From Chichicastenango, we took a windy bus ride heading south to the volcano flanked Lake Atitlan. From the bus stop in Panajachel, we took a launcha (small motor boat) to San Marcos, a small town known for it's mystical feel. We checked into the Unicornio hotel, where we had our own little cabana, and unpacked our bags for what would be the longest stay of our trip yet. After unpacking, we watched an amazing sunset on the lake, the sun set right between two volcanoes and the sky glowed orange. There was an abundance of fresh produce and we had our first home-cooked meal in a month.
The next day we spent all morning on a sun deck that is built into the cliffs of San Marcos. The deck was built 30 feet above the lake and has a platform to jump off of into the 1000 foot deep, refreshing water. In the afternoon, we went to a yoga class at La Paz retreat and hotel, and spent the night chatting with other travelers at Unicornio.
The third day, we took a launcha to the town of San Pedro, the most touristy of the twelve villages on the lake. Our mission: to hike the San Pedro volcano that towers above the lake. Our hike started off on the coffee and avocado covered slopes of the volcano and continued straight up and up and up for four hours. One of the hardest hikes of our lives, but the locals who lived around the volcano were gathering fire wood and hiking back down with almost 50 pounds of fire wood strapped to their backs. Sometimes they where over 60 years of age and still handled the 40% incline with ease! After finally summit-ting the volcano, enjoying the spectacular view, and eating a well deserved lunch, we headed back down which took almost just as much time as the hike up. When we finally got to the entrance to the national park the volcano was in, we unfortunately found out there was no Tuk-Tuks or taxis to take us back down to the lake. So we had to hike an additional hour and a half through the real village section of San Pedro. We got to the docks just as the last launcha was preparing to leave for San Marcos. Phwew! Exhausted!
On our fourth day in San Marcos, we woke up early so we could give a yoga lesson on the sun deck to a couple we befriended. Afterward, we took a launcha to the small village of Santa Cruz, where we hiked along the lake to the village of Jaibalito. Jaibalito is the smallest of the villages but has three four star hotels built right on the water. We spent the day at an infinity pool and jacuzzi that is built over the lake. Great way to sooth our sore muscles from the hike up the volcano the day before.
Day five, new years eve, at the lake started off with another yoga session on the sun deck and some more awesome cliff jumping. We wanted to head to a town named Santiago to go to a big market they have there every Thursday. In order to get to Santiago you have to go to San Pedro, walk through a maze to the other side of town, and then take a large ferry to Santiago. We barely made it to Santiago with enough time to shop around before the last ferry back to San Pedro. This time, instead of walking through the maze we took a crazy Tuk-Tuk trip through the maze like streets of San Pedro, needing to reverse in one section of a narrow alleyway after barely avoiding a head-on collision with another Tuk-Tuk coming around a blind turn. Getting back to San Marcos, we prepared for new years eve and headed out to a cool roof top lounge named Ganesha. Just before midnight, we headed down to the beach with a large crew of about 25 people, built a bonfire and watched the incredible firework displays that each village around the lake had. Each firework show was timed to start about five minutes apart and Santiago had the largest display. A nice mellow new years eve in Guatemala, bienvenidos 2011!
New Years day, we headed out to an early breakfast and ran into a guy who owns a tour company that we had met the day before. He was taking a tour group on his pontoon boat to San Juan, a village known for its many artists and unique weaving styles. We went to many local artist galleries, took a tour of the town's many murals, watched a group wedding and parade, and got a weaving demonstration from an indigenous woman's co-op. The village of San Juan with its strong indigenous culture, has the least amount of tourists, and is also the cleanest of the lake villages. Its the cleanest because it has its own waste disposal system and a community based clean up project which requires each citizen to donate two days out of the year to cleaning up the streets. Launchas don't normally stop at San Juan so we had to take a Tuk-Tuk around the lake back to San Marcos. Our young Tuk-Tuk driver was very knowledgeable and turned out to be an excellent tour guide. When we got back to Unicornio we arranged to have a session in the Mayan sauna, a clay hut with a bench and a fire place, where we "sweat it all out."
Our last day in San Marcos and at Lago Atitlan, we rented a kayak for two. We kayaked close to shore and found some new cliffs to jump off of. Lacey jumped off her first cliff of the trip and DJ dove off the highest dive he ever dove off before. They were so brave! The wind picked up on the way back to San Marcos and we rode the building surf back to shore. We spent our last night at the magical Unicornio hotel.
