Lake Atitlan

Most every city, town and country side out side of Guatemala City is abundantly green. Lake Atitlán is located in the high mountains so our drive from Guatemala City to the lake was a beautiful. The higher up we got the more agriculture fields we saw. When we were in Antigua we were wondering were the massive bundles of fresh fruit and vegetables in the market came from, guess this is where. On our drive we saw a lot of indigence towns positioned on the sides of the green mountains and surrounded with acres of corn fields, cabbage, beets, tomatoes, peppers, chiles, etc.

More corn fields

Most of the women in the towns wear the traditional Guatemalan attire: thick, colorful textile shirts tucked into a long skirt and wrapped with a wide textile belt plus a bundle or basket on their head while they walk down the streets. Three hours of driving later we arrived at Panajachel, one of larger towns on Lake Atitlán. We checked into our hostel, Villa Luptia, then roamed the vendor filled streets for sightseeing and dinner.

Ryan wearing goofy hat

This morning we took a water taxi (small 20 passenger fiberglass floating device) to another town across the lake called San Pedro. We walked up and down the market filled street and ended up back at the boating dock for breakfast. While the breakfast was great we were not impressed with the town. There really is not much to do in the town besides go to the museum, rent dirt bikes to ride around the lake (way too expensive) or swim in the lake. Unfortunately, the lake is currently covered in slimy, mushy pea green algae.

Algae in Lake Atitlan

The owner of the restaurant where we had breakfast said, “this is totally not normal for the lake and it just appeared a few days ago.” There was even a story about it on the cover of the daily newspaper. “Usually” he said, “the water is crystal clear blue”; which makes sense since our travel books said Lake Atitlán is considered the most beautiful lake in the world. It is surrounded by tall green mountains, several volcanoes and lots of small traditional villages.

Lake Atitlan

Bummer. If only we were a few days earlier. Anyways we took the water taxi back to Panajachel then hung out the rest of the day planning our next adventure to Honduras. At night we hit the town again for some drinks and ended up at a local bar called “Rock On”. There was a band of three guys: one guitar player, one bass player and the drummer / signer. They were playing Spanish rock cover songs and were pretty good! The funniest part though was a few of their groupie friends in the bar trying to head bang to the music. We stay for a few songs then headed home.

Lake Atitlan

Panajachel, Guatemala