Lake Atitlan (stop sniggering at the back)

And so we arrived in Panajachel, on the shores of Lake Atitlan, once described as the most beautiful lake in the world. It´s huge, and surrounded by volcanoes, though once again, no lava. Our first stop was the nature reserve, where we turned our backs on the nature and signed up for an afternoon´s zip-lining instead.

Zip-lining is not an activity for those of you with a weak heart. Or bladder, come to that. Suspended 190 feet above the forest canopy, you launch yourself into mid air and fly, quite literally, by the seat of your pants at a speed that must surely  come close to breaking the sound barrier.
It wasn´t half good though.

Suffering slightly from adrenaline overload, we took it easy the next day with a visit to the market at Chichicastenango (I´m not making these names up, you know.)  The market was all you might expect, colourful, noisy and full of stalls selling things.
We managed to drag ourselves away from the shopping frenzy for long enough to visit the shrine of the local Mayan god, Pascual Abaj. He´s the big cheese in these parts, second only in ranking to a god called Maximon. (more of whom later). The Mayan people come to pray to Pascual Abaj for the things that they need: help in business, recovery from illness, the wheel-that sort of thing. They offer him gifts of food and drink, and occasionally sacrifice a chicken or two. 

When we arrived at the shrine, there was a full blown ceremony taking place with a shaman presiding over offerings of food and lots of fires burning. It was quite  thing to witness, I can tell you, blog-mates, though as JB pointed out, it was a bit reminiscent of an out of control barbecue.

Anyway, study the pictures and decide for yourselves.

This one's not actually the ceremony. It's the market. I just threw it in for some local colour.



These are from the ceremony itself.

This one shows Pascual Abaj Himself. For the uninitiated, he's the stone in the centre of the picture.

And here's a nervous chicken, hoping Little Timmy recovers before she's needed to perform in the ceremony.