Onward to the Lake

San Pedro, Lake Atitlan

After a particularly treacherous drive through the volcanic hills surrounding Lake Atitlan, I notice the brakes on the van are beginning to fade. We hope it’s only because the brake fluid is boiling from overuse and not something worse. The next day, our trusty Mazda MPV gets some much-needed attention. We change the oil and check the fluids. Most everything seems ok. Except I notice some differential oil on the inside of one of the rear wheels. Turns out that one of the axle gaskets has broken and was leaking oil onto the rear brake. We get it fixed before it gets any worse, and thus we safely get through the first car problem after 4500 miles of driving. (Insert sound of knocking on wood.)

Lake Atitlan is a huge body of water formed by a ring of ancient volcanoes. It has always been considered a sacred place by the indigenous people, and, needless to say, it is a strikingly beautiful spot on this Earth. More recently, there has developed a serious bacterial infestation that has rendered the water incredibly toxic. The stench near the waterfront is unbearable. There are attempts by the locals to clean the lake, empty statements made by the government, and much speculation posed by everyone on the community. This whole situation is a great surprise to us and will be covered further in the movie.

Surrounding the lake are 12 small towns named after Jesus’ apostles. The influence of Catholicism is a constant in the local culture of Guatemala. In San Pedro, we stay at a home where we are each afforded our own room and we even have an outdoor kitchen. All for less than $2 a night! And after a couple days, we are even able to convince them to leave the water on at night. Great place.

Max and Ana Paula are a joy to travel with and have proven very useful for the movie as well. Their intelligence, humor and good spirits are great assets to the group. Also, it helps that they like to sit around and bullshit and drink Gallo (still our favorite local beer) and Old Friend (our newly-discovered favorite local whisky). The Dream Team.

We secure interviews with two local spiritual guides, Pedro Garcia and Feliciano Pop. Interesting stuff, if not exactly what we expected. They both ask for money after the interviews. This is going to be a common request among subjects. Not sure how I feel about it.

San Pedro has a good share of American and European tourists, and, as such, plenty of cheesy bars to accommodate them. There’s the “techno bar”, the “reggae bar”, etc. I’ve never heard so much Bob Marley in my life. One night, we decide to stay on the other side of town and hit a local bar. True to form, there is a guy passed out on the floor, the regular drink here being a pint of aguardiente. Of course, we 5 gringos are immediately noticed, providing a distraction from the Madonna songs and wall-to-wall filth that seem to be the norm of the place. When the proprietor, a middle aged woman who must be no taller than 5 ft, calls closing time, we leave. But not without being followed by a new friend we refer to as “Anthrax”. He is wearing an Anthrax t-shirt, so it seems appropriate. After he refuses to leave us to walk home, the moniker seems even more so. Through his drunken, broken English we hear tale of a crack addiction and an abusive mother. We don’t want him following us home, so we head on back to the tourist strip and ditch him at The Buddha Bar. Last I see, he is talking to a German girl who is passed out on the front porch.

A few days later, The Buddha Bar is showing a downloaded bootleg of “2012”. We agree that it’s better than “Day After Tomorrow” but not as quotable as “Independence Day”. Woody Harrelson is definitely a high point. To our relief, Anthrax did not attend the screening. Maybe he got lucky.

Santiago, Lake Atitlan

We have a very productive day traveling to another town across the lake, Santiago. We take a boat there and shoot along the way. Then we meet a young kid called Miguel that acts as our tour guide for the day. We shoot from the back of the pickup truck en route to our first stop in town. Great fun. He takes us to our first experience with a shrine to San Simon. Found only in Guatemala, these shrines generally involve some kind of wooden or plastic sculpture of a mustachioed man, surrounded by candles and decorations. Locals come to the shrine and make offerings of liquor, cigarettes and cash. There’s also usually some kind of ritual that involves chanting around a fire pit. Weird, interesting stuff that’s great on camera.

Later, we run across a Marimba band playing at a bar. To be more clear, the 9 piece group is crammed together on a second floor landing of an unfinished cinder-block building. This country has no shortage of character.

Fuentes Georginas

Beautiful pools fed by natural hot springs. Finally some hot water! We also get a bunch of food from the local market to cook on the grill outside our bungalows. Finally some proper hamburgers! We stay overnight here and have a very relaxing evening with the pools all to ourselves. We need the rest to prepare for our next adventure, the tackling of Volcan Santiaguito.

Until next time-