San Marcos La Laguna

The last two days we had the opportunity to visit a couple of the neighboring "towns" on the lake. You can most easily get around by going down to the Pasaj-Cap dock and waving to one of the boats run by the locals. Boats coming from the right will take you to Santa Cruz and Pana, boats coming from the left will take you to San Marcos, San Juan, and San Pedro. Here's the dock at Pasaj-Cap:

Here's Ken on the boat:

This is a happy Ken, but he doesn't smile, it's just his picture thing.

Our first stop was the town of San Marcos. It's kind of two towns - the town closest to the water is kind of a hippy, spiritual expat community, and further up towards the highway and mountains are the native Guatemalan/Mayan people. In the ex-pat area, you can find lots of restaurants (including vegetarian,) multiple massage places, yoga retreats, and several nice looking hotels.

Here is a link to more info about the town: http://wikitravel.org/en/San_Marcos_La_Laguna

One of the things that really struck me was the impact the rising lake has had on this community. Sounds like about 20 feet in the last 10 years -rough! Here some photos that show the second story of a house on the lake as well as the make-shift walkway put in place after the beach disappeared to allow folks to get around - one thing I love about Central America, they just improvise. Yes, those are shipping pallets.

My favorite part of visiting was the little Mayan boy walking with his mom who made a point to yell Hola! to Ken and I as we crossed their path. I also enjoyed watching the kids playing futbal in the town square and at the local school.

The boat ride from San Marcos to San Pedro took us past this interesting estate - you may need to zoom in to see how spectacular it is, kinds sticks out compared to most of the other places on the lake:

It kind of reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "What Dreams May Come," in the scene where Robin Williams goes to heaven and he is in this world of paint and he is running down green hills and into water and up again the other side to a beautiful house where he thinks his wife is waiting. A sailboat figures prominently in the movie as well. It was just a beautiful scene just outside of San Marcos.