I´m beat. I was meaning to write about my time in Guatemala yesterday but I decided at the last minute to join a group heading to Cotapaxi for the night. This no agenda thing is pretty wicked. Cotapaxi was beautiful and there was a part of me that wanted to tackle yet another volcano (the largest active in South America) but reality set in. There were no horses to help me with this one (6000 plus meters) coupled with this high altitude way of life is just killing me.

Back to Guatemala. Lake Atitlan was the reason for my stop there. Upon arrival to Guatemala City, we jumped in our shuttle for another 3 hour ride through unpaved roads and nauseous fumes burnings our lungs. Needless to say, the mere sight of Lake Atitlan upon arrival was enough to erase the arduous journey we just endured. I believe we all gasped at the size, depth and beauty of this lake. It is beauty.

There are many little villages surrounding the lake. I chose San Marcos for their holistic community. I wanted a quiet week on the lake in deep meditation and yoga. Sadly, most of our time was spent fighting off spiders and mosquitos. In all, we spent only 2 nights/3 days in San Marcos and that was enough for us to want to rejoin civilization. Lol.. so sad but what can I say it will take some time to let go of the city in me.

I should say, however, the relaxed way of life near the lake is just sublime. It is the perfect place to escape and write that book you always wanted to write. Just bring your bug repellant.

We spent the remaining few days in Antigua. Antigua is adorable! You can scale the entire city in a day. The city is massively wired up; every street is paved with cobblestones; folks love their Gallo beer (and so do I); live music is taken seriously; the city is pretty safe even late at night; tuk tuks are everywhere; and our new favorite person, Oscar, works at La Pena del Sol.

I was lucky to have my friends accompany me on this leg of the trip, especially since I don´t know how I would have survived the ¨wildnerness¨of San Marcos by myself. To good times...

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