Posted by We left Guatemala City at 830am heading to Lake Atitlan. At 10:30am we stopped at the village of Sumpango. Annually, on November 1st, Sumpango celebrates the Day of the Dead by having a Giant Kite festival. We met a family and learned how they make the kites. The Kite we saw was a circle with a diameter of 12 feet. The design on the Kite was made by gluing colored tissue paper to the kite. It takes 2 months to make and the whole family works on it. The design is to honor their relatives who have passed.
After Sumpango we drove 15 minutes and stopped at a school for Mayan women. They come to learn sewing, cooking, or baking. They only attend one day a week for one year. The goal is to give them a skill they can use to generate money for their families.
We stopped for a light lunch before driving up through the mountains to get to our hotel in Saint Catarina Palopo, a small village on Lake Atitlan.
We had an orientation walk around town and then dinner at the hotel.
Tomorrow we take a boat to another village on the lake.
Elsie's Travel Blog 