Lago Atitlan

I am now in San Pedro la laguna.

In Antigua we hiked up to an active volcano, Pacaya. As soon as we got off we were mobbed by children calling ¨STICKS! STICKS! STICKS!¨ They were trying to sell us walking sticks for the hike. I always feel like its pretty fucked up when kids are trying to sell tourists stuff, and I wondered what the north american kids thought of kids their own age selling them sticks. On the other hand these kids know alot of practical things I am often resentful of modern society that I dont know. For example, one kid was riding a horse adeptly totally by himself. Plus they probably learn how to farm. It reminded me of Laos, where packs of kids run around unsupervised and basically raise themselves. At least they trying to figure out how to get a few quetzals out of the gringos, and arent watching TV!

The last day we were in Antigua was a festival day. There were fireworks and street food. I was excited to find that you can get tostadas with guacamole, salsa, onions and cheese for 50 cents or less in Guatemala! There were parades and dancing as well. The streets are so much more alive here than in the US.

Next we came to San Marcos, on the beautiful lago atitlan. We jumped off a rock into the water, awesome. San Marcos has alot of holistic healing, yoga, and other more absurd hippy new agey stuff like crystal healing. Its pretty small and has three sisters corn fields, coffee, etc. Lily found a room with a view of the lake for about 25$ a week. Today I made my way to San Pedro and found the Casa Rosario spanish school where I will be studying and living with a homestay family this next week. San Pedro is pretty nice too, especially down by the lake where the school is. The classes are outside in their garden, right by the lake. San Pedro has the reputation of being a magnet for drugs, hippies, and partying but I have yet to see this at all.

The locals here dont speak spanish to eachtoher. Mayan is a strange, gutteral language full of clicks and glottal stops. Probably because spanish is a second language for them, they all speak really slowly which is great. I happy that even though I forgot alot of my spanish I can pretty much understand everything people say. Speaking is much harder for me, but after a week or two of classes that will change.