Guatemala's premier New Age centre, the tiny village of SAN MARCOS LA LAGUNA , is about a two-hour walk from San Pedro, or a twenty-minute ride in one of the regular pick-ups that bump along the road between the villages. The land close to the lakeshore, densely wooded with banana, mango, jocote and avocado trees, is where San Marcos' bohemian hotels and guest houses have been senstively established, while the Maya village is centred on higher ground away from the shore - relationships between the two communities remain reasonably good. Apart from a huge new stone church , built to replace a colonial original destroyed in the 1976 earthquake, there are no sights in the Maya village.

San Marcos has a decidedly tranquil appeal - there's little in the way of partying and no bar scene at all. The main draw is the Las Pirámides yoga and meditation retreat, with a surplus of auxiliary practioners and masseurs, plus the requisite organic bakery and healing centre. There's excellent swimming from a number of wooden jetties by the lakeshore, and a mesmering view of Atitlán's three volcanoes, including a perspective of the double-coned summit of Tolimán, plus glimpses of the grey 3975m peak of Acatenango, over 50km to the east.