Day Two - Jan 21, 2026
Guatemala City to San Marcos La Laguna
Daily Didactic
The day began early, waking unrefreshed from a few hours of upright sleep. The plane landed in Guatemala City at 6:30am and we navigated our way through immigration to the taxi loading area. Here we met our “private transport” driver. To be clear, we are shared shuttle people. But today, that shared shuttle would have added 2 to 4 hours to our journey, so we splashed out. It was a quiet 3 hours, as our driver spoke “poquito” English and Theresa finally got a little sleep for her birthday. Why not just rent a car, since we will be returning to the airport in four days? Because you would need to be delusional to drive in Guatemala City or (for that matter) on the narrow backroads. Driving in Guatemala is very much a contact sport. Our unassuming driver calmly played chicken with “chicken buses”, tuktuks, motor bikes, and all of the other competitors of the road.
We eventually made it to the hub ciudad of Panjachel and were dropped off at the public boat dock. The last mile of our journey is the 6 miles on a public boat to San Marcos La Laguna. Before that, however, we found some breakfast and an ATM for some Guatemalan quetzels. Sated and loaded, we climbed under the low roof on a boat of questionable quality that the “captain” summarily loaded with at least double its passenger and cargo capacity. We pounded along the lake’s edge, visiting small communities much like a public bus until we unloaded in San Marcos. San Marcos is billed as the “hippie” community of Lake Atitlan. There is certainly more than a normal amount of incense in the air, yoga retreats on offer, and cultivated casualness on display. But it is also absolutely gorgeous and is perched on the edge of Lake Atitlan. We had some time to kill until our early 1:00pm check in, so we walked the long way up the hill, had a refreshment, and then descended toward our AirBNB on completely the wrong path. After being graciously walked out the gate of a yoga retreat that we accidentally wandered into, we found our lodging on the banks of the lake and the view that went with it. We celebrated by showering and going directly to sleep.
A few hours later, we took the shortcut into town through the neighboring “nature reserve”, celebrated Theresa’s birthday with some stellar vegan dinner, and returned home for a relaxing evening and an early bedtime.
Today's Photos
