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Panajachel, Lake Atitlan This story is about a shoe cobbler, a coffee shop, and a boulder. Back in our hometown of Mill Valley, there is a special shoe repair shop called Tony's, and the cobbler's name is Misak Pirinjian. Misak has been the town's cobbler for over 25 years, and I took my shoes, luggage, wallets, etc. to him for over 12 years. Misak has a helper in his cramped shop, but in all the years I went to him, I had never had a single conversation with his helper, who

As in Antigua, volcanoes surround us in Lake Atitlan. The lake is set in a gigantic bowl of deep blue water, with little villages dotting the coastline. At night we fell asleep to the twinkling lights of these villages. The middle of the night often brought light shows put on by electrical storms shooting around in the clouds. The volcanoes seem to stand sentry around the lake; their lightening bolts warding off evil spirits. We felt protected and safe here, right on the wate

Antigua is cradled by three massive volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. The volcanoes seem to rise up right from the edge of town. It is a city trapped in time; trapped between 16th century architechture and the modern day life inside its facades. Colonial-era mansions with brass knockers, elaborate tiled windowsills, and verandas carved hundreds of years ago when Antigua was still the capital. It felt medevil to us. In 1541, a landslide destroyed the city and it was rebu

First, the border crossing: Clearing out of Belize was pretty simple. We cancelled the vehicle permit, cleared customs, got our passports stamped and bought some Quetzals at an only somewhat ripped off price. Then we passed into no man's land between the two countries. We were required to drive through some sort of fumigation station (it looked like a drive thru car wash but it sprayed noxious poison up underneath & all around poor LoJo). Next we parked the rig behind a bunch