Ok we’re running late on this blog, it’s time to catch up!

So after our rough ride of Acatenango, we came back to San Marcos on lake Atitlàn for about ten days.

There we rested and let Mary recover from her mountain sickness symptoms, we managed to catch up on Leo’s schoolwork, we explored a few villages around the lake, we jumped, we swam, and we even did some paddle board with Leo 🙂

San Marcos is really the hippy capital of Atitlàn! It’s a nice quiet village packed with (rather rich) hippies, yogis and other gurus of various brands. But all in all, if you can bear with the Hare Krishna and Pachamama vibe, it’s a nice base for exploring the lake. It’s midway between Panajachel and San Pedro, and even offers a view on the Fuego when the sky is clear!

From there we took a boat to San Pedro, which didn’t impress us much; bigger, more busy, packed with hostels.. we barely stayed, and walked to the next village, San Juan.

San Juan is much prettier, with lots of colourful painted walls, handicraft and art galleries. The famous umbrella street is very cute, and the dock looks fabulous at dusk!

Except that if you see it at dusk, it means you’ve already missed the last boat to go back! 🙃 So we went looking for a tuktuk to take us back to San Marcos. (Actually a series of tuktuks; each one operating only between his village and the next)

Another day we went hiking the other way, towards Santa Cruz. But we only walked three fourth of the way, to Jaibalito, where we stopped at Casa del Mundo and we found it so nice that we ate and spent the afternoon there, watching the lake and playing chess with Leo. But it was too windy that day to jump in the lake.

Another day, we started the hike the other way round. We took a boat to Santa Cruz, and from there, we did the short hike back to Casa del Mundo. This time we could jump and swim 🙂 And we played some more chess ♟️

Another day we rented a paddle board to go explore the lake on our own with Leo. At first paddling against the wind was quite a challenge, but eventually the wind stopped and it was much easier. We went up to a big rock that we could climb on and jump from, and watch the boats pass by. Without wind, Leo is able to stand and paddle on his own 💪

The Reserva Natural of San Marcos is also a great place to hang out, sunbathe and picnic by the lake. It also has a 10m platform, and various rocks of different heights to jump in the water ❤️

In San Marcos, we met with Claire, a traveling violonist from Canada who even plays gipsy jazz, and with Storm, a clarinetist from Israel, who tells stories with her music. We jammed together and even participated in an open mic at a bar called La Vida 🙂

Last but not least, we celebrated my 49th birthday on Atitlàn! Mary and Leo had baked a surprise cake, we got some wine and invited our hostel neighbours and musician friends to share the cake and celebrate with us. It was a lovely birthday ❤️