I stayed on Lago de Atitlan from December 20th to 30th 2018. Lago de Atitlan is a large lake ringed with volcanoes and mountains. There are towns dotted all around, linked by both roads and regular lanchas (small boats). It is a very popular tourist spot with the most popular towns being San Pedro La Laguna and San Marcos La Laguna.
I started my time on Atitlan in a hostel in San Pedro. I spent a few days checking off the main attractions as later on I would be starting Spanish school and wouldn’t have as much time.
On my first full day I joined a group of travelers heading to San Marcos to see the sights. Lago de Atitlan has been declared by western hippie types to be a “energy vortex” and San Marcos is where the hippie types go when visiting the lake. The town is full of vegan cafes, yoga retreats, and foreigners (not Guatemalans) selling hand made jewelry on the street. I thought it was little strange.
Near San Marcos there is a little park with a cliff diving spot. We spent a while there jumping off into the lake. Lago de Atitlan is beautiful but unfortunately it isn’t clean, San Marcos is supposed to be one of the only spots where it is generally healthy to swim.
While walking through San Pedro one day I ran into Jessie from Belize! Her and Reevsie were taking classes in town as well. She recommended her school to me and I ended up signing up. She also introduced me to some friends who were doing a quick kayak trip on the lake that evening.
I also managed to hike up the “Indian Nose” or more appropriately “Mayan Face”, one of the mountains surrounding the lake. It provides breathtaking views of the lake and volcanoes.
The second part of my time on Atitlan was spent in Spanish School. I had spent a week learning in Antigua and a few weeks travelling around getting to practice but my Spanish was still nearly useless, I wanted to get much better.
Just like in Antigua, the school set me up with a local family to stay with. It was a family of 6 and unlike my home-stay in Antigua, they knew almost zero English. This was good for me since it forced me to practice more. There was also another student staying in the home, a former member of the US military, now doing graduate studies on the militarization of borders and Latin America, he was very interesting to talk to.
By far the best part of my home-stay was getting to experience Guatemalan Christmas with a Guatemalan family. In Guatemala Christmas Eve is the big celebration, Christmas Day is just a day off. I went out to the market to buy apples, grapes, and cookies, all of which are traditional Christmas foods. While I was there I got to see a sort of mascot parade, where dozens of people dressed up in mascot costumes danced around a basketball court to painfully load music. Heavily contrasting this, maybe 10m away, a serious looking ceremony was happening at the Catholic Church.
Back with my home-stay, we ate a traditional Christmas dinner of Tamales, warm fruit punch, apples, and grapes. After dinner we went to church. The family was Evangelical Christian, a quickly growing group in Central America. The Christmas ceremony was mostly different groups from the community singing songs, along with some words from the priest. There were a lot of lights and it was fun, if a little long (I think is ended up lasting a few hours). Unfortunately my Spanish was’t strong enough to follow most of what was being said.
After church we went to another building were the children all received presents. All the boys got one gift and the girls got another. They handed out hot chocolate and baked goods for everyone.
The highlight of the night was the fireworks show at midnight. Every year at midnight on Christmas Eve, everyone in Guatemala who can afford it lights off fireworks. I was very lucky to be staying where I was, in a three story house up on the hill above the lake. From the roof of my home-stay’s house we could see the whole lake and all the little towns surrounding it. The show was awesome.
After the show we all hugged and wished one another merry Christmas then went to bed. Christmas with this family was very special and I’m lucky to have experienced it.
Declan Easton 