Guatemala Part 9 — Lake Atitlán, Part 1

Dropped out of the highlands to Lake Atitlán, a massive volcanic crater lake ringed by three volcanoes and about a dozen Maya towns. Some people have called it the most beautiful lake in the world. He wasn’t wrong, but he probably didn’t have to find parking in Panajachel.

Now, the reason I’ve been calling this the “Waters of Mormon”: in the Book of Mormon, Alma baptizes believers at a hidden place called the Waters of Mormon, and some LDS researchers who put Book of Mormon geography in Mesoamerica have pointed at this lake as a candidate. Nobody knows. The church doesn’t claim it. But paddling out at sunrise on a lake this beautiful, you understand why people want it to be the place.

Which is what I did — rented a paddleboard in Pana and went out alone at sunrise while everyone else slept in. Glass water, two volcanoes dead ahead, nobody out there but me and a couple of fishermen. I’ve been hauling an Insta360 through three countries for exactly this kind of morning, and it finally earned its keep.

Then the main event: paragliding off the mountain above the lake. Axel is our adventure kid, so it was Axel and Kelsey flying tandem with the pilots. The clouds were thick when we drove up, and the crew just watched the sky until somebody said NOW — they found the hole in the clouds and were gone. Mom made it down and landed by the lake. Axel, it turns out, is too light: he couldn’t drop below the mountain ridge, so after cruising around above the clouds he landed right back where he started. He was slightly bothered by this because he thought he didn’t get the full ride; I told him to start bulking for the next time. Flying is flying.

Xander, Enzo, and I held down the launch site, where the boys located a concrete elephant and some other random mountaintop playground equipment, because no matter what country you’re in, my boys will find something to climb on.

Dinner featured the first salad any of us had seen in about two weeks — a deconstructed pile of beets, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions that we fell on like animals. Scurvy narrowly avoided.

We stayed at Hanna Hotel, 100 yards off the water, view straight down the lake to the volcanoes. One of the best places we’ve stayed the whole trip.

Tomorrow we get on a boat.

#unpavedparenting