Lake Atitlán

We spent almost a week in Lake Atitlán exploring the towns that surround the lake. Every morning we would walk or take a tuk-tuk from Casa Bambu down to the dock.

There we would wait on a lancha, going clockwise or counter clockwise on their trip, arriving every 30 minutes. We learned to negotiate the price before getting on the lancha, and then paying when we arrived. Only once did we have the driver try and change the price on us, usually it was seamless.

Depending on the time of day the lanchas would be packed full of people, and stop at every dock, about every 5 minutes to let people off an on. They generally tried to keep them full and would wait at the dock for more people to arrive. Our favorite part of the lancha was meeting people from all over the world and listening to all the different languages being spoken. We heard various accents of English of course, but also German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and the boat workers spoke both Spanish and a Mayan language.

One of our favorite cities to visit was San Juan, known for its art community. The art is colorful and textured. Kim and I couldn’t resist and bought a painting, you’ll have to come and visit us to see which one. We also bought 12 lbs of freshly ground local coffee that is so delicious in our french press.

Another favorite town of ours was San Marcos, which is a hippie like community with backpackers, small markets, lots of wonderful restaurants including Indian, vegetarian, and organic food.

Kim and I went out on a date one night to San Marcos. As we left the restaurant in the evening we saw the lancha pull up to the dock. Knowing they only come every 30 minutes we ran to the dock yelling, “lancha, lancha”, only to find out when we arrived that there were no more lanchas for the night. A kid came up to us and said he would guide us to a tuk-tuk and we could take it home. His name was Santos. He was so poised and charming as he talked to us, asking us where we were from, leading us through San Marcos to the tuk-tuk area and hailing a tuk-tuk for us. He was the size of a 6 year old, as well spoken as an adult, but was actually 10. He rode with us on the tuk-tuk all the way back to Casa Bambu, keeping us updated en route to know how much longer until we got there (it took about 30 minutes). When we arrived we just had to get a picture with him.

From then on whenever we arrived to the docks of San Marcos he would come running up to us and give us big hugs. We totally fell in love with this little boy.

Ben’s favorite place by far was Cerro Tzankujil in San Marcos. It is a nature preserve that has a platform to jump 12 meters (39.4 ft) into the lake. He went there on multiple occasions. The first time Kim went with him, but after that we would just give him 15Q and the rest of us shop and sit and enjoy a local restaurant while he went and jumped himself silly.

And in case you still can’t appreciate this jump here it is again.

And if you’re ever in San Marcos, say hi to Santos for us.