#Lake Atitlan

[wanderingrizos]

guatemala 06/2023

[bralessandflawless]

Photography by me. Feel free to check out my throne: https://throne.com/sprinkles07 and blog: sprinkles-07.blogspot.com

[dmempowermentshop]

(vía "Lake Atitlan Art, Panajachel, Central America Landscape, Travel lovers, Bohemian art, Vintage travel, Gift for him, Gift for her" Sticker for Sale by LitzoyGlobeArt)

Get yours today! 

[kodachrome-net]

Three children, three soldiers. Panajachel, Guatemala, 1990

[boricuacherry-blog]

Ng's family said they stopped hearing back from her on October 19. They also received a cryptic call from the retreat's organizer informing them of her disappearance. The Guatemalan Navy began search-and-rescue efforts the same day, but suspended the search after 72 hours without any leads.

"We don't really know exactly what happened," Nancy's brother Jonathan Ng told NBC. "The witnesses that were able to see what happened have not been extremely communicative."

The rescuers have spent the past few weeks scouring the murky volcanic lake with boats, aircraft, and drones, but have found no sign of the missing woman. Chris Sharpe, the owner of Black Wolf Helicopters, said that many witnesses have not been forthcoming and have since returned to the United States. "For me, this is now becoming a criminal investigation," he told ABC.

Nancy went missing on Oct. 19 during a "Be the Change" yoga retreat organized by Los Angeles instructor Eduardo Rimada. She went off on a kayaking excursion in Lake Atitlan with around ten people, including a San Bernardino County public defender named Christina Blazek. Blazek was allegedly the last person who saw Nancy before she disappeared, and Ng's family has desperately sought answers from Blazek but was met with silence for weeks, before Blazek finally spoke out - through her attorney. And this was only after the private search-and-rescue firm hired by the family to continue efforts on the ground, released Blazek's name in a press release to encourage her to come forward.

G. Christopher Gardner, Blazek's attorney, said in an interview with KABC-TV of Los Angeles last Wednesday that his client had tried to warn Nancy of the lake's rough waters when they were out kayaking right before she disappeared.

"[Blazek] kept one leg in her kayak and one leg in [Nancy's] kayak and tried to get back to her...and got close to her," Gardner told KABC. "And then apparently, [Blazek] lost the kayak again and she turned around to go back to get the kayak again, and when she turned back around, Ms. Ng was gone."

"If it is like she says and it is an accident, I don't understand how she could choose to leave my family in the dark for almost four weeks, and not just say that from the start," Ng's sister Nicky told ABC 7 LA.

But Blazek's account has prompted new questions from the family and resurfaced ones they've had.

"Nancy's a good swimmer. I don't understand how this could have happened. Was she struggling for a long time? Did Christina hear her scream or yell for help?" Nicky said. "What was the scope? The circumstances? Did she just disappear? Was there a land nearby that she could have swam? I had no context or not enough context of what was going on. So those are the same questions we still have today."

Gardner claims that his client didn't come forward sooner because she needed time to herself after going through the "traumatic experience."

Nancy's disappearance, however, has been even more devastating for the family of six, Nicky said.

"When we think about the [possibility of] drowning, my dad, he takes it really hard because he taught Nancy how to swim," Nicky said. "I think they're taking it really hard, and at the same time, they're trying to be strong for me and my brothers."

Nicky added that the search for Nancy, who worked with special needs children, has been difficult for the students she was close with as well.

"We have had a lot of her clients' parents reach out to us and just say Nancy had a special connection with their child and that their child now doesn't understand why Nancy's not back," Nicky said.

The investigation is ongoing and the FBI continues to interview witnesses in the case.

Earlier this month, the owners of the kayak company used by Ng before she vanished said the group she was with 'immediately clammed up' after she disappeared. Lee and Elaine Beal, the proprietors of Kayak Guatemala, said that ten people went out on the excursion, but only eight returned - with Ng and another woman seen paddling further into the body of water.

Eventually the woman returned to shore alone, with no sign of Ng.

"No one in the group was interested in talking to anybody," Lee told Good Morning America. "It was almost like, immediately clamming up and like we are not going to say anything."

The group failed to pay the owners then all left the country 'within 12 hours' of the suspected accident, which struck Elaine Beal as odd.

"They didn't say a word to us. I just don't understand that part, leaving within 12 hours," she added.

The couple described how they were watching the group, with Ng and the female kayaker about 100 yards away. The women continued paddling until they were out of sight.

The next thing the couple saw was a distress signal, before the woman returned alone.

"I witnessed the survivor being ushered up the steps," Elaine added. "She was clearly distressed."

Guatemalan authorities had struggled to locate the woman who was last with Nancy, or the tour guide as they left the country.

[malinconiacronica]

the guatemalan sun 🇬🇹🤍

[yogadaily]

(via The Storyteller Within Women's Retreat: Spir Writing and Yoga Retreats | Womens yoga retreat, Yoga retreat, Lake atitlan  || Curated with love by yogadaily) 

[ryanlemp]

[inner-interiors]

i shouldve tried harder to stay

#shotbynik

[datdisney]

A view like no other. Well worth the making the three hundred step climb.

[enednoche]

🇬🇹 in my heart.

[oalgoasi]

Santa Catarina Palopó, Sololá

[chaddavisphotography]

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala from Panajachel.

[travelling-and-critiquing-it]

san marcos la laguna

This ‘hippie’ town is killing me, with its poster plastered walls advertising! transcendence and self-help cliches about ego. I don’t need aligning or to be trapped in a room with someone who isn’t a therapist as they bullshit me through a psychedelic ‘experience’. Do they not know that it’s all an experience? That you can meditate without wearing knock-off native jewellery and choking on incense?

But I don’t hate these people. And perhaps I only react so strongly to this kind of lifestyle because I can relate to it. In fact, as I sit here with espresso and cigarette, barefoot with book on table, writing away with long hair, having completed my morning yoga and drunk a bottle of kombucha with my vegan breakfast burrito, I have to admit I’m a part of it, a hypocrite distancing myself, trying to remain undefined.

[dieswaytoofast]

Yes, I’m wearing a cap over my hat.

Don’t ask…