Santa Cruz La Laguna

The photographs are surprise thumbnails.

Spent the day in Santa Cruz La Laguna with Carl from Canada and Alan.

Santa Cruz is a tiny, tiny town sitting on a mountainside halfway between the surface of the lago and the mountain tops. There are no amenities which would attract the normal tourist. No grand or unusual church, no mercado, no restaurants. The running water is in the center of town where the women wash clothes. Streets are very steep and void of cars or bicycles. Most of the houses along these streets are adobe boxes with corrugated tin roofs. Sitting on ledges stacked against the mountain, they look as though they could slip away and disappear into the lake at any time. Other homes have simple but beautiful thick beams extending from the front of the structures in wide eaves, creating a porch area.

We found the people of Santa Cruz friendly and full of humor. They invited us to see the interior of their homes, laughed at our struggles with the language, and made us feel comfortable. I took photos of gorgeous children who followed us everywhere.

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While standing on a street away from the center of town, taking in the breathtaking view of the lake far below us, a man and his two children emerged from their house. He had worked in the United States for two years as a farmhand, saved some money and had returned to his family in Santa Cruz. It was hard for Carl to fathom why he should come back to a place so underdeveloped from what he had seen in the States. The man was clear and simply said this was his home and, of course, this is where he belonged.