San Marcos has, in my opinion, an undeserved reputation as a haven for hippies. On arrival from the dock the traveler enters a long passageway with lots of cafes, souvenir sellers, holistic healing centres and trippy multicoloured murals. All of this gives way as you stroll past all the distractions, to a very pretty typical Guatemalan/Maya town centre a little further up the slope.
I’m staying in a hostel with a dock (for swimming) a nice restaurant, sauna and yoga studio. My first night here featured loud, electronic, spacey music which attracted dancers in diaphanous, flowing dresses with weird face paintings and other unusual attire. They seemed to have in common a rather stylized dancing with rhythmic gyrations and swaying of the arms. There was a tribal feeling about it as if they had some kind of invisible inner connection. It was captivating in a way, but more strange than attractive.
I had a chat with Charles Bentley from Tennessee about Hegel, Plato, Aristotle and others. Charles had studied these at grad school so he carried most of the conversation. He told me had done some LSD and I’m not sure whether the effect served to improve the coherence of his arguments or not. Later some friends of his produced some potent weed, which was very pleasant but resulted in an early bed for me.
On the following day I entered a natural park area which had trails to some reputed Maya altars with awesome vistas. I went swimming off the rocks; very warm, clean water, and no one about except a couple of fisherman.
San Pedro is just across the water, about 15 minutes in the shuttle boat. I went across to get a recharging cable for my Kindle – vital equipment. Drank some delicious fresh orange juice, sat in a lovely empty Catholic church for a while and, later, listened to a very noisy evangelical rock band.
A young man from Thunder Bay, name of Jay, explained for me a little about San Marcos and the hippies. He’s been there for about three years and has a Mayan wife. Jay reckons that most of the spiritual offering are produced by teachers who don’t really know much, but are cashing in on the demand. There is a powerful energy about the place which attracts a certain kind of aspirant. Young people are looking for something. They want to explore their own inner potential, discover some fundamental truths. or at least extend their journey into some exciting new territory. Unfortunately, there may not be much here in the way of truly knowledgeable teachers or traditions containing the necessary discipline. Nevertheless, lots of interesting people. As Jay remarked – trust your intuition. The profusion of fancy outfits reminded me that appearance does not give any reliable clues regarding spiritual development of an individual.
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