Guatemala – Exploring Lago De Atitlan Part 2

On Saturday morning we awoke to a bright blue sky. What a difference a week had made, sunny mornings with rainy afternoons all week, yeah! We planned to spend our second full weekend in San Pedro visiting three other pueblos around Lake Atitlan: San Juan La Laguna, San Marcos, and Santa Cruz.

Saturday Ann wasn’t feeling 100% so we went to the closest town, San Juan La Laguna, with plans to be back for lunch. This was a short, about 10 minute, boat ride for Q10 each. We could have taken a tuk tuk, but not wanting to relive our first night’s pothole-riddled ride, until we had to (it’s the only way out), opted for the lake. San Juan is known for its textiles, and we went in search of the Cooperativa de Mujeres des Colores Botanicos so we could learn about the process and Ann could purchase a small purse with traditional patterns and colors.

Disembarking from the lancha, we had steep hill to climb. At the bottom of the hill was a sign for the cooperativa but neither of us paid much attention, since it looked easy – big mistake. We ended up lost, we asked a few people for directions (all seemed to make a special effort to direct us, one man even drawing us a map) and were sent in an entirely different direction and eventually ended up at a coffee cooperativa, Cooperativa la Voz que Clama en el Desierto. The cooperative offers an hour and a half tour which includes a walk through coffee fields (or shorter tour without the fields). We would have loved to take the longer tour as it got very good reviews, but with the time we had lost, we were now on a tight schedule, since our host family was expecting us back for lunch. Perhaps we will return another day. We walked back to the dock, going down the steep hill, finding the sign (paying more attention this time), and re-climbing the steep hill. This time we were able to find the cooperativa easily. Turns out we were within a half block of the cooperativa when we were redirected (ladies take note, you always wondered why men hate asking for directions, now you know). On a positive note, we got to experience a side of San Juan La Laguna that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

When we arrived at Cooperativa de Mujeres des Colores Botanicos, we were met by an older woman who is one of the founders of the cooperativa.  It was set  up in 1975 as a way for local women to practice traditional Maya textile work, keeping the skills alive and passing them on to future generations, also allowing these women to make a decent living. As most of the women do this work at home, childcare is not an issue. All work is done by hand using natural dyes from local plants. We got a demonstration (totally in Spanish which we understood! We did ask the woman to speak slowly) of: turning raw cotton into yarn, dyeing the cotton, and weaving. They also do crochet. Highly recommend a visit if in the area and the prices for their beautiful products are quite reasonable. Then it was back to our family for lunch, followed by studying.  Ann liked her purse so much that we returned to the cooperativa the following Saturday to pick up a couple of gifts.

Sunday, we were on our own for eating and went back to the Italian Bakery we found last week. After a week of instant, it was nice to get a real cup of coffee again. And the croissants were still as good as the previous week.

Then we ventured further afield, to San Marcos and Santa Cruz. In addition to the fast lanchas to Panajachel, there are slower boats going to Panajachel that stop at pueblos along the way and make the reverse trip to San Pedro, stopping at the same towns. The fare from San Pedro to San Marcos was Q10 each. We boarded the lancha and waited for it to fill up. We had heard that the boats will wait until they have 10-16 people or 20 minutes. More and more people kept coming, with the captain directing them to our lancha until we had about 30. The boat was very overloaded and sitting quite low in the water…hmm. About halfway to San Marcos, we could hear the engine struggling and the captain kept putting it into and out of gear, then the engine stopped. We were stopped in the middle of the lake on a boat carrying 30 people with life vests for only 20 (maybe?). Mind you, the lake water is pretty clear and not that cold. The man sitting next to Ann yelled at the captain, “?Que paso?”, and told Ann that he’d never seen this happen before. Luckily, after a few minutes, the captain was able to restart the engine and we limped into San Marcos.

San Marcos – The New Age Town

First stop: San Marcos. After disembarking the lancha (happily skipping our swim in the lake), there’s only one way out, a path straight ahead. Along the path, there are restaurants, health food stores, advertisements for yoga, meditation, chakra cleansing, etc. The town definitely lives up to its nickname. After winding our way through the dock area, we emerged into a normal pueblo, a small one. As we wandered around, we saw hotels advertising lake views, etc. A very different vibe than backpacker haven San Pedro or long term traveler haven Panajachel. It struck both of us as a little artificial and not exactly our cup of tea. If we are going to be in Guatemala, we’d rather be experiencing the local culture even with its rough edges, rather than creating an artificial (perhaps very real to those who choose to be there) bubble.

