Lake Atitlan, June 18-19

I did think a lot about whether to do Atitlan or not, but in the end I just decided that I had to. Lake Atitlan is the place where all the backpackers go in Guatemala, and for good reason. The guidebooks talk about it as one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I tend to agree. The Lake is fairly large, 8 km long or something, and is surrounded by three enormous volcanoes, just begging to be climbed.

Unfortunately the security situation right now is somewhat unsafe, so I chose not to do any of the volcanoes, instead saving the steep hikes for Antigua. But I did do a wonderful one-day hike between some villages on the north side of the lake. It’s really hard to do the landscape justice with pictures, but I did some panorama pictures, a few of which that I’ll try to share here – don’t forget to click the pictures to see them in something at least approaching full size.

I spent two wonderfully relaxing hours in this little secluded spot outside Santa Cruz.

Looking down at one of the villages around the lake.

Along the route, I came to a Hotel called La Casa Del Mundo, and that must be one of the neatest hotels I’ve ever seen. Perched on a cliff above the lake, the rooms consists of Cabañas (small houses) that hangs out over the lake, making it feel like you are flying or something. Down by the lake, they have built social areas for sunbathing and drinking piña coladas, where you can check out the boat traffic on the lake, and the ambience is wonderful.

Not extremely luxorious in any way, but the owners are really nice and you are very well taken care of. Definitely recommended to stay a night if you are in the area. Maybe not more than that, because there really is nothing to do except to sunbathe and swim.

The place is for sale – the asking price is 3 million US$, but he was willing to go down to 2!

Weirdly enough I spent my other day at the lake in Panajachel (the main town), mostly shopping(!) – and quite enjoying myself I might add! I really don’t like shopping back home, but maybe it is the added joy of bargaining? Not only do you get to buy something beautiful, but also (at least if you’re good), you get the feeling that you’ve mad a bargain. Of course you always get cheated by the locals, but it’s more fun if you delude yourself. :-)

It started when I found the most wonderful presents to give to John and Majvi at their wedding, and I didn’t really know how to stop after that! :-) I finally wound up buying so much stuff that needed to buy a BIG plastic box to ship it in, and to pay for the extra weight when I fly home. But it wasn’t completely random, careful study reveals that Pana is very likely the best place in Central America to buy handicraft and other souvenirs – it is the perfect level of decent quality of the goods (almost all markets only have absolute crap) and good prices (places like the capitals and Antigua has at least as nice goods, but at twice the price)!

Just don’t forget to leave your gun home when you go shopping!

As for the volcano treks, I have no doubt whatsoever that they are wonderful, but you will find it really hard to find a group to join unless you go in high season. Me, I saved the volcanoes for Antigua…