.  We arrived on Saturday night, just in time to catch the procession of the Virgen del Carmen.  Thinking it would be a short processing, we started to follow the dancers, the fireworks, and the virgin (in a boat), but 3.5 hours later, we were still walking the streets of the town waiting to come to the final destination of the night, the main cathedral.

On Sunday, we had a quick breakfast in the market, did some veggie shopping, then headed back to Puebla via the ruins at Cantona, finally arriving at the bus station just in time for me to catch a bus back to Mexico City and the plane back to Guate.