Day Thirty-Six, Antigua (Continued)

View of the lake from lunch

After we went to the Catholic church at Santiago Atitlan, we went to visit the cofadia which watches over Maximón, the modern mix of the Maya deity Mam and the Catholic Saint Simon. Back in March I had visited Maximón with my group from MassArt, and had given him Q10 and a scarf. This time around I asked for the cofradies to pray to Maximón on my behalf; as my participant observation project. I wont talk about the experience here in this post, because I am going to have may paper and part of my presentation up on my Participant Observation Page on the right hand side of this blog by the end of this week.

Enjoying the view from the front of the boat:
Issac, David, and Elise

After we visited Maximón we went back to our boats, went about a minute to the right and got off for lunch. The view from the restaurant of the lake was beautiful. We stayed there for a while, walking through the gardens, and stretching our legs.
We left the restaurant and headed back to our hotel. The final boat ride was the best of them all; we all sat in the front of the boat and enjoyed the view, wind, and even the drizzle.
When we got back to the hotel we all got our luggage and put them in our new rooms. We were also given complimentary fruit drinks from the hotel to toast our official arrival.

Dinner at Sunset cafe with Professor Burnett,
Irina, and Lesley

After we all got settled in our rooms we split off into groups; one went swimming, one hung out in the hotel, and one went out to the market. I went to the market with the Professor, Lesley, and Irina. We walked to the street in a drizzle, talking about our travels, classes, and plans for next semester. We walked around the market, looking at wares and getting ideas for shopping at Chichicastenango the next day. We also grabbed dinner at the Sunset Cafe, the same place I had dinner back in March. There was live music, two Gallo girls in red body suits, and we watched the rain come down in sheets.
After we finished dinner we took a tuc-tuc home and I went off to study Spanish before I went to bed for the night.