Guatemala Part 10 — Lake Atitlán, Part 2: San Marcos & San Juan

Boat day. $15 got the five of us across the lake to San Marcos La Laguna, the lake’s resident hippie town. The land there is so limited that most of the town is walking-only alleys barely wide enough for two people — I took a video just walking through, because describing it doesn’t work. Yoga studios, sound healing, cacao ceremonies, and legitimately good food packed into passageways. The whole place has the feel of Ubud in Bali, but the cost of Hawaii. Lunch at El Búho: sushi, a rice bowl, pad thai, and fresh naan, all excellent, none of it cheap.

We walked down to the water to swim and found out the dock charges $5. Per person. To jump in a lake. Twenty-five dollars for my crew to get wet, in a country where lunch has been costing us less than that. We declined on principle. The lake is beautiful from shore too, and shore is free.

Tuk-tuk over to San Juan La Laguna, $15, and this might be the prettiest town on the lake. Xander and I hiked up to the lookout — painted deck, Guatemala flag whipping in the wind, the whole town and both volcanoes laid out below. Gorgeous doesn’t cover it.

Then we all walked the town: streets painted in Maya textile patterns, umbrellas and hats strung overhead, murals on every third wall, the old stone church with the mountain stacked up behind it. Chichi had the textiles, but San Juan is where the whole town IS the textile.

$15 boat back to Pana as the sun dropped behind the ridge. One more night at Hanna Hotel.

Still more Guatemala ahead. This country keeps going.

#unpavedparenting