Chic Lakefront Retreat: Casa Mariposa Atitlán

An oasis of calm, casual elegance, sweetly designed for your ultimate enjoyment. Private lake access, unbeatable views, modern features & ideal location in the quietest part of San Marcos, this is the very best! Perfect for meditation, creativity, romance & healing, this is where heart & soul can relax. Indulge in fresh breezes, sun drenched luscious gardens overflowing with flowers, herbs, hummingbirds & more! Luxuriate in Atitlan’s powerful magic. Join us in our home in paradise!

***Please read the whole listing so you know what you are buying. These words are here to make things easy for you and for us to have you in our home. Please read.***

Situated on the shore of magnificent Lake Atitlan, our home is built to welcome visitors from all over the world. Casa Mariposa offers amenities to bring comfort to the traveler accustomed to modern living. Artful features bring charm, a complete kitchen to feel at home, clean drinking and bathing water (rare in this area) so you don't have to think twice about it, reliable WiFi to keep you connected, plus building aesthetics and materials that feel natural to westerners.

Nestled within a structure that sits upon a uniquely wide, expansive, lakefront property, Casa Mariposa enjoys all the advantages of lakefront luxury. Breathtaking lake and volcano views from inside and outside, gorgeous gardens, a private lake entrance.

There is another AirBnb casa on property, as well as a large home on the upper level (also available for rental).

Casa Mariposa enjoys an ideal proximity to central San Marcos, while being separate from (most) barking dogs, roosters, loud church music, and municipality announcements. Situated next to the Silani Dock makes taking boats an absolute luxury, and our position just on the road makes taking a tuk tuk an easy breeze.

We are in a growth phase, so what you will find will likely be more lovely than in photos.

We hope you’ll find the location as ideal as we do!

Casa Mariposa is one of four spaces on our private property where we also live. As such, we invite quiet guests who will respect us and the experience of the other guests in our home. Guests can enjoy amazing views and breathe clean air from their private patio, or relax in our garden space. We insist that guests respect the privacy, space & belongings of others, and ask that you treat each other and our spaces as you would something you love & care for very much.

Please send us a message through the Airbnb app to communicate with us. We check our messages regularly and make ourselves physically available within a few hours. We prefer to keep all messaging within the Airbnb app. If we have not answered you, please be patient, we will be with you soon.

Please do not enter other private spaces or shout at the gate for anything other than a medical emergency. Please do not knock on doors that are not those you rent. To communicate with us, you may send a message through Airbnb or WA and we will respond to you. If you see staff around, feel free to talk with us; we will stop what we are doing to assist you if we are able.

Remember: this is an Airbnb. We can try to help with what is outside the scope of our responsibility and take upon ourselves no additional responsibility beyond providing accommodation. Please do your research and familiarize yourself with emergency protocols.

This note is for a particular kind of guest: please understand that while we want you to have a nice stay with us, there are limits to how far above and beyond the terms of Airbnb we will go. We cannot imagine all the things a person will ask of us (the audacity has been astounding), so know in advance that we are also quite happy not to serve you as proportion is lost. Attitudes of entitlement will be checked accordingly and publicly reviewed.

Remember: this is an Airbnb. We are responsible for providing accommodations.

To the truly grateful among you: please don’t hesitate to ask. Serving kind people is our joy.

We love meeting and getting to know people, and also deeply value privacy and space and know you may too. So, we leave it to you to initiate engagement with me and will respond accordingly. We are here to make your stay wonderful and address needs that come up along the way, and if you'd like to ask questions and exchange stories, we are happy to do that too!

Just outside of central San Marcos in the sought-after Silani neighborhood (putting Silani Hotel into your gps will help you navigate to here), at our property there is very much a holiday feel. Serene, peaceful, quiet, it is designed for you to relax and enjoy.

There are many ways to use our spaces to connect with epic and varied nature that is so alive here. Butterflies and hummingbirds love the flowers in our gardens, and many sources of birds sing songs of praise. On clear nights stargazing from our lakefront gardens is as magical experience as any... you never know what you will find when you look at the sky!

