Lake Atitlan

We took a tour to Lake Atitlan, a lake formed from a volcanic explosion thousand of years ago. It sits between three major volcanos, all of which are extinct. The lake is 1120 feet deep and located about 5100 feet above sea level.

There are many villages all around the lake, most of them of the Mayan culture. There are 22 different Mayan groups around the lake. At one time they all had their own language. Today there are three Mayan languages spoken there. Our guides spoke one of the Mayan languages, Spanish and English.

Our tour bus picked us up near our BnB at the very early hour of 5:40 am. There were ten people on our tour. There was a family of four, with a one year old, who spoke Spanish, a couple originally from Puerto Rico (Herin-a pilot for American and ?), now living in Miami, who spoke both Spanish and English, and a solo guy traveler, Chris, from North Caroline who spoke only English. Chris had just turned 38 and the other couple appeared to be about the same age. All 3 of them were travel experience seekers, having been many places around the world on 1-2 week trips. Chris was a wannabe commercial pilot who had taken some of his lessons. He spent a lot of time talking to Her in getting tips and motivation.

Throughout the trip we were separated by English speaking and Spanish speaking for various things so we shared our meals with the English speakers. It took about 2 hours to get to the lake. We started in the town of Panajachel where we had breakfast at the wharf. From there we boarded a boat and traveled to the first town.

First stop- San Juan La Laguna. This is a smaller town that is known for it's industries. We first had a tour of a honey farm, where they produce honey and products made from honey. They produce three different types of honey from various bees. Each tastes completely different. Next we had a demonstration of the making of textiles. Everywhere you go here and in Antigua are people selling clothing, scarfs, blankets, etc that are woven in the typical Mayan method. The demonstration started with raw cotton and the procedure for preparing it, then dying it, and finally weaving it. A blanket could take up to two months to create. Finally we had a demonstration on how chocolate is made from seed to edible chocolate. Purchases from these places benefit the locals.

Our second stop was a short one to San Pedro La Laguna. San Pedro is know for hosting backpackers. To the locals, it is known as the"hippie" town or the crazies. There were plenty of shops and restaurants and places to do some excursions (hiking, kayaking, para sailing) if you were staying here. But mostly this place comes alive in the evenings with music, drinking, and partying.

Our third and last stop took us to Santiago, the largest town on the lake hosting a population of 65,000 and where our guides live. Here we had a choice of walking to one of four highlighted places or taking a tuk-tuk to all four. While we do like to walk, we all decided to visit all four places and took the tuk-tuk. All three Americans were put in the same tuk-tuk that was designed for three smaller Guatamalans, not three Americans. We first went to a mirador - a beautiful point that overlooked the lake. Next we went to the house of a Mayan shaman. It had candles, a strange statue, and two people (shamans) who just sat there. Mayan people come there to get advice and give offerings (money) to the strange statue. (The statue is a short old guy wearing long scarves with a tie around his neck and a cigarette in his mouth. The cigarette ashes are added to the incense that is burning and that is the connection between the human and the god or goddess. Sacrifices are offered to women statues, who also have a cigarette, for fertility issues.) Out of respect to their customs, no one took pictures here.

Our third stop was to the main church. It was once a Mayan temple and now shares the building for Mayan and Catholic worship. Outside of the church was an older Mayan women selling things and demonstrating typical Mayan dress and a mayan headdress from the past. It used to be worn for fertility but today is just ornamental. A prayer service was taking place in the church and in the same courtyard was a school where students were learning to play the guitar. Our last stop was to an artist shop where there were many beautiful paintings and other crafts for sale.
We ended our visit here with lunch at a restaurant that served fish caught from the lake.

We headed back to Panajachel where we caught our tour bus back to Antigua. With traffic, it took us three hours to return. We ended the evening with dinner at Pappy's again mostly because the food is good and they have a good beer tap which is hard to find here.Læs mere