It had been a while since I had one of those "Christ that's beautiful" moments. After a few days in Coban and a week in Quetzaltenango, I'd gotten used to city dinginess. Today, however, changed that. It was my first full day in Panachel, Guatemala.

Panachel is on Lake Atitlan, which is ringed by at least three huge volcanoes. None is active at the moment, but they're huge conical mountains that loom over the lake. Simply beautiful. Expect photos.

"Its new life as a mecca for package tourist types."
Aside from the view across the lake, the town of Panachel is not much. It's quite touristy and on its way to being an upscale kinda destination. At the moment, though, it's halfway between its old identity as a graveyard for burned out hippies and its new life as a mecca for package tourist types.

This odd atmosphere is not helping me re-adjust to being on my own again. I should have been back in the solo mindset by now, over a week since leaving Rinat and Aaron... but the week

Our Ferry Driver Targets Volcan San Pedro

with my Guatemalan family and fellow students in Quetzaltenango kinda kept me in the attitude that I have to have constant company to have a good time. But I'll get over it.

"Add toilet seats to the list."
Let's talk now about toilet seats. I think I may have briefly mentioned this earlier. The next time you contemplate the things taken for granted by we lucky enough to have been born in the first world... add toilet seats to the list. Quite frequently, including my hotel rooms for the last two nights, toilet seats are most noticably absent. The hotel I'm in tonight is even somewhat nice at about $11 a night. Private bath, hot water, even a television... but no toilet seat.

I have a couple of observations about this. First, for anyone whose ever wondered about the geometry and

Yet Another Beautiful View from Panachel

gravitational aspects of this situation... I can assure you that, hygenic issues aside, it is entirely possible to assume the standard seated position on a toilet with no seat. I will, however, note that there are some water level issues that the gentlemen among us will need to be conscious of if faced with a similar situation.

"Could they possibly have worn out?"
Second, what the hell's happened to the toilet seats? I assume these toilets originally had seats on them. Could they possibly have worn out? The toilet seats I've seen in my life all seemed pretty durable. Have you ever seen a toilet seat and though "Gee, one more person sits on that and it's time to throw it away?" I don't understand.

I'm off tomorrow to San Pedro, a small town on the other side of the lake and another hippie hangout. Lovely. And maybe the next day I'm thinking of climbing one of the volcanoes.