Aint´got nada on Guatemala

San Pedro, Guatemala is a small town situated around the deepest lake in Central America, Lago Atitlan. The lake is actually a gigantic crater formed by an ancient volcano, there is even rumored to be an ancient Mayan village lurking in its depths. Furthermore this volcanic lake township is surrounded by yet more volcanoes…a volcano inside a volcano if you will, how inception-esque. It was indeed a dream like place.

The thing I treasured most about this magical hub was the diversity of people, animals, wildlife that one was immersed in on a daily basis. Offering everything from permaculture, yoga, meditation, moon courses, Spanish study, and plenty an acid fueled trance rave (local drummers and fire spinners included) it had something for travellers of every feather.

Hours would slip by in the dusty back alley book store owned by an old Dutchman named Tony, missing 2 teeth, with long scraggly black hair and moustache to match always donning a cowboy hat. He would sit mostly and play chess with himself. A man of few words yet he always cleaned up at quiz night, the booze-addled youth would vie for his inclusion on their team. It was in this very book store I found such gems as Tom Robbins, a book on Chinese horoscopes and a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl (this would be a tad mundane had they not been explicit short stories for adults) the child in me was a little disheartened that he diverged from tales of giant peaches and big friendly folk.

The diversity of food offered by the lush Guatemalan location was un-matched in any of my previous or further travels. I was more than a little surprised to find I tasted the best Tom Yum soup of my life there; at a restaurant named ´The Clover´ owned by an ex drug running Irishman. Another favorite was ´The 5th Dimension´ slightly hidden from street view they would host weekly movies on the terrace. People would pile in lounging on pillows in a relaxed togetherness underneath the haze from the continuously circling joints passed from stranger to fellow traveller.

San Pedro is blessed and cursed with the constant presence of street dogs from bouncy puppies to haggard old souls. More surprising still was the diversity amongst the breeds, would you ever expect to see a gang of husky type dogs weaving through the streets of Guatemala? Some with spotted faces and scrunched up snouts with manes of hair sprouting around their faces, more hyena than anything else.