Well I suppose it’s time for an update! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Guatemala for only a week. It feels much much longer than that.
The morning after my last post I caught the 8 am shuttle to San Marcos La Laguna, a small town on the shore of Lake Atitlan. It was supposed to be only 2.5-3 hours, but then there was the teacher strike. Almost every day for the last month teachers have been blocking the highway in protest of low wages and apparently the general unsupportive government. One woman I spoke to explained that the current president is ex-military (possibly pretty widely unpopular but I haven’t spoken to enough people to generalize) and by her figuring is trying to keep the population uneducated, because of course therein lies more power over them. She painted a very very sad picture including corruption and some bad tricks against the population that got him elected in the first place.
It’s hard to say whats true, but at least I know that the teachers are not happy. They opened the highway around noon, after we were stopped dead for almost 3 hours. Other people in the van got out and played frisbee in a gas station parking lot. Finally at 3 pm (an hour after I was planning to meet my spanish teacher) we crested the ridge and descended down into the volcanic crater. The lake is bigger than I thought, and very beautiful. When the sun shines the water has a wonderful turquoise color, surrounded by intensely green forests and volcanos.
The infamous “chicken bus” (because they pack people on them like chickens); retired US school buses:
Our first view of the lake:
The bus dropped me and one other girl off at the entrance to San Marcos and we started chatting as we walked down into town together. She and I have ended up in the same hostel and have spent multiple dinners together. It is east to meet people here; our first day a man overheard us talking about yoga classes and came up to recommend where and when the best ones are. He has been in our same hostel for 4 weeks now and is a sweet and fascinating guy. I actually just bumped in to him again at a physical crossroads and spent the last 2 hours talking about big important things by the water. As other people have filtered through the other beds I have befriended nearly all of them (the exception being a woman who has taken a 2 day vow of silence).
My hostel:
View of the lake:
My typical afternoon:
This place just feels good. There are no roads in this part of town down by the water. Just dirt and concrete tracks lined with bamboo and coffee plants. There are maybe 5 yoga studios that offer various things, as well as a couple massage and energy work studios. It has a definite hippy vibe but it is more than that; sophisticated european tourists, four star cafes with all organic food, classical music, beautifully dressed local women selling homemade chocolate etc etc. The air feels good here and my body seems to be soaking it in. I’m sleeping 9-10 hours each night, doing yoga at least once a day, eating good food, hopping boats to neighboring towns, hiking and studying spanish. It would be very easy to spend a lot of time here.
Path to the Yoga Forest just out of town:
Typical town pathway:
The dock in Panajachel:
Yesterday I spontaneously convinced Joan and a new arrival, Chris, to hike up Indian Nose (Nariz del Maya) with me. I’ve heard a few reports of robbers up there and didn’t want to go alone. Lucky for me Chris is really cool and also a semi-professional rugby player; meaning he is about twice the size of most Guatemala men in this area. I mapped out a route that went up one path from San Juan and then down another from Santa Cruz. Somehow we did the loop backwards and found ourselves climbing endlessly up the switchback road up to Santa Cruz. Chris started talking about our turn-around cut off time, and we were already running low on water. So we threw our thumbs out to the next truck laboring by and jumped into the bed, which turned out to be full of rocks. Not the most comfortable ride but it was super fun! Thankfully the wooden tailgate didn’t blow out from the weight of the rocks plus us!
They dropped us at the road split for Santa Cruz and we asked around for the trailhead, and ended up being led by two women who, when I explained we didn’t want or need a guide, claimed they were walking there anyway. Fat chance of that, but they turned out to be good company. They did however lead us to a man sitting on the trail who I assumed was collecting the park fee. Most people come up the way we had planned and buy a ticket at the bottom so I assumed he was there to catch people like us trying to sneak in the back. Alas, he turned out to be just some guy collecting tourist’s money and claiming to be a guide. We refused to pay the 25q he was asking and settled on 15. The crummy part was that he lead us about ten minutes up to an intermediate lookout point and said that this was what 15q would get us. We had to pay more to get to the top. I have no patience for that kind of thing so after the other took pictures (I left my camera and all valuables at the hostel rather than risk the bandits), I started just walking up.
They hollered and hollered that we couldn’t go that way, there are robbers up there, etc etc. so I asked the others if they would rather risk the bandits in our own, or if we should just find the path down to San Juan. Clouds were coming in so we figured the view once we got up there wouldn’t be much better, and allowed ourselves to be shepherded back down by the two women (who we figured were probably getting a commission from the man, who had already left us), kissed on our cheeks and pointed in the right direction.
It took us about 5 hours all told to walk to and from San Marcos, and we had a lot of fun. The view was beautiful and while my toe did twinge in pain a few times (I’ve been trying to rest since the cortisone shot), it felt fantastic to get out and stretch my legs.
I’m here for two more days and then back to Antigua and preparations for Jess and Choko’s wedding! We will try to hike up another volcano tomorrow but it’s sounding like that will be an even bigger racket than what we found yesterday. No guide necessary; just walk up. (Metaphor! Life!)