Hippies, English and Dogs, Oh My!

There were a few parts of San Marcos La Laguna that I noticed quickly and the thoughts lingered with me: hippies, English and dogs.

I don’t know how many people in San Marcos would descibe themselves as hippies. For lack of a better word I describe the residence of San Marcos as hippies but they are probably more in line with modern granola, tree hugging, spiritualists. And this is not an undercover jab as I eat granola and yogurt every morning and am definitely an environmentalist. But most of the members in this community like to live outside of the system and would not be considered conforming. They were very friendly and I would love to spend more time there getting to know some of the longer-residing people. Everyone has a story and it would be great to hear some of these tall tales.

The one surprising thing about everyone in San Marcos was the fact that they spoke English and hardly anyone spoke Spanish. Living in Xela I have become accustomed to hearing and interacting in Spanish. While my Spanish is far from fluent I am doing okay and able to converse with most people. Yet San Marco operated like it was located in a Western country. Nobody spoke in Spanish or and few people even attempted to learn basic phrases. And everyone assumed you spoke English like we were not in the middle of Guatemala! People would pass you at the market and say hi. Waiters would come up to your table and ask for your order without first asking if you preferred English or Spanish. It was very odd. I asked a few residence what the deal was. Charlie, who lived in Guatemala for 5 years, said Spaanish wasn’t needed in San Marcos and no one felt the need to learn Spanish there. Paul, who has been there for 2 years and owns a restaurant there, said he could get by with basic Spanish and also didn’t have a need to learn more. He didn’t see the need even after I pointed out that all his restaurant help was Guatemalan and his ‘basic’ Spanish was horrible. While I loved San Marcos La Laguna I would recommend anyone who wants to truly practice Spanish avoid this city or go before they start classes.

The dogs in San Marcos were very different from Xela dogs and the first few days I was very unnerved by their presence. Dogs in many developing countries including Guatemala are wild street dogs 99% of the time. Rarely do people own them as pets and if they do thy fall under home security and not man’s best friend. I have noticed that a number of Guatemalan families and you ng adults own pet dogs and walk them in Central Park on leashes and I’ve even seen a sweater or two. Yet these dogs live indoors and would never be roaming the streets. Any dog walking past you on the street is a stray, possible dangerous and not to be touched. Many have been abused and are jumpy around people so in Xela I give them a wide berth when walking past any. About 4 weeks ago I even had a dog bite at me as we passed each other and that definitely left me apprehensive around street dogs.

So imagine my surprise when I get to San Marcos and learn that most street dogs actually ‘belong’ to someone but they are free to roam the streets. These dogs walk into hotel gardens and restaurant seating freely and will even lounge underneath your chair. I still had no intention of petting one of these dogs and made my feelings known everytime they were around and someone nearby started playing with them. While these dogs may have been tamed street dogs they still wandered the paths in little gangs, like Xela dogs, and that similarity will continue to keep me from befriending them.