Each week at ICA, students and teachers rotate. So, I'm now on my third teacher. And fortunately, they've all been great so far! I've learned A LOT of Spanish up till now and I'm also practicing my speaking quite a bit since no one here speaks English. I've started making myself at home, both at school and in my homestay. It also helps that I've made a few friends now.
This past weekend, I took a 3-day long vacation to a lake about 2-3 hours away. This lake, Lake Atitlán, is a huge mountain lake surrounded by three volcanoes and a bunch of little towns. It was by far one of the most breathtaking landscapes that I have ever witnessed. Imagine a large, light green mountain lake surrounded by volcanoes that are covered in Central American jungle...a peaceful, barely populated place where the sun, sky, and earth, and water all meet in one giant valley. Okay, you can stop imagining now and actually take a look at some of the pictures I took :)
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| Panorama of Lake Atitlán |
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| Lago de Atitlán |
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| Volcan San Pedro -- picture from San Marcos |
We got to Atitlán in something called a "chicken bus," which are actually old American school buses that Guatemala now uses for their own public transit. Now imagine yourself in an old creaky school bus that has a capacity of about 45 adults, yet packed full with about 70 adults for a two and a half hour ride up and around Guatemala's mountains. Well, it was a unique experience.
While visiting Atitlán, we spent one night in a town called San Pedro and another night in a town called San Marcos. The first town is the larger of the two, but still very very tiny. It was a nice, youthful place with a lot of backpackers. While in San Pedro, we ate dinner at a cool Israeli restaurant, then rented kayaks the next day for about $1 and spent an hour exploring the lake. We then hopped on a speedboat and rode across the lake to San Marcos.
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| Isreali restaurant in San Pedro |
San Marcos is an interesting place. It's a very small village that's entirely walkable in about 5 minutes. There are two main "roads" that intersect in the "center" of the town. Every other "road" is not even accessible by car since they're actually just stone/mud walkways. That can give you an idea of how peaceful it is. Almost every building is built out of wood and is roofed with palm leaves (see pictures below). Who lives here? A small Mayan community, a handful of tourists, and another handful of life-loving Americans who decided to leave the craziness of the U.S. to spend the rest of their lives meditating and doing yoga by a lake in Guatemala. That's San Marcos! I'm trying to figure out a way to go back there for a longer period of time...maybe I'll stay there for my last two weeks in Guatemala, but that all depends on the money.
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| Our hostel in San Marcos |
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The "streets" of San Marcos |
We also found an American man named Keith who lives in an enclosed piece of land in San Marcos. He's lived in Guatemala for the past seven years and has become a master of chocolate. He makes 100% pure sugarless chocolate using cacao beans from nearby areas.
Also, while in San Marcos, we found a cliff, called "Las Rocas," from which people can jump into the lake. It's over 30 feet high...not a long fall. I tried to fly off of the cliff, succeeded for a while, but ended up falling into the lake.
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| About to take off... |
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| I've begun my flight... |
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| I'm flying! |
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| ...okay, not anymore. |
For now, I'm back in Xela until further notice. I have some plans for the weekend, but nothing huge. I'll let you know when there's more excitement in my life. But until then, I'll continue my endless search for a ukelele. (If anyone knows how or where to find a ukelele in Guatemala please let me know, because it's pretty impossible from what I've learned).
P.S. I'm trying to learn how to play the ukelele, which is why I want to find one.
