You're likely to encounter the odd - though utterly harmless - spider, and may run into a nonlethal variety of scorpion. Everything, however, is connected by a few bougainvillea-laden pathways, and a single main dirt road. It is a unique and (to me) endearing aspect of San Marcos that virtually no business has an address or a phone number. No cable television in the hotel rooms at Lake Atitlán, no air-conditioning (but no need for it). The country retains an unspoiled flavor, rare for a place of so much physical beauty, history and charm. Still, Guatemala is a third-world country with inherent risks.īecause the country does not attract what you might call the conventional tourist, the rewards remain, for those willing to put up with its rough edges, particularly sweet, and not simply because a Guatemalan vacation costs a fraction of one in Mexico. Although the elections held recently brought into power a new government for which hopes remain high, the State Department continues to urge caution for Americans visiting there.įor myself, I assess my danger at the hands of a Guatemalan bandit as considerably lower than my chances on the highways in my home state of California. No one embarking on a trip to Guatemala should do so without first considering the question of safety. I travel there a few times a year now, and am going this month. As a traveler who now returns regularly to Central America, that village has become the one place to which I know I will always return. I ended up staying for seven months in one particular village, San Marcos La Laguna. The lake seemed no less magical than it had when I was very young. In the eight years since the end of that war, the country has yet to shake its image as an unstable place.īut three years ago I returned with my daughter, who was then just about the age I'd been when I first traveled there. The country was in the midst of a devastating civil war that saw the disappearances and deaths of thousands of its citizens, slaughtered by its own military. When I arrived in 1973, it was a difficult time for an American in Guatemala. (Though my youthful view was shared by a traveler of vast experience, Aldous Huxley, when he visited there, calling it "the most beautiful lake in the world," even more lovely than Lake Como. I remember thinking that it was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen, but the list of places I'd seen was a short one. I FIRST laid eyes on Lake Atitlán 30 years ago.
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