Lake side San Pedro (p1 and 2)

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

Following the market we traveled with a shuttle bus to Lago de Atitlan, a great lake lying  at an impressive height of 1,560 m between two volcano's. The lake is created when a big volcano collapsed. http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki /Lago_de_Atitl%C3%A1n

We arrived in the biggest and most touristic place "Panajachel" but quickly decided to take a boat to the town of San Pedro instead. This town at the other side of the lake (the shuttle speed boat took 30 min to cross the lake) lies at the base of Vulcano San Pedro and is famous for a more laid-back atmosphere and less tourist oriented.

Upon arrive we followed a kid to his "family hotel", which was also mentioned in our Lonely Planet Guide. Unfortunately, the Guide is low budget oriented and indeed for less than 5 euro we could stay there in a room with a view on the lake an private bathroom and a two persons bed (with extra spare bed). However, it didn't really met our "standards" for a good stay at San Pedro and the next day we moved to a more luxurious and twice as expensive hotel (which had a better view and private hammock)

But before all that we met the German neighbor "Arne" who stayed in San Pedro for 5 days already and thought it was already too long, but was too stoned to actually leave. San Pedro is more hippy town that I would have imagined, and everyone who is not Mayan of Guatemalan looks like they are here because of the cheap marijuana (which can be bought from the local dealer who happens to be the preachers' wife) "This town is the most crazy town I've seen", said Arne who traveled from Panama to San Pedro and had no idea what to do after San Pedro.

After we left our neighbor and checked in a new hotel, we went to do one of the two things offered by everyone in town " Kayaking" The other thing " Horseback riding" we saved in case we got bored. We peddled for one hour around the town of San Pedro and in the beautiful environment between the green hills of the old volcano's and on the green Jade-like water.

Next thing to do is relax, eat and swing in the hammocks till the sun sets. at night there are tons of restaurants, bars, pubs (mostly owned by Europeans) and free movies to watch at the bars (Of course the movies are illegally downloaded)

More will follow, after we decided to actually do something! (end of part1)

Oke part 2:

After sleeping in our super comfort hotel, we started with a lazy morning and good breakfast at the docks.
Following that we took a boat ride to Santiago Atitlan. This town is a bigger than San Pedro, and doesn´t attract many tourist at all. It had a market on Sunday and we made a little visit to it. The things are similar to Chichi´s market although perhaps even a bit cheaper.

The only "interesting" thing is that in Santiago, there is a special house where a Mayan God is worshiped. This God is Maximon, and he is dress as a Mayan farmer with a sombrero and a cigar in his mouth. (This statue is actually smoking). We payed some money to watch the ceremony but didn´t pay the 2 euros to make a photo.

After lunch in a restaurant we left for San Pedro again, and took a smaller boat to San Marcos La Laguna. This small town is famous for its spiritual vibe. There are lots of places to meditate and to retreat yourself to. We tried to eat something on San Marcos, but left when the restaurant was closed and the rain got worse. The place really has a nice vibe, and is a good place to stay for a few weeks to learn meditation and spiritual massage techniques.

Since the weather didn´t get any better, we decided to leave the next morning for Xela (Quetzaltenango) and skip the swimming in Lago de Atitlan.