Lake of Dreams

View across Lake Atitlán from the dock while boarding for San Pedro La Laguna

A handful (by which I mean, both) readers might know that I'm ostensibly on this trip working on a story about a detective who travels to Guatemala looking for a missing man. Well, that story got its start in Antigua but really took off while I was visiting San Pedro La Laguna, a lovely small town on the edge of gorgeous Lake Atitlán, the narrative advanced when my hostel suffered an attack by ninja cats in the middle of the night and an odd older lady asked me to take pictures of her and her partner. I'm back in San Pedro on the lovely lake, taking a week of Spanish classes and living with a local family as part of what they call immersion, meant to improve my Spanish via conversation and grant a glimpse of local life. The classes are muy bueno, one on one sessions in a terraced garden overlooking the lake. My instructor, Elijio, is good at his job and a fun guy who kindly tells me how to say all the dirty words. The language is coming back quickly but I remain lazy about homework. Thankfully, so does Elijio, and I get off easy.

I get the feeling this is one of the girls' room when I'm not here.

My family is headed up by Luis, the director of a local school for young kids, and his wife Leti, who is a great cook and makes a fresh juice daily (mango, strawberry, and papaya so far). They have three kids, two girls (16 and 10) and Luis Jr. who is just 18 months old and a bit sick at the moment. They are wonderfully friendly and relaxed, a nice treat since some of the families can become possessive, expecting you to spend every spare moment with them. And with Luis having been a teacher, he's very good at speaking slowly and clearly for easy communication. Upon meeting, he immediately took me up to the unfinished roof, showed me a chair and told me he'd set up a table to make it my writing room.

View from the Writer's Room at 5:30 am

It feels great to stay put for a week, wandering the same very few familiar streets, refreshing on the language and hanging out with a few friends I met in Antigua who are also enrolled in the same school. Trying not to be lazy and need to make some plans to visit surrounding towns in the days to come.

And while that invitation to take photographs turned out to be less weird than it sounded, the expected pause in the photo shoot where the hetero couple had a "special request" turning out to be just so they could put on clothes (hats, in fact), the painting below that graces the stairway in my new home is more exotic.

I think the family hid this on day 3 because they rightfully thought I might steal it.
Yes, that guy is slitting a chicken's throat.