Part 12.a: The Healing Lake

After so many months of constant traveling, I can honestly say that I was getting worn out. The longest I'd stayed in a country was two months in Peru, but I visited three different cities TWICE! Mama and I both decided that we wanted to stay a little longer somewhere. When I visited Guatemala the last time, I'd heard that the lake, Lake Atitlan, was amazing. We decided we should try it out!

Lake Atitlan is one of the most stunning places I've ever been in my entire life. It truly looks like Jurassic Park - the mountains and volcanos are crazy. I've never seen a lake with water so blue. It's nature on crack.

We stayed in a beautiful two story cabin with just one building, a Spanish school, separating us from the lake. The neighbors were a lovely family with the most beautiful german shepherds. Our favorite was a two year old german shepherd named Bingo. Most days we found him roaming through our giant yard!

Mama and I both fell in love with the lake, so we decided to stay for the maximum time allowed on our passports: three months. There was so much to do and see, and we knew that three months were going to fly by.

Lake Atitlan has eleven towns surrounding it, and the easiest way to visit all of them is by riding tiny little speed boats with the locals across the lake. Aside from San Pedro, the town we decided to stay in, we visited San Marcos, Jaibalito, Santa Cruz, and San Juan.

San Marcos is super hippie, filled with expats and backpackers looking for yoga retreats and spiritual healing. It has a great swimming spot where you can go cliff diving!

Jaibalito is tiny. There's not much to do there, other than hike around the town and enjoy the beautiful nature. It's a great place to see how the locals truly live.

Santa Cruz is built on the side of a mountain, really! To even get to it, you either have to take a tuktuk (the preferred transport on the lake) or hike up fifteen to twenty minutes. We decided to hike, because the tuktuk driver wanted to overcharge us. Not much to do here, but the views of the lake are stellar!

San Juan is directly next to San Pedro, and you can take a tuktuk there in just ten minutes! There are a lot of touristy things to do there, but it's a bit cheaper than San Pedro.

San Pedro, my favorite town, is a total backpacking hub! There are a lot ouf tourist, and it's super trendy and filled with a lot of really great restaurants. My favorite is called Sababa, an Israeli restaurant.

Something super cool that we discovered at the lake is the most bad ass Chabad house we've ever been to! If you don't know what a Chabad house is, it's basically a Jewish community center. Travelers find these Chabad houses when they travel so that they have a place to spend Shabat! We went there on numerous Friday nights for Shabat dinners, and it was always so much fun. The energy there is super great, the food is delicious, and it's always like a giant party.

Staying for three months in one place was really good for me at the time. It was nice to really get to know a place, and the lake is such a healing place. We were there during rainy season, which means that the first half of every day was sunny and warm, and the second half was rainy and dark. It was nice to sit in the hammock and watch the rain pour down every evening.

By the end of the three months, I was totally over living in such a small town. I was ready to go to a big city, and I swore that I'd had enough of the lake and would never be coming back.

That turned out to be a lie...