The Adventures Continue at Lake Atitlan! Mucho Hippy!

We traveled to Lake Atitlan on Christmas afternoon not realizing that public transport could be a trite sparse on Christmas. So we ended up catching a ride in the back of a pick-up for two hours down windy mountain roads as the sun set and for about half an hour in complete darkness. We decided to spend the night in a small town called Los Encuentros and make the rest of the trip by daylight on the 26th.

As you can see, it was worth the trip!

San Marcos de Atitlan

We stayed in San Marcos, one of several towns situated around Lake Atitlan, each with its own character, each attracting its own breed of hippy backpacker or as our landlord likes to say, “mucho hippy en el Lago”.

San Marcos attracts a very specific and unique type of hippy backpacker, not be mistaken for the San Pedro breed of hippy that is known for smoking a lot of pot. San Marcos hippies might smoke occasionally but they prefer to get high off life and can be found feeling “the vortex” in Sedona, Arizona. Here is a photo montage to help you identify the San Marcos hippy:

What is a moon course? I dunno know but it sounds mucho hippy! Vamonos!Meditation GardenHippy

Unicorn hotel, holistic center, therapy and massagemural on a wall constructed with recycled plastic bottlesmore of the muralstairs turned into an elephant!
We went to this yoga class. We did sun salutations on mats woven from reeds, on a deck overlooking the lake. Crazy hippy!

Kidding aside, San Marcos was A-MAAAA-ZING. So relaxing. Great swimming. Great hiking. Great food. We ate almost every meal at this sweet cafe that grows all its own vegetables, roasts its own coffee and uses a composting toilet!

Moonfish Cafe

Great hotel. If you ever go to Lake Atitlan stay here at Paco Real!

our own little bungalow!our lofted bed inside the bungalow!

we enjoyed the company of a very friendly cat that lived outside our bungalow

San Marcos was just the vacation we needed. We only spent 2 days there though. Soon it was off to Santiago, a different lakeside town with more of a visible local culture.

Santiago!

Santiago is situated in the southwest corner of the Lake in an inlet at the base of 2 volcanoes. It is the centre of the Tz’utujil-speaking Maya and is the largest of the lakeside villages. The village was the first in the country to successfully drive out the armed forces after the 36-year armed conflict. The traditional dress of Santiago is still worn by many men in the village. It is rare to see men in traditional dress these days. The men wear long shorts, with white- and purple-striped embroidery. Some of the more elaborate shorts have intricate embroidery of birds and flowers. Here, we enjoyed walking around the town and Kate and I bought “pantalones de Santiago” as the vendors proudly defined them. I have no idea if these pants are actually traditional or just a creation for tourists who have a love for color as Kate and I clearly do.

San Lucas de Toliman

We took a pick-up to San Lucas (another lakeside town) on Monday the 29th, where we said goodbye to Kate. She can tell you more about San Lucas as she spent about a week there with her study abroad/exchange program. I only saw the gorgeous Catholic church and the back of a tuc-tuc- the 3-wheeled, open vehicles that sometimes serves as taxis in warm parts of Guatemala. Besides those 2 sites, I didn’t see anything. There were tears in my eyes. I miss you Kater. ☹