THE MAGIC LAKE.
If you go to Atitlán you will find a lake that has
magic. (Conversation with an American girl).
Today is 4th
of July, and in the streets of San Pedro de la Laguna in Guatemala you can see
posters in bars and restaurants advertising the celebration of Independence in the
United States of America, there will be fireworks and everything; On the other
side, in the non-touristic area of the town there is a feria in the name of San
Pedro, there will be also fireworks, to get there you would have to walk on a
very small sidewalks and streets where only fits the tuc tuc (urban motorcycle
transportation). For me the date is not relevant just the fact of being in
front of the lake and having a volcano on my side are enough elements to feel
peace and joy. When we plan our trip to Guatemala before, we did not consider
Antigua Guatemala and even less the Atitlán Lake, but the road brought us here
and it was not wrong, and if I have any doubt I just have to see the view in
front of me.
We arrived two
days ago to Atitlán, first to the town of San Marcos for one night and then to
San Pedro. When we were arriving the bus started going down the hill and
suddenly a beautiful image was in front of us, it was the lake but it seemed to
be sideways because of our perspective going on the slope. It was only me and Luis who stopped on
San Marcos, the rest of the van kept
going; San Marcos is an extremely quiet and small town, famous for having
courses of meditation, we were waiting for something different but at the end the town have his own identity
where you could talk to local indigenas and also to a lot of hippie foreigners;
it also did not have lot of places to go and see the lake but when we manage to
find one, we got to see something unique, the closer we focused the higher
amount of magic we could feel, even in some pictures the view did not look
real, but of course it was. Here there
are some legends that may sound unreal but when you are in front of the lake,
you can imagine that there is a monster inside, or that the mystery floating
island can appear some days, or maybe you will only see the dogs barking to the
ghosts. The hotel in San Marcos was cheap and the food also, with ten quetzals
(Guatemala`s money) we ate two tamales of chipilin herb, beans and salad. At
night we went to a bar where there were a lot of people playing percussions, as
soon as we got there someone gave us some drums and we had to get into the
rhythm; after that we went to see the lake and we met a Canadian guy who was
just finishing his meditation course, but by eleven at night we were already in
the hotel getting ready to sleep.
The next day we
took a small boat by the price of ten quetzals to go to the next town, San
Pedro. It took like ten minutes to get there but on the way the view of the
hills around the lake and the San Pedro volcano on the front, was amazing. As
soon as we got there we noticed that there was more movement on this side, more
tourism and more party; we found a hostel called Casa Elena, a very nice place,
with hamacas, with a lovely view of
the lake and with an exit to go swimming to the lake; we liked that place
mainly because of the awesome view of the lake and the colours green and blue
on the water, also because the totally green hills, and even that we had the
volcano on the back, we could go to the roof to see it. In the town of San
Pedro we went to the market, to the main plaza where you can see a big image of San Pedro in a fountain and a
very peculiar white church; at night we went to walk around its labyrinths to
get to the feria, after that we went beside the lake to take sit and have a
beer there, at the end we closed the night with a very cool conversation with
two Guatemala`s brothers, Alejandra y Alejandro, while we listened to music and
observed the lake.
Today, Saturday
4th of July we walked up with the news that at night there will be fireworks,
we decided to move to another place to stay the night where we could camp, in
that place there is a swimming pool and the best part is the view of the lake
on the roof the precise place where I am writing now.
The hills and
volcanos around the lake are perfect, and the towns around it, also ended up
giving some kind of Guatemala`s mystery and magic to a place that has been
recognized as one of the best lakes in the world. Tomorrow we will go back to
Antigua for a few days to continue our rout to Latin America, but I still have
all the evening to swim and to enjoy the night in a place like San Pedro de la
Laguna in the beautiful lake of Atitlán.
Written
by David Herrera
July
4th, 2015.
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