Santa Cruz – The Vertical Town

Back on the lancha, next stop: Santa Cruz. We passed quite a few upscale hotels with lake access along the way. Okay, forget the previous paragraph’s soapbox, we could probably force ourselves to enjoy one of these bubbles. When we arrived in Santa Cruz, we tried giving the captain Q20 which was the fare from San Pedro to Santa Cruz minus the fare we had already paid from San Pedro to San Marcos. As he kept insisting on Q30, after a few minutes we paid the extra Q10, it surely wasn’t worth arguing or getting upset over $1.30. Maybe there was a penalty for hopping on and off? Tuk tuks meet the boat as it arrives, but we opted to walk – little did we know. Along the way, we came to appreciate how the town gets its nickname. We started walking what looked like a short steep uphill road which turned about to be 30 minutes of steep uphill walking until we got into the town.

Once into the town, the road continued to go up, we followed it for a while, but didn’t see much activity, so we turned around.

Fascinating seeing the local (and many not so young) people powering uphill with seemingly little effort. On the way back down, we passed a large processional led by a priest, two men playing guitars, a banner, and everyone was singing. We stopped and watched but we didn’t take any pictures because it seemed disrespectful in the moment. Perhaps this was why the town was so quiet. Many of the people in the processional greeted us as they walked past, confirming Ann’s initial impression that the people in this pueblo are particularly friendly. Once we got back down to the dock, we headed back to San Pedro, having spent a very enjoyable day on the lake.

Lake Atitlan is a beautiful lake that truly reveals its beautiful surroundings in the sunshine. Yes, we realize that some people would appreciate its beauty with the clouds and rain. In some ways, it reminds us of Tahoe with tropical plants rather than pine trees covering the hills, not to mention the odd volcano here or there. And of course the lake itself is a caldera of a huge extinct volcano.

In discussing our weekend with his teacher, Ian discovered that unfortunately hotels and restaurants in both towns have blocked access to the lake for people living in each community.

Learning Spanish -Three Weeks Down, One to Go

On Sunday, we met with the coordinator of the school and Ian requested a change of teacher for the next week but only if his original teacher would still have work that following week. We were assured that she would; turns out we got a lot of new students starting on Monday so it worked out well. There was nothing wrong with his original teacher, she taught well and he learned a lot. He was just picking up an underlying tension he couldn’t identify. The first day with his new teacher was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. But it turned out that she was simply trying to get a feel for his Spanish level. She speaks more English and by the end of the week, Ian was actually enjoying school.

Ann’s adventures this week included two field trips with her teacher. The first was to visit a doctor because she had developed an ear infection, and her teacher was more than happy to accompany her as interpreter  The second field trip was visiting one of the poor families that the school helps to support.

The doctor visit (no appointment necessary): The doctor introduces himself as Mario. Ann’s teacher, Jose, becomes the assistant, using the doctor’s cell phone to take a picture of the inside of Ann’s ear. Turns out this was so that the doctor could have a visual when he explained the problem to Ann. She actually understood more of what the doctor said than she thought she would (Jose was needed at times) and actually thinks she understood more of the ear-related medical jargon than Jose did. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, acetaminophen for pain, and gargling with warm salt water (pura) 4 times a day. After a few days, Ann was much better. The total cost was about $50, $35 of which was the antibiotics.

The visit to the family:  The Cooperativa School which we attend has 4 community outreach programs, one of which is to support about 30 local impoverished families by providing some basics. Every other week, teachers and students (who choose to participate) visit these families, bringing some basics, such as eggs, corn, rice, beans, and soap. The family that Ann visited included a woman, two teenage(?) daughters, and two grandchildren, living in a rather small, yet protected, space. Ann chatted a bit with the woman, who was very appreciative of the food. Jose told Ann afterward that no men lived in the house.

Ian’s (and Ann’s) Duh Moment

Our whole third week in San Pedro, Ian was having digestive problems again. On Sunday he was ready to give up and take an antibiotic. At breakfast he noticed a man across from us eating yogurt and a light bulb went on. He ordered the yogurt and a couple of hours later no more digestive problems. We bought yogurt at the grocery store to have with breakfast every morning. Can’t believe it took us that long to figure it out. Major duh!! Our excuse: too much Spanish in our brains.

A Change in Our Itinerary

The airfare to Nicaragua from Guatemala refused to go down. We could take a two-day bus trip through El Salvador like the 20 somethings do but that wasn’t particularly appealing. We found that we could fly to Costa Rica inexpensively and also discovered that the airfare from Panama to Colombia was reasonable. So Nicaragua is out and Panama is in. The airfare to Costa Rica is booked. After we leave Guatemala at the end of October, we are planning on about three weeks in Costa Rica and then three weeks in Panama. We haven’t booked anything from Costa Rica to Panama since we might go by bus, but the airfare is inexpensive if we would rather fly.

Something curious that Ian discovered as we used Google Flights for initial research to various locations from Guatemala. When he went to the booking engine using an IP address from Guatemala, we were getting quoted three times the price we had seen in Google Flights. He turned on the VPN and told it to use Phoenix as the gateway and presto! We got quoted the Google Flight price. Why they would charge someone from Guatemala three times what they would charge someone from the US is a mystery.

Ian & Ann