El Lago Atitlan

We hit the road early for a 3 hour drive to Lake Atitlan, lauded by Adlous Huxley among others as the most magnificent lake on earth. They weren´t kidding. Forgive my use of mindless cliché, but it really was more beautiful than I ever imagined. As card-carrying tourists, we have dozens of photos to prove it, but they won´t do the lake much justice. The Hotel Atitlan, too, was overflowing with history and character. Our room contained 3 twin-sized cots, all in a row, with intricately carved wooden bedposts. The gardens of this Inn were also gorgeous (they really know how to do it right here in Guate, considering the plethora of indigenous wild flowers).

We met our excellent tour guide mid-morning and boarded a small motorboat to begin our hop around the lake. Gliding (and sometimes bumping) through the water was so lovely and humbling it was easy to lose all sense of time. The first town we stopped at was San Juan La Laguna, populated by traditional Mayans who have successfully formed artisan co-ops. The streets of the town were squaky clean, (which is REMARKABLE in this country) and the women´s attire was almost as impressive as the steep hills (My father and I came to the concensus that in order to traverse Guatemala, one needs to channel one´s inner mountain goat). We saw the last remaining artisan cooperative that produces and uses only natural dyes for the threat they weave in their tapestries. Derived from boiled leaves, bark and berries, the colors are smooth and indelible, though not as vibrant as the synthetic dyes that most Mayans now utilize.

After visiting a homeopathic garden and a shrine to Maximon, a Mayan diety of sorts with the most intriguing eccentricities (Please refer to Mashimon post), we he headed across the lake to Santiago for lunch. Santiago had another statue of Maximon, over which a chosen group of men were keeping vigil. This one was wearing no fewer than 12 Western-style silk neckties. When we entered the hut to see him, a boy child farted and everyone became hsyterical. We put a few Quetzales in the dish in front of the shrine and made our way out. Santiago is also the site of a beautiful Catholic cathedral, which incorporates Mayan religion in small, iconic ways.

In the evening we went to Panahachel for dinner. ¨Pana¨, as it is dubbed by Guatemalans, is the party capital of the lake, and is famous for its bars, clubs, and debauchery. Needless to say, we 3 nerds had had enough of it by the time we´d finished dinner. Instead of taking a taxi back to our hotel, we opted for a took-took, which is the love child of a rickshaw and vespa. The driver spent about 10 minutes zig-zagging the lagging mo-ped up the steep hill, dragging the weight of 3 food-filled gringoes. We all got a good night´s sleep to prepare for Sunday in Chichicastenango.