Guatemala, Day 3: Atitlan, San Marcos

We began our first full day on Lake Atitlan with a kayak on the lake, which came free with our hotel, Hotel San Buenaventura de Atitlan! 

Lake Atitlan, north looking south

We kayak about once a year, so we're not totally incompetent but our muscles aren't super developed. Still, we had a lot of fun paddling around. We glided by our friends' airbnb house, then went along the shore for a while. 

Morning kayaking on Lake Atitlan

We had grand plans to kayak on other days, but it ended up being the only day we kayaked on the trip because of other plans or windy / wavy weather. We picked a great morning to do it, though!

We walked into Panajachel and walked around a bit; we realized that a small art gallery we wanted to visit was only open until noon, so we zoomed over for a quick visit.

Our book had highly recommended La Galeria, and we were glad that we stopped by (and that we didn't budget too much time for it, because it is postage-stamp tiny). The spot was located in an interesting yard inland a bit from both of the boat launch locations in Panajachel.

There were a lot of works by local artists, some postcards to buy, and some neat pieces, many of which were themed on interesting textures and media. Many of the works were for sale, but others seemed to be on permanent display. 

Some of our friends on the trip had taken a boat over to Santa Cruz in the morning and either got breakfast and shopped or took a hike. We missed it from the kayaking, but we still wanted to see a town in the morning, so we took a boat to San Marcos La Laguna.

We had read that San Marcos was one of the prettier lake villages, plus it had some shops and a restaurant we wanted to visit. They are one of the crunchier villages, with lots of yoga and meditation retreats, even though the town still hosts thousands of local Mayan indigenous folks. Interesting blend.

This was our first boat trip across the lake (and we took at least one each day on the trip), and we learned a lesson in bargaining. When you show up at the lancha, walk by all the people trying to "help" you - they are just trying to get a finder's fee and will charge you an extra 5Q for your trip. (This is less than a dollar, but it's the principle of the thing, plus it adds up with two boats a day for four or five days.)

We learned a trip to Santa Cruz should be 10Q; San Marcos, San Juan, and San Pedro are around 20Q; and the villages between (Tzununa, Jaibalito, and other boat-only hotels) are somewhere between.

We stepped off the boat and immediately saw that San Marcos was full of textile vendors and hippies. Pretty fun to browse, even if I don't need any crystals.

We found the restaurant we were looking for, Comedor Konojel, just up the street (and there really are only one or two streets with shops and restaurants for tourists). It supports local Mayan folks and the food was delicious (we got some curry-like dishes and split some pupusas), plus if you go up to the second floor, you get a nice breeze and views.

On our way out of town, we thought about doing the jungle / nature hike, but we didn't really have time. I do recommend walking over there, though, because there were all kinds of interesting little nooks for meditation centers and hotels on the way, with lots of street art. (I should have brought hooks and yarn for some yarn bombing! It would have been very at home in San Marcos.)


One such meditation center, mentioned in our book, was this one where you can meditate in these tiny pyramids on the ground (see below). Not my thing, but go nuts, folks!

Pyramid meditation center

We took the boat back to Pana and visited our friends in the airbnb for another lovely sunset and a game night. A group played a card game in one part of the kitchen and another played Scattergories; I wanted to knit, so I ended up serving as arbiter for the Scattergories crowd. 

And of course, we were checking in more and more Guatemalan beers on the way, earning more badges! I should mention at this point that Dave and I realized we were only two beers away from the boat badge ("Ahoy Matey!") on Untappd, so we started buying a can of beer at a mercado and then drinking on the lancha, so we FINALLY earned the boat badge on this day of the trip after years of trying. Who says you can't check off to do items on vacation.