Lake Atitlán is damn beautiful. I only wish I had known it a good few decades ago. Before negligent concrete constructions started expanding the little villages by the lake. Before tourist invasion started creating “ghettos” of expats and travellers, where people can spend weeks – or years – living somehow alienated from the local community. Sleeping in the youth hostels, having drinks at the bars, contracting the travel agencies, watching Premiership football matches and Hollywood movies at the restaurants. All of those businesses a mile apart from the local community; all of them run by expats or ladinos (Guatemalans of Spanish/European origin).
It reminded me of some of the things P. and I saw while travelling in South East Asia – namely in Laos. What kind of travelling experience is that? Well, not the one of my choice, at least.
OK, it’s not that bad. Really. It depends on the village you pick. And while at the lake, you’re far enough from it all.
San Pedro didn’t do it for me. It’s from there I take the description above. It’s a land where some still fight to live in the year of 1968. Yep, Flower Power, aged hippies and all that good stuff. It’s just that in 2009, in an expat bubble built disorderly, in an ugly manner, it doesn’t result as poetic as you see it in the history books.
San Marcos is a bit different. It’s much smaller to start with, which helps. You also find the random 1968 refugee here and there, but the place has just a different feel. The tourist area is a bit more integrated with the rest of the community. The hostels have been designed and built with some more taste. Their atmosphere is good, relaxing. They’re better integrated with the surrounding nature too. The shore here is flat, green and beautiful. No wonder it’s the meditation Meca around here…
I really enjoyed my time in San Marcos. To come back, I think. And the 3 hours of kayaking around the lake were worth the energy I put into it. Even if my back hurt for 2 days and I had to catch up with much sleeping on Monday.
I managed OK the fact I was kayaking and swimming in a lake grown on a huge volcano crater, and surrounded by more volcanoes. And with its occasional earthquakes, one of which recently enough caused a “subsurface drainage from the lake, allowing the water level to drop two meters within one month”. You can check that out, and more about Atitlán, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_de_Atitl%C3%A1n).
Yes, Mike. My thoughts exactly: tsunamis; deep water resting on unstable land. Our favourite nightmare…
But yes, I managed OK. Forgot about it after 5 minutes on the kayak. I tried to be a bit grown up for a change…
At least you dont have the dam Dam!
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