Guatemala 7/1/2022 - 7/17/2022

Monday, 7/4/2022 - Piscinas El Manantial

This morning, breakfast was corn flakes, choco krispies, and coffee. Today we were going to attempt once again to go to the swimming pools at El Manantial. We had gone there on our previous visit, but an ill-timed thunderstorm had prevented us from swimming.

We left the house at 10:30 a.m.: Humberto, Paulina, Yasmin, Aracely, Eddy, Ivan, Craig, and myself. We stopped at a gorgeous lookout in Godinez to take in panoramic views of Lake Atitlan. We took some photos there; it was absolutely gorgeous.

At around noon, we arrived at the Parma Dairy near the pools. We got ice cream cones (Craig had blackberry and I had zapote), and Paulina bought paninis for a picnic lunch at the pools. She also bought some of their delicious cheese which we would enjoy on nachos at home for dinner.

We parked the van at the Piscinas El Manantial and walked down some steep stairways flanked with gorgeous tropical vegetation. There are six different pools here, all filled by a spring-fed river. The water is incredibly clear and clean, and each pool is a different depth. The pools are separated from one another by plants and pavilions, so it never felt crowded. We enjoyed a refreshing swim in the clear water.

We were impressed by what a proficient swimmer Ivan is. He is a regular fish. He can dive and swim underwater. He and Eddy bought balls to play with in the water. We were laughing because there is an Onion meme about "nation's moms miss 80% of cool things little boys do in the pool." It was so appropriate, because Ivan was constantly trying to get people's attention as he did various tricks.

Some of the pools were more rustic than others, and had little fish which would exfoliate your feet while you soaked them.

We worked up an appetite and got out of the water to enjoy our delicious paninis, which really hit the spot. The kids bought granizadas, and I was surprised to see the girls crushing up jalapeno chips and sprinkling them on top of their snow cones.

I bought myself a small bag of jalapeno chips, and the mascot pictured on the bag was perfect for Craig...a pepper eating nachos. I told him that he should get it as a tattoo. We went to a lookout tower and could see watercress growing in the river.

After lunch, the boys got back into the water and continued to swim until it was time to leave at 4:30 p.m. Ivan slept the entire way home.

Once we got home, we had dinner: chicken soup and nachos with cheese from Parma...yummy! Ivan was recounting all of his exploits at the pool, acting out all the cool things that he did and the Onion story came to mind again.

Humberto accepts US dollars from clients, but it is very difficult to exchange dollars that are not 100% pristine. The slightest mark or tiniest tear in a bill can cause it to become basically worthless. These bills are fine, however, in the US. So we exchanged Humberto's bad bills for pristine bills we had brought from home for just such an occasion.

We went to bed after around 10 o'clock after a fun but tiring day.



Godinez Lookout



Piscinas El Manantial

Lookout in Godinez

Lookout in Godinez

Eddy, Craig, and Humverto swimming at Piscinas El Manantial

Eddy, Craig, and Humverto swimming at Piscinas El Manantial

Aracely, Yasmin, Ivan, and Paulina swimming at Piscinas El Manantial

Aracely, Yasmin, Ivan, and Paulina swimming at Piscinas El Manantial

Yasmin and Aracely enjoying granizadas at Piscinas El Manantial

Yasmin and Aracely enjoying granizadas at Piscinas El Manantial

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Ivan at the lookout in Godinez

Ivan at the lookout in Godinez




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