San Marcos is a walking, tuk tuk, and taxi boat place, so cars are not needed. If you bring one, we can try to help you find parking for it.

Central San Marcos is a short (5-7 minute) walk along the lakefront or by road. If you’d rather take a tuk tuk we have provided numbers of our trusted friends. A tuk tuk from San Marcos center to us should cost 5q per person during the day and 10q per person at night. If the price matters to you have exact change and don’t ask the driver how much they want.

Taking a lancha boat to go to another town on the lake is super easy. Just walk along the lakeshore towards town and hop on a boat going in your direction from the main San Marcos dock.

READ THIS WHOLE LISTING
We value guests who come prepared. This listing clearly explains everything you need to know. Please read it and ask questions if you have any. We much prefer to answer your questions ahead of time than solve problems caused by people not reading this information.

Please read House Rules before booking.

We are proud of the comfort and modernity we offer our guests and we asks our visitors to keep in mind that we are in RURAL Guatemala. Life is not the same here as what you are used to. Please attune your expectations to this location.

- Insects live here. Which means if you don’t dispose of your trash responsibly (we set you up for success but you have to comply), critters will come for it. They will come whether you leave food out or not. If insects are a dealbreaker, then San Marcos and the surrounding is not a place for you.
- Inconveniences your home place may have addressed so well you don’t think about them are not yet solved here. Wind and rain can cause power outages. Sometimes the power goes out for no apparent reason. It’s not so often (relatively, of course) and usually it doesn’t last longer than 5-20 minutes, but it could take down the Internet and more.
- There are cultural practices that can come as a surprise. Things happen the way they happen here. Flexibility and expectations management is key.

We go to lengths to help our guests be as comfortable as possible, and we also expect that the people who come here realize where they are and behave accordingly.

We ask for:
1) sensitivity with our local community
2) patience in adapting to the ways of this place (this has a greater implication than you can imagine)
3) adjustment of expectations to rural Guatemala
4) generosity, if you’re staying at our place then you have the means not to squabble over a few quetzals, so please be generous with our community. It helps foreign presence be welcomed in this tribal land.

We are happy to answer any questions or concerns you have about this. Best to ask in advance of booking.

A note about PARKING:
If you arrive by car that will need to be parked and you want our help finding parking, please tell us as soon as possible, definitely before the day of your arrival. There are many parking places in San Marcos that are easy to locate on your own, and there is also parking quite nearby to us. We can help you, but we need to know at least one full day before your arrival. If you arrive and haven’t already asked us to help you park, we can try to help you but don’t expect the answer to be yes. Parking is an additional free to be paid to the parking attendant directly.

RATES
* Rates are fixed
* Cryptocurrency welcome
- Read all these rules before you request to book. There are no surprises if you do your part.
- MIND YOUR IMPACT, leave people and things better thank you found them
- PAPER IN THE BIN - do not flush toilet paper
- NO PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES LEFT BEHIND - we are moving towards being zero-waste, there is beautiful clean water coming out of every faucet in your unit, you don’t need to buy water. Please don’t. You can buy a drink in a glass bottle and refill it. If you must buy plastic, please take it with you.
- QUIET HOURS - 100% of the time. The world is loud enough - let’s offer each other peace. If your sounds are loud enough for someone outside your space to hear, that is violating this rule. We are very serious about this.
- CONSERVE WATER - please limit showers to 2-5 minutes max, Water is a precious resource here
- COMMUNICATION - Please communicate via Airbnb or WA message. Unless there is a medical emergency, do not enter other people's living areas, and do not shout at gates or knock on doors.
- SAVE THE DRAINS - DO NOT flush sanitary products. It is a nightmare for our system and horrible karma for you. Also, please do not send huge amounts of hair down the drain.
- NO MEAT - we value all life & create our space intentionally for life to flourish & be well here. As such, we ask that you bring no animal flesh onto our property.
- NO KILL ZONE - This is a No Kill Zone. Please honor life and kill no living being.