Back to work in Panajachel

The next leg of our trip led us from El Salvador north through the border at La Hachadura and back to the highlands of Guatemala. Back to Pana, back to the Real World, back to flying!!

We had a relatively uneventful border crossing back into Guatemala and had just enough time to make it all the way to Panajachel before sunset. There was even a parade right across the border to welcome us back! We hadn't made contact with Christian and Stefanie for a few days to warn them of our arrival. We tried our Guatemalan SIM cards in our phones. We stopped multiple times to add credit with no success. We tried to look for wifi, but failed at that too. Eventually we settled on surprising them and just pulling up to the office in Pana.

It is a beautiful drive back up into the highlands of Guatemala. You navigate slowly uphill between two giant volcanoes and by the very old city of Antigua. You can feel the air getting steadily colder and dryer the further you go. It was a very refreshing feeling after so long in a tropical environment. We missed an essential turn along the way that put us on route for the toll road straight to Guatemala City. With nowhere to turn around and 'No U-turn' signs all around the toll booth we were stuck pulling all the way up to the attendant. When we explained our gringo situation, the toll cashier told us to reverse all the way to a gap in the median a quarter mile back and shouted for a nearby guard to guide us! It was a little comical trying to keep our short trailer in a straight line down the busy multi lane freeway with with the guard waving us along. Without too much delay we were back on track.

Becca had been driving non stop since Nicaragua after the policia had attempted to get a bribe out of us. She was exhausted and we couldn't remember ever being stopped by the police on our previous visit to Guatemala so we decided I could take over for the last hour. We had made it most of the way to Lake Atitlan and were just a few minutes from the turnoff from the Pan-American when we came around a corner and saw the familiar sign of a police road block. Uh-oh. We were ushered to the side of the road and asked for our paperwork. Again we found ourselves in the argument of why the copy of my drivers license was not sufficient. Becca did a great job of arguing for over 40 minutes, even when they tried to separate us and question me alone. After all this time telling us how hard it would be to pay the huge fine (we would have to go all the way to the city, and pay various extra fees) they finally directly asked for a bribe. Becca was quick to ask for their names and badge numbers before telling them we would much rather pay the fine than a bribe. They smiled, handed our paperwork back, and told us to have a nice day. Becca was back in the driver seat.

The rest of the drive went quick. This is probably my favorite section of the Pan-American. The Guatemalan highlands are amazing. It is one of those roads that is quite the engineering feat in itself. The deep canyons and big mountain ridges are endless in every direction, and the deliberate, winding path they have found to maneuver through it is genius. The pavement is smooth and each turn leads directly into another. It's a motorcyclists dream! We turned off the highway in golden afternoon light and started our descent to the lake. We drove through Solola, the last town perched on the rim that surrounds Lake Atitlan, and headed down the very steep traverse into Panajachel. We pulled the van and trailer straight down Calle Santander, the main street in town, to the Real World Paragliding office.

Christian and Stephanie were happy to see us despite the surprise arrival. Christian had been a one-man show, flying tandems alone, for the past couple weeks. It's always more fun with friends. They let us know we could crash at their place again and they were waiting on us to try and schedule a big group for the next day. Perfect timing! It feels good to be back in the company of such generous and nice people--we missed our Guatemalan family! We had lots of passengers and great weather into the foreseeable future. We managed to find a casatita  to rent for 2 months a few blocks from the office. Its a very small studio apartment with a nice yard and rooftop patio. We barely had time to move in between all the tandems and good weather.

 

It was nice to be so busy right away but we haven't had much time to catch up on other things. Fortunately we had some help on the way. The Flying Baba brothers are here--Mike and Mani from Austria with their ladies--Haiyan and Enna. They have earned their nickname after spending lots of time in India over the past few years. They have picked up the head bobble as well as some of the lingo "very good!" Their eyes are always smiling and they love to fly. They've been flying tandems with Christian for a few years and are back for more this season.

I got the chance to run to the city with Christian to pick up the Venezualan crew. Tommy is back from Peru for a couple weeks and Jorge Atramiz is here from Hawaii for 6 weeks! We haven't seen Jorge since our time in Hawaii in 2009. We also have some help from Leo from Argentina, and Nate Pertuset came down from Utah to enjoy some solo flying and Guatemalan adventuring. He was waiting in the LZ as we landed our first tandem flight back. It's great to catch up with friends from all over the world in amazing places!

We had some birthdays to celebrate last week. It turns out Jorge and Mike share one! A few of us started the day out with a nice sunrise hike and fly. Rok a Boos got to come along--we built him a Guatemalan harness and Becca took him on his first international flight. After some midday tandems we celebrated with a pot luck BBQ at a friends big property right in town.

We've had great weather and tons of flying and have enjoyed being part of such an awesome team. It's a breath of fresh air to work and fly in such a relaxed environment. We are savoring every last moment, it's hard to believe we only have 3 short weeks left here before starting north again. We have had a bit more time to plan some other missions as well. Keep an eye out for our next blog post, we are still winding down from the last couple days of volcano climb/camp/fly awesomeness. It will be a full entry by itself.