Thursday, February 5
San Marcos, Atitlan, Guatemala
(Photos to come, but for now check out the link www.travelingtehranis.shutterfly.com)
San Marcos la Laguna...
We arrived here almost a month ago to the day and suffice to say, for a pueblo with a population of barely 3000, there is never a dull moment.
There are 3 main roads in the village, one is paved, partially at least. It runs parallel to the lake and it is the only road if you insist on coming by car, which is by far the most difficult way to arrive. This was how we came, because we had a lot of luggage. It adds an extra 2 hours to the drive from Guatemala City because of the semi-paved condition and hairpin turns and potential to be stuck behind a chicken bus , tuk-tuk (local taxi, kind of like a rickshaw) or other such vehicle that is traveling at 5 mph to avoid being pitched off a cliff into the lake below. This route, as well as precarious, is also highly frustrating for the reason that after you get on the road from Los Encuentros you can actually see the lake, so you are tricked into thinking you are almost there. Then you find that it takes another 2 hours of winding nauseating roads til you finally descend into the villages of San Juan, then San Pablo and finally San Marcos la Laguna.
The other main roads in the town are 2 dirt paths that run up from the lake that are each no more than 4 ft wide. There are surprisingly a lot of businesses along these paths ranging from a holistic center to a bakery, a cafe, a restaurant, guest houses, and couple of tiny tiendas where you are lucky to find a few eggs, juice and something like cheese but not really.
It is easier to get your aura cleansed in Sans Marcos, or have your chakras balanced than it is to find chickpeas and decent salt. Almost everything that is available in Guatemala generally has been rejected from an industrialized country. Plates, knives, clothing, potato peelers, spiral notebooks, clothes pins, pretty much anything you buy in fact, is about as low budget as you could imagine. Which keeps one pretty busy. You'd think people in a sleepy lakeside village would be lolling about doing not much, but between mending broken things and the constant quest for necessary ingredients (and I'm not talking camembert, I mean flour or oats!), it's a full time job just to get through the day. Days pass and you are still trying to cross garbanzos off the list. The day i finally found basil, I felt like I won to lottery! I bought the woman's entire crop of basil because I heard it was so rare, then I had everyone knocking on the door asking if they could come for pesto!
So we're coming to terms with our lack of culinary options. On the whole I think it's better for our health to cut out all the choices. Back home you can eat whatever you want at the drop of a hat and I think that is probably the cause of a lot of degenerative diseases in western cultures. Here it's always the same thing, beans, rice, eggs and veggies or some variation thereof.
The real beauty of this place is it's beauty. It is like you are in a music video of Joni Mitchell's "Back to the Garden" and a little bit of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" as backdrop. There is something very pure about it, and raw and you never know whether it'll end up good or bad.
There is so much village intrigue it has completely dispelled the myth of small town boredom. Every time we venture forth we come back with the latest scoop. Alex turns out is the reigning king of gossip. He has been brewing local drama since our arrival. I think he'll start a local version of Ola with up-to-the-minute hippy drama! In the Holistic Center there was actually a copy of US Weekly in the waiting area. It was kind of a relief to see that. They should add a section to that mag "Hippies, They're Just Like Us!" and show me in lotus postion and dreadlocks reading about Paris Hilton!
The thing I like most about village life is the accountability factor. Even as a newcomer, people come to rely on you for something, whether it's information or anything. In a big city you can hide out and not participate but not in a place like this. You have to stand up and be counted and if you talk shit, people find out!
There is much more to report but I'm at an internet cafe and time's running out. After a few weeks here, $1.50 an hour for internet seems like a solid rip off!
Stay tuned! I am channelling my higher self and if and when she shows up, I'll have a lot more to write about!
San Marcos la Laguna...
We arrived here almost a month ago to the day and suffice to say, for a pueblo with a population of barely 3000, there is never a dull moment.
There are 3 main roads in the village, one is paved, partially at least. It runs parallel to the lake and it is the only road if you insist on coming by car, which is by far the most difficult way to arrive. This was how we came, because we had a lot of luggage. It adds an extra 2 hours to the drive from Guatemala City because of the semi-paved condition and hairpin turns and potential to be stuck behind a chicken bus , tuk-tuk (local taxi, kind of like a rickshaw) or other such vehicle that is traveling at 5 mph to avoid being pitched off a cliff into the lake below. This route, as well as precarious, is also highly frustrating for the reason that after you get on the road from Los Encuentros you can actually see the lake, so you are tricked into thinking you are almost there. Then you find that it takes another 2 hours of winding nauseating roads til you finally descend into the villages of San Juan, then San Pablo and finally San Marcos la Laguna.
The other main roads in the town are 2 dirt paths that run up from the lake that are each no more than 4 ft wide. There are surprisingly a lot of businesses along these paths ranging from a holistic center to a bakery, a cafe, a restaurant, guest houses, and couple of tiny tiendas where you are lucky to find a few eggs, juice and something like cheese but not really.
It is easier to get your aura cleansed in Sans Marcos, or have your chakras balanced than it is to find chickpeas and decent salt. Almost everything that is available in Guatemala generally has been rejected from an industrialized country. Plates, knives, clothing, potato peelers, spiral notebooks, clothes pins, pretty much anything you buy in fact, is about as low budget as you could imagine. Which keeps one pretty busy. You'd think people in a sleepy lakeside village would be lolling about doing not much, but between mending broken things and the constant quest for necessary ingredients (and I'm not talking camembert, I mean flour or oats!), it's a full time job just to get through the day. Days pass and you are still trying to cross garbanzos off the list. The day i finally found basil, I felt like I won to lottery! I bought the woman's entire crop of basil because I heard it was so rare, then I had everyone knocking on the door asking if they could come for pesto!
So we're coming to terms with our lack of culinary options. On the whole I think it's better for our health to cut out all the choices. Back home you can eat whatever you want at the drop of a hat and I think that is probably the cause of a lot of degenerative diseases in western cultures. Here it's always the same thing, beans, rice, eggs and veggies or some variation thereof.
The real beauty of this place is it's beauty. It is like you are in a music video of Joni Mitchell's "Back to the Garden" and a little bit of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" as backdrop. There is something very pure about it, and raw and you never know whether it'll end up good or bad.
There is so much village intrigue it has completely dispelled the myth of small town boredom. Every time we venture forth we come back with the latest scoop. Alex turns out is the reigning king of gossip. He has been brewing local drama since our arrival. I think he'll start a local version of Ola with up-to-the-minute hippy drama! In the Holistic Center there was actually a copy of US Weekly in the waiting area. It was kind of a relief to see that. They should add a section to that mag "Hippies, They're Just Like Us!" and show me in lotus postion and dreadlocks reading about Paris Hilton!
The thing I like most about village life is the accountability factor. Even as a newcomer, people come to rely on you for something, whether it's information or anything. In a big city you can hide out and not participate but not in a place like this. You have to stand up and be counted and if you talk shit, people find out!
There is much more to report but I'm at an internet cafe and time's running out. After a few weeks here, $1.50 an hour for internet seems like a solid rip off!
Stay tuned! I am channelling my higher self and if and when she shows up, I'll have a lot more to write about!
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