I have to say that I'm not liking this whole allocated seat thing. I suffer from car sickness if I can't see the road clearly and from my grotty seat one row up from the back, there's no way I can see. 

Not to mention, the wheel arch and some weird contraption which may be the heater or AC unit. So it's feet under the chin for the day with possible nausea. 

Oh Joy! 

We are on our way to Lake Atitlan, reportedly, one of the most attractive destinations in the world. It is dominated by three large volcanoes, allegedly dormant and is one of around 20 towns around the lake. 

So, question, how long does a volcano have to go without an eruption, before it's classed as dormant? 

Has anyone told the volcano it's dormant? 

As usual, on the way, we stop off to see ordinary people carrying out ordinary traditional work. The first is a family in El Tejar who make roof tiles and patio slabs etc. 

They didn't know we were coming, but again as usual, they were very welcoming. 

First off was a teenager, the grandson, who was barefoot and stomping up and down on a huge pile of mud. This was actually clay that he was mixing up to a nice consistency, in order for his grandfather to make his roof tiles. These are the curved ones, I think maybe they are called pantiles in the UK? 

This man is 81 years old and still makes 150 tiles a day. He lives where he works, along with his whole family, right down to the smallest grandchild. One thing that is evident from these visits is that the families nearly always live outside, the kitchen is outside with a makeshift roof, we never saw any sanitary facilities and they all appeared to sleep in just one room. 

Most of the time there is one family member at least who is carrying on the family traditions but now and then a son or daughter will decide to go to work in a factory. 

These roof tile makers were providing a service to the ever growing populations of the local towns. The price that they were paid for each tile was approx 7 cents (US) and that was to be shared between the whole family. 

Despite the fact that this family were obviously quite poor, they were all smiling and friendly. There was an enormous amount of washing hanging out to dry but then, there were an enormous amount of people for the size of the place. We had seen women washing their clothes in the rivers and lakes which were all pretty muddy and I always marvelled at how clean their clothes always appeared to be.

They had also taken the time to make a pretty little flower garden, despite the fact that they could have grown some vegetables there.

Now it was here that we realised that we had a stowaway. He finally showed himself to the children of the family.

He was a friend of Kristin and he always came on these trips with her.

He was a little Koala glove puppet and Kristen has found that he is an ice-breaker with the children who don't understand English. He popped up every now and then and he fitted in quite well with the rest of the travellers , so we let him stay!

Our next stop was to a family who made ceramics. This again was what we call in the UK, a cottage industry. 

In actual fact it was a 70 year old grandmother and her daughter. Her daughter was also learning weaving and she said that when her mother died, the whole ceramic production would end as she would rather bring in more money through her earnings as a weaver. 

The old lady was amazing. She ground her own clay to a fine powder on a grinding stone and then mixed it with water and kneaded it, just like making bread. Then, bent double she proceeded to make a perfectly round pot, by hand. She uses no wheel. Firing is done by resting the pot on its side on a bed of sticks and covering it with pine needles. Then the whole lot is set alight, with more pine needles added until it is fired. 

The family were also the proud owners of a sort of sauna which, from what I can gather, was the only way they had to keep themselves clean. This was remarkably similar to the sauna that we saw in Joya de Ceren. Again a very happy Mayan extended family, living and working together. 

The striking thing for me is that these people are all working in the same way as their ancestors have for years, maybe centuries before them. There is a danger, as with our ceramics family, that all these skills will be lost for ever over the future generations. This is a shame but at the same time, their quality of life will improve. Is it for the best? Who knows. They seem to be happy with their lives now and maybe such changes will be to their detriment, only time will tell. 

Lunch today was at a very pretty restaurant. I have to say that the lunch and dinner venues have been superb on this trip. Having said that, there is far too much food for me. Three courses for lunch and dinner is overkill. My strategy has been to eat some of everything but never all of it. Despite this, I feel I am putting weight on ..... cue sad face. 

Oh, another market, this one was in a town called Solola and there were lots of textiles at this one.The Mayan women wear the most attractive outfits. A really beautifully embroidered blouse, often with a lurex type of thread running though, an embroidered skirt with and embroidered belt and all topped off with a pretty matching apron. Their hair is jet black and often they wind brightly coloured braid through it. 

They seem to be a very happy group of people. There is no one Mayan languages but around 20 or so, none of which are dialects, all are classed as separate languages. Each town or village has its own colour scheme for their clothes. In Solola this was blue to reflect their proximity to the lake. There is a strong feeling of unity in these small towns and villages. We westerners could learn a lot, we just need to open our eyes. 

There was just one more stop which was to a co-operative where the women dyed and wove cotton and bamboo threads to create beautiful scarves, table runners, purses, bags etc all in those bright, rich colours that I now associate with their creations. It is hard not to buy anything but a) I have no room in my case and b) I will probably never use it. 

By the time we finally got to Panajachel, the sun was just about setting and we were all tired. Our hotel is set back from the main street and is basically lots of little cottages set in the most beautiful gardens. There are humming birds darting everywhere, with one particular tree by my room that seems to be their favourite. 

We had dinner here at the hotel which was nice and surprisingly there are only five people to go ziplining tomorrow. I was really up for it but the chance of a bit of a lie in and a slow start to the day was too tempting, so I passed . I've done it before, so won't really miss out. 

Night, Night