Ten years ago I spent a little over a week traveling alone throughout the highlands of Guatemala and ever since have wanted to go backĀ  with Mary Lynn. Early this year that opportunity finally arrived. So with some trepidation (she was bombarded with friends asking her “is it safe” in Guatemala) Mary Lynn came with me to visit my sister Carol and her husband Clate and spend some time with the Guatemalan people. Since living in Venezuela 40 years ago as a missionary I have felt very much at home in Latin America and have enjoyed traveling in Mexico, Central and South America. It has been the rural areas that have always been most interesting. I love their simple way of life that is so attached to their immediate surroundings, the ocean, theĀ  land, and the wildlife. Although their lifestyle seems so difficult and underprivileged they are often the happiest people you could ever imagine. These men fish each morning and on a good day might make a couple of dollars. Some spend the rest of the day working in the fields for pennies. I had learned from previous experience that if all the stars align a very moody fog can form just before sunrise across Lake Atitlan. The first morning we were there I was up an hour before the sun but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction. The next morning everything fell into place and I got into a boat with Manuel and slowly crossed the lake into the fog that seems to emphasis the solitude of the fishermen as well as their archaic manner of fishing.