Lake Atitlan, Guatemala Travel Blogs

Just a little chill out time...
Jul 2, 2007 (9 photos)

 

Highways and Burritos
Nov 13, 2007 (9 photos)

... this morning. Nelson was able to get a couple more days off, and we spent yesterday and today by Lake Atitlan, a wonderfully beautiful lake surrounded by tall mountains and volcanoes. Yesterday we took a private speedboat to the village of San Pedro, where ...

Happy 35th amigo!!!
Oct 11, 2004 (18 photos)

I have just "chicken bused" myself down from Chichicastenango to the shores of Lake Atitlan (Panajachel). If you want to spend your 35th birthday downing Gallo (local beer) while toe-dipping by a lake, I guess this must be it. Lake Atitlan is just as ...

A bloody hard hike and other stories.
Oct 14, 2004 (5 photos)

... was a bit quicker, and surely harder on the knees, taking us in at just over 2 hours. We were rewarded with a spectacular view of Lake Atitlan from the top for about 30 minutes, before the clouds and fog made it all soup. It usually takes Luis 2 hours to ...

Burning of the Devil and Baby Chickens
Dec 9, 2007 (3 photos)

... , December 7th, the day before the fiesta of the Immaculate Concepcion, el Diablo is burned throughout the Highlands of Guatemala and perhaps elsewhere.  Many people burn their trash, pictures of unfavored politicians and, sometimes, of the grand ...

Immaculate Concepcion
Dec 9, 2007 (5 photos)

WOW, ok I just witnessed the most amazing Immaculate Concepcion Virgin Maria celebration ever.  So, laying on my bed at 7:30 pm, feeling rather unmotivated to get up and do anything, I finally decided it was just too early on a sat ...

San Pedro - Work and Houses
Nov 25, 2007 (10 photos)

Work has a whole different meaning here.  Doors are always open.  Thin lacy material hangs in the doorways.  Most everyones home is also at their business, be it a laundry place, restaurant, cafe, tienda (small convenient store type ...

San Pedro Week Three: Recommendations and Such
Nov 22, 2007 (11 photos)

... quite friendly and just built a newish kitchen.  He is clearly building onto the hotel as well.  I have a fabulous lake view and a wonderful gallo (rooster) as my snooze button every morning.  There are some cheaper places for 15Q however, ...

Cemeteries
Dec 16, 2007 (9 photos)

... still, getting a bearing on my whereabouts, I began to realize I was in a cemetery.  These photos are similar to about all the cemeteries I have seen throughout the Western Highlands of Guatemala, many on top of a mountain as the crown of the town.

The Alure of Holy Places
Dec 8, 2007 (2 photos)

After many years of persecution, genocide and destruction the Mayan people of Guatemala continue to strive and survive.  There are 21 different active Mayan languages in Guatemala. 70% of the population in Guatemala is of Mayan decent and many of ...

The Most Beautiful Lake in Guatemala and the World
Nov 10, 2007 (40 photos)

... When we returned from the boat ride, Benigno started the ride to the airport. We dozed a few times until we arrived in Guatemala City, where we made a pit stop for lunch at the Guatemalan famous Pollo Campero. Absolutely finger-licking good!

One month down, nine to go!
Oct 28, 2006

It is hard for us to believe, but we have been traveling for one month now. All of the Mayan archeological sites we visited in Mexico seem so long ago already. What is even harder for us to conceptualize is that we now know that we will be out of the ...

Country number 4 - Guatemala
Sep 21, 2006 (2 photos)

... thought we would make the best of a bad situation and stay a couple of nights in Panajachel. The town is on the shore of Lake Atilan which Aldous Huxley described as the most beautiful lake in the world, as we haven't seen all the others we will reserve ...

Elena
Nov 25, 2007

One of my favorite pictures that I didn´t take was of Elena.  Elena is the 6 year old daughter of the family I stayed with for 1.5 days.  She immediately took to me, sitting up close and rattling off how to use the remote.  She was the one ...

San Pedro Week 2: My Ventures with a Toilet
Nov 22, 2007 (2 photos)

So, looking back to week one, I realize I knew nothing about true food poisoning.  Week one was great, I had no problem, ate, drank, explored, slept, ate, drank.  Week two was spent in a toilet bowl.  I started my classes on a ...

