Lago de Atitlán

For the past week, I´ve been in the lovely and COOL city of Xela, Guatemala. But to catch everyone up, I´ll begin by writing about my week touring the pueblos of Lago de Atitlán. This was one of the most beautiful places in the world that I have ever seen, a huge crater lake surrounded by volcanoes, very green and natural. Most of the people here are Mayan and many continue their indigenous traditions and many women (and some, esp. older, men) wear the native clothing, beautiful and colorful skirts (or short pans on the men) and blouses. All travels between towns on the lake involved taking a boat, a nice change after so many bus rides.

I got off the bus and met two Americans named Dave and a German called Vivian. Vivian had plans to go to Santiago and we figured we´d try something different before going to San Pedro like everyone else so we tagged along. Santiago is a place that is generally visited as a day trip to see the market, so it wasn´t touristy at all. We walked around, drank some beers in a local pub, and spent the night in a kinda crappy hotel. The next morning we had breakfast on the patio at the one "expensive" ($22/night) hotel in the area with a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains.

After breakfast, we set off on a walk towards a town about 4 miles away called Cerro de Oro (Hill of Gold). After walking for about 10-15 minutes, we decided it would be better to take a pickup and flagged one down. Pickups are the main form of transportation in the rural areas. They are regular trucks with metal frames attached to the sides of the bed for people to hold onto while they stand up for the ride to wherever they`re going. It was really fun to ride and talk with the locals who thought it was funny that there was a bunch of gringos on the truck with them.

We got to the town, talked with some people, and got directions to the hill (aka small mountain). Once we found the path and started walking up, we realized that it would have been a really good idea to bring some water. Oops. So up and up we go, finally getting to a nice lookout over the lake. We had a rest and took some photos. During this pause, a couple men with huge loads of wood on their backs went past us down the hill. I realized later that most of the weight was resting on a strap that went across their foreheads. When we got to the bottom, we met up with the men who were having a rest and the two Daves both tried picking up their loads, which of course they couldn´t budge. And these guys carried them all the way down a steep path! Amazing.

Before leaving for San Pedro, we decided to visit the local idol, Maximus. We got directions, got lost, and ended up paying a kid to take us there, which was good as we probably would have never found him on our own. This was a very strange thing. It was a life-size mannequin type guy (for example, see pictures of Jesus from Easter in Granada) sans legs who was all dressed up including a cowboy hat. He was smoking a cigarette that one of the attendants ashed for him every few minutes. We saw a man praying before him and then pouring him a glass of rum. Apparently this is a saint with some vices.

San Pedro was next. This is where everyone goes to party and study Spanish. It was really strange because the town was distinctly divided into the section for locals and the section for tourists and I don´t think the two mingle much. We took a walk and ate lunch in the main part of the town and then hung out in the tourist section. There were lotsa places to drink and eat and party, so it was a nice place to chill for a couple days.

Next I went over to San Marcos, the town most known for being a "spiritual" center of the lake. What this means for foreigners is that it is the place people go to get massages and do yoga, among other `hippie´ stuff. I did both and it was a nice change of pace. One thing that I really like about the tourist part of this town was that it was pedestrian only, just paths through the forest. Another thing that I liked was that there was a huge storm the night I was there, guess I was in the mood for lotsa rain.

The day I was there, the was also a big celebration in the real town. The marimbas (xylophones) could be heard from everywhere so I went to see what was going on. There were about 20 or so boys and young men dressed up in extravagant costumes of every color, small strange masks of white men with blond hair, and lotsa feathers. I asked a few spectators what was going on, but no one would give me a straight answer. Vivian told me later that she found out it was some kind of celebration that they got from the Spanish 500 years ago and that the people danced for a whole day or more.

My final destination on the lake was Santa Cruz. Most travelers go to Santa Cruz for one reason, to party at La Iguana Perdita. Every Saturday night, they have a big BBQ/Drag party. It was really fun and a nice way to end my time at the lake. One of the staff members, a guy covered in tattoos with the voice of a pirate, danced in heels better than anyone I´ve ever seen. Besides the party, I also walked up a long hot hill to the town and finally got around to swimming in the lake--very cold but I got to see my first floating rocks!