San Pedro La Laguna

Well, Sunday I ended up going to Chichicastenango for the big-famous market there. I went with the same British anthropologist guy, which was neat, because he knew abuot the church and the textiles and all that. We also went and saw an "altar" to San Simon, aka Maximon, which is a sort of combination of Mayan gods and christian elements. Like a lot of Guatemalan catholicism, to one degree or another. It's quite interesting.

Monday I came to San Pedro. This is a weird kind of place: a lot of foreigners, pretty laid back, less in-your-face touristy than Panajachel. Mostly the tourists are "hippie-types", which makes for an interesting atmosphere. Monday night there was a big party with trance music on the beach, which was lots of fun. I met a group of University students from Guatemala city and hung out with them. Tuesday morning we got into a big discussion/argument about politics. Mostly in Spanish, although every now and then we'd switch. Made things interesting.

Other than that I've mostly just been relaxing, enjoying the week off, the really pretty location and the lake, which is great for swimming. I'm hoping to get to hike up Volcan San Pedro at some point, but we'll see how that goes. And i'm going to San Juan on Friday for processions and to talk to some people my anthropologist friend there knows. So it's not a terribly exciting week, but I'm enjoying it.