My God is Better Than Your God!
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
23
141
Trip End
Ongoing
San Marcos La Laguna,
Guatemala
Saturday, January 27, 2007
On Friday afternoon, we decided to take the Launcha across the lake to visit another village for the weekend. We initially planned on going to Santa Cruz. However, on the boat ride over, we met a girl who was bartending at a place in San Marcos and told us about her village. She said that her bar (Mama Utz´s) was having a fiesta that evening, with several bands and musical performances and a bonfire. We decided to get off in San Marcos with her.
San Marcos is a holistic getaway, sort of. It has no roads in it, just a series of dirt paths. The main road that goes around the lake disects San Marcos into two parts. The upper half of the village is where the locals live, and the bottom half is where the gringos and hotels are. There are about a dozen small hotels, and about 6 restaurants. There are lots of trees and greenery in the gringo area. There are several centers for holistic therapy in the gringo area (run by gringos of course). You can get your palm read, tarot cards read, Reiki, massages, meditation, yoga, and a number of strange astrological things. A metaphysical guru´s heaven!
In the locals area, there are some small comedors and tiendas, and appears to be a population of about 500 living in modest conditions. There are 12 evangelical churches in tiny San Marcos, and they are all very, very active. All day and night, they turn on their loudspeakers and preach and sing for all in the town to hear. Except it´s not really singing - it´s more of a cross between whining, moaning, and whailing off key.
Frank and Kay
Not exactly music to your ears at 6pm, 10pm, 2am, 6 am, etc! In comparison, the Gallos (roosters) of San Pedro weren´t so bad!It was a bit of a conflicting town. On one hand, you have the relaxing Zen-like atmosphere of the holistic centers. On the other hand, you have the loudspeakers of the Evangelical churches blaring at all hours. One moment, you are enjoying the serenity and peaceful Lake, the next moment you are cringing from the off-key whaling. It was like an unofficial battle between the different churches and between the churches and the gringos for whose God was the better God.
After getting off the launcha, we dropped our bags off at an Internet cafe and walked around the village searching out the best budget place to stay. We ended up a the Paco Real - a fantastic choice. We got the upper two floors of a small wooden ¨Swiss Chalet¨ with a balcony and two adirondack chairs. It had enough beds to sleep 4: 2 twins on the second floor, and a queen bed up on a loft reachable by ladder. It was a really fun place to sleep! Hotel Paco Real is owned by a Swiss man and a Mexican woman. They also had a restaurant that was fantastic.
The first night, we went to Mama Utz´s for the music and bonfire, and dined on Sushi. Yes, that´s right, Sushi! No raw fish, though - just veggie and avacado rolls, spring rolls, and fried wontons. Surprisingly tasty, too!
That night, our neighbor underneath us warned us about two things. He said it´s a beautiful village, but not a good place to get a good night´s sleep.
Frank and Volcano San Pedro
He warned of a pack of wild dogs that run around the streets all night, howling and barking together. The second warning was of the Evangelical churches (see above for more info). He was right on the money. Our room was very relaxing, but unfortunately there was too much noise outside for a proper night´s rest.On Saturday, we had a fantastic breakfast and coffee at Moonfish, upon the advise of our neighbors. It was a great place with fantastic breakfast burritos on the beach. Afterwards, I went for a dip in the lake at the tiny local beach (I couldn´t talk Frank into joining...) Then we went for a hike along the cliffs. On the other side of the cliffs are several ledges that you can cliff-dive into the clear lake below. It was a bit too high for either of us, so we instead pulled out a blanket, a pineapple, and some pastries and had a picnic high on the ledge.
Later that afternoon, we treated ourselves to massages at the spa at our hotel. At only 150 Quetzales ($20 US) `per person for an hour-long Swedish massage, how could we resist! It was one of the THE BEST massages we have ever had. Nadia from Europe had magic hands. Relaxed and mellow after the massages, we chilled out on our balcony and drank a bottle of wine. Later, we dined at our restuarant´s hotel, which was fantastic. Their lentil soup is amazing!
The next morning, we dined on carrot cake and coffee from our hotel on our balcony. After a leisurely morning, we headed to the beach for a dip in the water. Except it was cleaning day at the beach! All of the local women were washing their laundry in the lake, so we decided to opt out of the swim. We headed back to the hotel, packed our bags and headed to the launcha to return to San Pedro for a 2nd week of Spanish Lessons.
Love, Kay
