Day 29 – Yoga and coffee in San Marcos
It rained all night and we quickly understood why it’s low season. We walked down San Marcos’ main street in search of breakfast and found a nice place where I had huevos rancheros and Viki had wholewheat pancakes. It’s very touristy, in a hippy way, in San Marcos. There is a single main walking path that goes down to the lake, lined with cafes and restaurants, many of them vegetarian and health conscious. When we sat down for coffee we were asked whether we would like normal milk, soy milk, or macadamia nut milk. At the beginning of the walking strip there’s a big chalk board outlining the town’s schedule for the day – the various yoga classes, coffee and chocolate tours, boat trips, and evening events.
After breakfast we headed back up to Yoga Forest where we had a Vinyasa class with Diego, from Argentina. It was nice to have a full class of an hour and a half, in comparison to the hour long classes that we’re used to in London.
We spent the rest of the day eating and relaxing. For lunch we went to a cheap comedor “eatery” (essentially someone’s house/shack), where we were given the choice of fried chicken or grilled chicken (“a la plancha”) for 25Q. We both had grilled and it was delicious – it tasted like the lady had just gone out back to slaughter the chicken, built a fire, and then grilled it over the fire. While we eat, a little boy named Pedro, or Pedrito “little Pedro”, entertained us with his toothless laughter trying to say our names. Walking back home to get our books, we then went to Shambhala café and had coffee and energy balls for the rest of the afternoon.
Day 30 – More yoga and coffee in San Marcos
Last night we found an even better hotel deal than before. We’re now at Hostel San Marcos, also at 100Q ($12.50), but including breakfast for the both of us (which would otherwise have been 30Q/person). I had scrambled eggs on toast and Viki had oatmeal.
After breakfast we went back up to the Yoga Forest for the 10:30am Ashtanga class, but sadly Diego told us that it was cancelled. Since he remembered us from our last visits, he said that we could go up and self-practice yoga. We’ve never tried that before, but between the two of us we managed to recall most of yesterday’s sequence over the course of 1h15m. It was really nice to practice by ourselves overlooking the jungle and it added a big layer of difficulty having to remember the poses and take our time.
Back in town we went to Moon Café for lunch, some rather small but tasty burritos (Viki – “they were so huge. I nearly popped. I nearly exploded”), and Skyped with Viki’s parents. For coffee we went to Circles Café, where we organized future travel plans along with trying to find accommodation in Whistler for January.
Day 31 – Yet more yoga and coffee in San Marcos
Diego from Yoga Forest strongly recommended a yoga studio called Doron Yoga in Tzununa, a village an hour away. Setting the alarm for 5:30am, we just managed to make the hour trek over in time for 7am class. The setting was beautiful and remote, a modern wooden structure walled with glass, surrounded by jungle, overlooking Lake Atitlan. It couldn’t have been a more idyllic setting for a yoga studio. Note also that at both Doron Yoga and Yoga Forest, pretty much everyone there is on retreat, costing about $70 a night. We’ve been lucky in just paying for drop in classes for $6. The class was really great. There were only four others apart from us, Doron was a fantastic instructor, and we got a good amount of individual attention.
After 90 minutes of yoga and an hour walk back to town, it was finally time for breakfast. This was rather quickly followed by lunch where we again had grilled chicken and Pedrito remembered our names. We walked over to Hostel Del Lago, a happening hostel with many seating areas and comfy chairs (including a bed suspended by 4 cables where someone was working on their laptop, right on the lake. We chatted for a while with a motorbiking guy named Charles after we noticed his Washington license plates. He drove from Bellingham to San Marcos in just five days!
Afternoon coffee break was back at Shambhala and we went to a Japanese place named Allala for dinner. It was down a rather sketchy back alley and we were almost turned away by some rather vicious guard dogs. We managed to get past the dogs and found the doors open to a hippily decorated restaurant with people taking turns to play music or sing on the stage.
Day 32 – Final day of yoga and coffee in San Marcos
We’ll bore you with repetition if we write too much here. We went to the 10:30am power yoga class led by Anja at Yoga Forest, which we quite enjoyed and stayed there after for a vegetarian lunch of curry and rice. We had originally planned to go kayaking but the days here have made us lazy and we just went for coffee instead. We’re now back at Shambhala with our coffee and cake. I also finally managed to coordinate a contractor to come fix the flooring in my condo in Chicago and after $950 it all seems to have gone well.
