Lago de Atitlan
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2006
1
10
65
Trip End
Ongoing
San Marcos La Laguna,
Guatemala
Sunday, May 14, 2006
www.rubyfunk.shutterfly.com
So after that, it was time to move on- back to Lago de Atitlan - we caught a chicken bus (for the right price this time!) to Panajachel and then a lancha (small boat) to San Marcos, a really quiet village on the lake. Lago de Atitlan is amazingly beautiful - it is in a valley, surrounded by three volcanoes and so peaceful - although there are a few party towns. We decided to avoid the crowds and stayed in a little hotel, Unicornio, 3 minutes from the beach in San Marcos - it is kind of like a little alternative centre - you can do all kinds of courses there, from reflexology and massage to astrotravel, moon philosophy and crafting lamps from recycled glass and garbage. Clare and I just went for the chill out as much as possible option! We initially were going to stay for a few days but ended up staying for a week - being "bodies" and "feet" for shiatsu and reflexology students, tanning and swimming at the lake, having saunas and great dinners with friends (hi kate!) and, in our last two days, dealing with a friend who got stung twice by a black scorpion and having a wild night at a trance party high up on a hill overlooking the lake! (the sunrise beautiful pics on the website were taken that morning...) we also had a hectic experience in the middle of all this tranquility when we had to go back to Chichicastenago in the middle of the week - Clare could not find her money pouch and vaguely remembered that she could have left it under the mattress in our hotel. She tried phoning the hotel to ask if they had found something but the owner shouted at her and put the phone down in her ear - so off we went, just in case it was there - the owner hadn't exactly acted innocently when she called! We couldn't find it in the room and the hotel owner, who had turned from Jekyll to Hyde, and thought we were accusing him of stealing it, eventually threatened us with a toilet plunger!! A little scary at the time but absolutely hilarious in retrospect!! i mean really - a toilet plunger! "watch out or iŽll pump you!" no - it was too much! Anyway - that was all to no avail so we returned to San Marcos, after a couple of hours in the local police station, empty handed... the rest of the week was great though and more than made up for our heated encounter ;-)
On Sunday, post-party, we braved the day and headed back to Panajachel en route to Guatemala City for the next part of our trip. We had to spend the night in Pana because there were no more buses to Guatemala City. My bank card was swallowed by a hungry ATM and so that was cause for a little panic but luckily I could email the bank very soon after - and very luckily, i have another card.
