Apparently the most beautiful lake in the world

El Lago Atitlan. ¡Que bonito!
It really is stunningly gorgeous. This lake is about 3 hours from Antigua and it is famous for its incredible setting. Around the shores of the lake rise several immense volcanoes and many villages are clustered around its edges. I spent a week at San Marcos La Laguna, which is famous as a healing centre. Yoga, massages, saunas and all kinds of alternative therapies abound, but it is still a small, quiet place with only a handful of hotels and eateries, all nestling under the cover of trees so that from the shore you can hardly see them. Many of the villages around the lake suffered very badly in Hurricane Stan last October and San Marcos was one of them, so as a result there is a decline in the tourist population, which meant is was probably quieter than it normally should be.

I stayed in the most amazing hotel, Aaculuux. I was drawn there by a description in a guidebook containing references to Gaudí and fabulous art work. Fabulous it was, with every room full of unique artwork in the form of stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaic tables, gourd-lamps etc. My room was hexagonal, with four stained glass windows reflecting the view of the mountains and volcanoes and lake beyond, in green and blue glass. I discovered, to my amazement, that all this glass has been made with paper maché as a substitute for lead. Many of the windows contain bottles or glasses, both cut up and complete, and ceramic tiles - almost a ´whatever you can find, stick it in´! So this was a grand discovery, given that I had been thinking how much I would like to work with glass in Chiché but do not have a budget to allow such luxuries. Well, this could cost very little, if the paper and off-cuts of glass may be free, so I am already thinking ´glass´!

I popped over to San Pedro La Laguna, on the other side of the lake (a 10 min boat ride away), for an afternoon and upon venturing into an internet cafe, discovered that the lovely Aryeh, one of the other Artcorps artists, was in town. So we met the following day, she rather glad to get away from San Pedro, which is the antithesis of San Marcos, full of party goers and much bigger and therefore completely lacking in the wonderful calm and friendliness which San Marcos pervades. We skipped off to the beach for the weekend with a couple of friends from Antigua. We went to El Paragon, a surf camp with nothing more than three bungalows each equipped with 2 bunk beds, and a dining hut with ubiquitous hammocks sheltering from the blazing sun. I attempted my first ever surf! The extremely amiable Australian Brett gave me a quick how-to, including a nifty little move involving springing from a prostrate pose into a crouching position, until I quelled his enthusiasm by explaining my total lack of experience. Belly boarding was enough of an accomplishment for me, and anyway, I have 9 months to master standing, if it´s not too far to get down there for the odd weeekend.