San Pedro & Lago de Floaters

Hola Amigos, next on the big trip was more Espanol. San Pedro boasted the cheapest school & lodging in the world... and they were right. One week of school (20 hrs. with private instruction) cost around 53$ and one week of camping in our tree house with a view of the lake was 14$. San Pedro is situated on Lago de Atitlan surrounded by mountains and 3 massive volcanoes. The small town is a mixture of hippie gringos who have opened restaurants/hotels and authentic locals still wearing the traditional clothing of Guatemala. We chose Casa Rosario to study for 3 weeks because the school is a lush garden on the lake and it is run by Vicente, the community saint who is deeply involved in community projects (including personally giving $ to families ensuring their kids go to school rather then work). Our payments for school largely contribute to this which makes the experience that much sweeter...

Our school Casa Rosario (the cabana is where individual classes were held)

Every morning we would buy banana bread on the steets for breakfast (50 cents), eat cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch, and splurge on typical gringo food for dinner. Dinner was the big social event in San Pedro for extranjeros (foreigners) because all the restaurants lured you in w/ free big screen movies. We've never watched so many movies in three weeks... But it was the nightly gathering where we would meet our friends and it gave you something to talk about in Spanish class - as talking everyday for 4 hrs. can drag w/o new material. Here's a picture of our new buds from school:After a few weeks we began to feel like the veterans of Casa Rosario and were charged w/ educating the newbies about the ins & outs of gringo-hippie-lake-world. I'm approaching this entry w/ a bit of a stream of conscious approach... and now I realize you might have a few questions. Tree House? Well initially we wanted to just camp next to the lake as we have all our gear and we want to justify hauling it around. However, each study area in the school consists of a tin roofed open air cabin and some of them have 2 floors. We layed out our air mattresses and felt like we were living amid a nature preserve. Birds and insects would wake us up each morning and we even had a guest scorpion:) But really we enjoyed it and were able to host many students into our abode during rain showers or snack breaks. Another curious issue: "lago w/ floaters". This was the issue of much debate among the students... but alas paranoia got the best of us and we kept the swimming to a minimum. The issue is this - there is no such thing as centralized community plumbing in most of Central America (there are few trash dumps as well). Each house is responsible for their waste management strategy and unfortunately this usually means the biggest lake in Guatemala is kinda like the biggest toilet in Guatemala. Our best buddy Vicente assured us the water is safe and that the lake has a "self-cleaning" mechanism (either settling it out or washing it on shore), regardless the problem is exacerbated after rain storms... as all the sewage from the villagers further up the hill flows down to the lake. We did recieve eye witness reports from our best gringo buddy of genuine floaters making their way to the lake. Sad but true. In addition to the lake being the community septic tank, the locals also use it as their washing machine and bathtub. This place is truly amazing and if you want to visit it while it's still (mostly) pristine, go soon!
During our 3 week stay at San Pedro, we were lucky enough to witness the big Semana Santa celebration. This Easter holiday consists of 5 days of celebration by carrying Jesus, Mary, and the cross on 3 separate floats through the streets for hours on end. The highlight event was the creation of "alfombras" or carpets made with fruit, flowers, pine needles, and colored sawdust. At midnight, locals from the Catholic church begin creating these elaborate carpets into the wee hours of the morning, only to be demolished with the marching parade early the next day. It was an amazing spectacle to witness...

We are now moving on to Honduras for some more Mayan ruins, diving in the Bay Islands, and hours of chicken buses...