Lago Atitlan

Since I´ve been in guatemala, I have been to Lago Atitlan four times and for good reason. The lake is absolutely beautiful, massive and surrounded by lush green moutains. It is said to be an old volcano crater, but one can hardly imagine a volcano of such size when gazing out over the lake to the imperceptable shores in the distance. The lake is surrounded by pueblos named after various saints: San Marcos, San Pedro, San Lucas, etc., which, although they border the same waters, are quite different in culture, dress and even lauguage.

The first town I visited and consequently fell in love with is San Marcos, a maze of six foot high hedges dividing meditation centers from holistic health centers and leading to numerious hotels and restaurants offering economic rooms and delicious food, allowing you to stay for days relishing in the tranquility without spending all of your money. I did not partake in any of the courses, but I did spend days simply enjoying the peaceful serenity that pervades the village, enhanced by the constant chorus of birds, and broken only at night by the overwhelming chorus of local dogs (leading one of my friends to dub the village "San Barcos"). The only thing I could say that I do not like about San Marcos is that it is somewhat of an artificial environment, with many foreigned owned businesses. The actual village of San Marcos sits higher on the mountainside and seems to be realitively devoid of tourists and happily so.

San Pedro, on the other hand, while it has its touristy area, is a village in which you can fully experience (as much as a foreigner can fully experience) village life. The village is a maze of steep, cobblestone streets, lined with local shops and front doors leading into traditional block homes. Further into the village, some of the homes are made of wood surrounded by yards of hard mud. The woman in San Pedro all wear traditional dress and the lone few who do not, look extremely out of place. The men wear mostly western clothing, but a good number of the older men where traditional dress as well, which consists of brightly colored patterned shirts with white pants that come down to mid-calf, adorned with a rainbow pattern of flowers or dancing figures around the cuffs, and white sombreros.

During my time in San Pedro, I also visited Santiago Atitlan and San Juan to climb, el nariz del indio, but not long enough to get a real feel for them. I found a site with great pictures of the whole area from someone else´s travel log...