Lake Atitlan is claimed by its boosters to be the most
beautiful lake in the world . Now that’s a pretty significant boast when there
are so many that can vie for the title, but I do think it can fairly claim to
be a contender. As the caldera of a massive volcanic explosion several hundred
thousand years ago, Lake Atitlan is ringed by slopes at least 2,000 feet above
lake level and three towering volcanoes. It’s also more than 1,000 feet deep in
spots. Everyone I know who’s been to Guatemala mentioned it as the must-go
place. We did cross the lake by boat to San Pedro La Laguna for a two night
stay to climb the San Pedro Volcano on my two-week organized volcano climbing
trip, but somehow I didn’t feel like I gave the lake its due. So I decided to
return to the lake for a few days between the end of my trek and moving onwards
to Honduras.

Panajachel is the biggest and most accessible tourist town
on the lake and is sometimes known as “Gringotenango”, -tenango being a common
part of place names in Guatemala with a meaning something like “place of” in
some Mayan languages . It certainly is popular with western tourists and has a
feel similar to backpacker type destinations the world over. It’s also very
cheap. My quite nice private room with bath cost only about $20/night.

I decided to spend my first day on the lake by taking a boat
to Santiago Atitilan, the largest town on the lake with a population of
something like 50,000 near the base of the Atitlan Volcano, the highest of
three volcanos that ring the lake. The town gets some tourists but is typically
Mayan with interesting markets and a big church on a massive square. Like many
mostly indigenous communities in the Highlands, Santiago Atitlan suffered a lot
during the Guatemalan Civil War but has the distinction of being the first
community in the country to completely expel the army after a brutal massacre
in 1990.

What I noticed mostly on my first day at Lake Atitlan was a
cold coming on. It must have been one of those cold nights on the trek or
something and exposure to a lot of snotty little kids in the villages . I’m not
sure, but the classic symptoms of sore throat, nasal congestion, and coughing
ensued……and sapped my energy to do much other than relax on my last two days at
the lake. Fortunately, it turned out to be of relatively short duration and hit
when I had to opportunity to relax rather than when I was on the trek or
climbing volcanos. So I missed out on exploring other villages around the lake,
but by that point in time I felt as though I already had a quite good
experience with the Mayan culture over the previous few weeks.

Looking at the map of my travel blog in Guatemala I realize
that I’ve seen very little of the country, my nearly four weeks in the country
concentrated entirely in the country’s popular Western Highlands, the center of
traditional Mayan culture. That’s not really by accident, though. Guatemala’s
Pacific Coast is not known for having very good beaches, not that I’m much of a
beach person anyway. The country’s other main sights, some rain forest natural
wonders and the ancient Mayan cities of Tikal, El Mirador, and Quiroga, are all
in the far north and east of the country . I determined I’d see them at some
point in the future since they’re physically situated in a way that makes sense
to combine them with a trip to Belize and the Yucatan when I finally get there.

From Panajachel I had an afternoon shuttle transfer to Antigua
for the night, or maybe I should say part of the night. My shuttle van to Copan
in Honduras picked me up at 4:00 A.M. for a six hour ride. I had somewhat hoped
to spend a day or part of a day in Guatemala City. Although it’s not considered
to be a place of much interest to travelers, it is the capital of the country
with a population of several million and it does sound like there are some
interesting historic center city sights. I was, however, unable to find shuttle
van transfers via Guatemala City so gave up on the idea. Seeing the massive
traffic around 5:00 A.M. through a surprisingly wide ring of sprawl led me to
think, though, that missing Guatemala City wasn’t such a travel tragedy after
all.

As dawn broke the scenery along the main road towards the
Caribbean coast changed from undulating mountains to a dry valley filled with large
commercial farms surrounded by a burnt-looking landscape of deciduous trees
that had mostly shed their leaves by this point well into the dry season . After
a short breakfast stop the van continued on a side road climbing into greener
hills toward the Honduran border. In total I spent four weeks in Guatemala and
found it to be a very beautiful and enjoyable country, one I hope to return to
to explore other parts I didn’t make it to this time around.