Panajachel
Feb 27, 2004 (5 photos)

... Los Volcanes, just as the rain was beginning to lash down. Then having donned our rain jackets, we ventured down to the shore of Lake Atitlan and had a late lunch at the Sunset Restaurant. At this stage we had no idea of the view that we were missing out ...

San Pedro - Showers, Boats & Other Observations
Nov 24, 2007 (3 photos)

... I take a shower the light in my bathroom dims until I´m done. LANCHAS AKA BOATS The lanchas (boats) around Lake Atitlan are the main transport to getting to other towns around the lake.  Locals will take trucks that have ...

Back to school, Guatemalan style
Oct 28, 2006 (14 photos)

... on Sunday afternoon the 22nd. The boat from Panajachel to San Pedro was very bumpy as the wind was making waves on the lake. Lago Atitlan is in the crater of a huge volcano, think Crater Lake in Oregon but much bigger. It is even bigger than Lake Dillon ...

The First Breakdown
Mar 14, 2004 (5 photos)

... one of them, and neither was there a suitable replacement to hand in Panajachel. A new one would have to be ordered from Guatemala City, and likely wouldn't arrive until the following Wednesday. Thus, arms laden with things we needed from the van, plus ...

Lago Atitlan
Oct 23, 2007 (16 photos)

San Marcos

At Home and Away
Feb 12, 2007 (25 photos)

... from our verandah, we strained our necks upwards to take in their towering heights. Across the lake, we leisurely wandered the streets of Santiago Atitlán while admiring the marked differences in the local traditional dress. A couple of hours later, after ...

San Pedro Week One
Nov 10, 2007 (13 photos)

... I´ve heard, maybe, 3 children crying.  Due to the tourist economy, San Pedro is better off than many villages surrounding Lake Atitlan.  However, not only does this come at a cutlural price, but there continues to be a high level of poverty.  ...

Spanish spanish and more spanish
Oct 29, 2004 (12 photos)

... a day!!!) and Paul and I tried to practice our pigeon Spanish on them at meal times. Clara is a primary school teacher, in Guatemala they have their 'summer' holidays as of Monday 25th October until January, so she is working so hard at the moment to try ...

The Lake from another perspective
Dec 6, 2006 (6 photos)

... programme we could get hooked on. Weds Up early again and we sort out our onward travel and more internet before our long journey ahead - Shuttle to Antigua Another to Guatemala City Overnight bus to Flores Minibus to Tikal I can hardly wait!

Santiago, Santa Cruz, San Marcos, Pana, San Juan..
Dec 7, 2007 (15 photos)

Believe it or not there are actually other towns surrounding Lake Atitlan.  I had quick glimpses of a few, others, from my understanding, tend to be almost untouched by tourism and are somewhat difficult to get to. Santiago is crazy!!  ...

The last days have been spent around lake ...
Jan 10, 2003 (3 photos)

The last days have been spent around Lake Atitlan, another one of those beautiful places you can keep finding wherever you go. The lake is actually a collapsed volcano cone which has been filled with water. The setting here is marvellous, with the hills ...

Gringo and Gringa arrive in Guatemala!
Jun 8, 2007 (9 photos)

... bus, a taxi, a tuktuk and 5 chicken buses later we arrived at our destination - Panajachel on the shores of Lake Atilan in Guatemala. Mexico was too expensive on our budget and Belize prices from what we heard from other travellers were more than the ...

Lago de Atitlan
May 16, 2004 (10 photos)

This weekend, several of us took off for Lake Atitlan, specifically the town of Panajachel - sometimes called "Gringo-tenango" due to the number of American tourists here. The town became a hippy hangout in the 60´s and 70´s and is still famous for drugs ...

San Marcos la Laguna - Spiritual Heaven
Oct 23, 2007 (38 photos)

Where is the light? Everything, all light, exist inside of ourselves.  All we need is there!  The unity is there.  The outside world is there to help us find that, through it's elements and their relationships.  ...

San Pedro La Laguna
Nov 8, 2007 (2 photos)

San Pedro