Our first morning at the lake, we woke up with the beginnings of sunlight streaming in through our window over the water. The waves were gently crashing on the shore as the winds had not yet picked up. We cooked and ate breakfast and then walked down to our dock.
We absolutely love all of the plants and trees around our house here, but the completely unobstructed view down at the dock is pretty great too. We hung out there for quite awhile, enjoying the cool morning breeze and the different birds flying over the water. A man from Michigan who retired here was swimming by us, so he stopped and chatted with us for awhile and pretty much had us convinced we should move here as well.
We changed and got ready, and then came back down to the dock to flag down a lancha coming our way. Pretty much all transportation around the lake is via “lanchas” or little motor boat taxis. It took us across the water to San Pedro, which is kind of the backpacker mecca of the lake.
We didn’t venture around it much, but we stopped at the ATM and spent the rest of the morning at a restaurant with excellent wifi, good food, beer, and the sweetest little miniature schnauzer who was more than happy to stay curled up at my side.
One great thing I have noticed about the areas around the lake is that it is extremely easy to find vegetarian meals. And speaking of which, after lunch we hopped on another lancha to go to San Marcos.
San Marcos is… interesting. Living in Kansas, I have always considered myself to be a bit of a hippie. I’m a vegetarian, love yoga, and believe in living a pretty green/eco-friendly lifestyle. That’s pretty out there for a Kansan :). Then I got to San Marcos and realized that I actually am not a hippie at all. Other than the local Mayans, everyone there was walking around barefoot (and it is not exactly clean there) and their dreads pulled back or falling down their back, having conversations about their “inner energy” and chi. Every building you looked at was a “holistic center” or “healing massage center” or… I don’t know what all… and yoga studios. So many yoga studios.
The layout of the town took some getting used to as well. It is labyrinth, made up of little pathways, so you never really know where you’re going… you’re just walking down some dirt or stone path between a bunch of trees. It was a little unnerving at first because I felt very closed in. After we had walked around for awhile, though, we got a better feel for the place and could figure out where to go.
My favorite part of San Marcos though is that the hippie vibe of it does tend to draw the animal-loving types of people like me. So whereas in other parts of the country, the poor stray dogs were largely ignored or shooed away, people in San Marcos tried to care for them. A woman stopped Anthony, asking him if he could speak to these kids in Spanish and tell them that they were scaring the dog they were trying to play with. After I fed a dog walking by, the woman in front of it asked if we knew him because he was following her so she felt responsible for him. When we said no, she called him along with her again. We ate at a restaurant that had a sign saying dogs not allowed, but 5 dogs walked around while we ate, and when we left, we saw the worker feed our leftovers to one of them.
There are also several vegetarian restaurants, or at the very least, several vegetarian options at the restaurants which is awesome for me since sometimes, it can be difficult for me to find food while traveling.
Once we were done with San Marcos, we caught the lancha again and had them drop us off at our private dock a couple minutes away. The day was still young, so I changed into my yoga clothes and went back down to the dock to do some yoga. The weather was perfect, and it is really special having the views we have while doing yoga. However, it is also difficult to stay balanced when you have a dock moving underneath you. I managed with only falling out of my poses a couple times and probably got a better workout than I would have on solid ground.
The sun started going down and the chill was making its way back, so we started a fire on our terrace outside and hung out there for awhile before coming in to take a bath and go to bed.
