As my time is drawing to a close here, decided that it would
be a good idea to visit one of the great beauty spots / tourist attractions in Guatemala, namely Lake Atitlan.
The lake which is volcanic in origin was formed after an
eruption 84,000 years ago and is at 340 metres the deepest volcanic lake in Central America.
During the Guatemalan civil war, the lake was the scene of
many terrible human rights abuses. At least 300 Maya from Santiago Atitlán are
believed to have disappeared during the conflict. Two events of this era made
international news. One was the assassination of Stanley Rother, a missionary from
Oklahoma, in
the church at Santiago Atitlán in 1981.
The memorial mass was taking place for this now deemed “local saint” during
my visit.
Surrounded by small villages and towns the lake thrives on
tourism, and farming. German explorer Alexander von Humbolt in 1853 said that
the lake was “the most beautiful in the world”, and this has kind of stuck – a
gift to any marketeer!
OK, so having made some hotel reservations and booked a
shuttle bus, my friend Eduardo and I headed of at 8:00 for this touristic
weekend. Pity the poor tourist, from the
second we descended from the bus in Panajachel we were set upon, touts for
buses, boats and hotels flocked around us and extricating ourselves from this
melee was not easy. However, in the
process we learned that my chosen hotel was in a village that was no longer
served by public launch, or by bus, but only by occasional pick-up trucks, or a
private launch could be had for Q.300 (£25), given that the hotel was only
Q.250 per night, the boat would cost more than the room. Eduardo quietly asked a shop owner if what
we had been told was true, sadly it turns out that San Antonio was now virtually cut-off and for
a tourist getting to and from after 6pm would prove nigh on impossible.
So, we made an immediate executive decision to stay in
Panajachel as it was the centre of communications (and night life, restaurants,
and all things touristic!) Resisting the oh so kind offers of help from various
touts we set off in search of an hotel, easier said than done as common to all
the places round the lake one you left the main road you were presented with a
maze of tiny lanes and alleyways only negotiable by bike or tuk-tuk and it was
not long before a quietly spoken and affable “tout” was indeed helping us by
showing us various hotels, actually once he had worked out how much we were
prepared to pay he proved to be very helpful and we were settled into the Hotel
Kakchiquel (self appointed 4*s), it was on the main street and we obtained
a “relatively” quiet room at the back of the hotel. Anyways by mid-day we had our hotel and were
ready to go to play tourists!
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| First Cuba Libre of many! |
I quickly learned that for a village around Lake Atitlan to
be touristic it needed at least one street crammed to the gunnels with shops
selling the same Mayan artefacts “touriste-facts” as every other place in
Guatemala, with some local variations in the smaller villages, to inflate all
the prices by at least 300% in order to get some good negotiating going and
even then the poor tourist will probably have been overcharged and to assume
every tourist is an American!
OK, OK so I probably sound naïve, but I have so settled into
a life whereby I try to avoid the tourist traps and trappings that it all came
back as rather a nasty shock! Fortunately having a "Guatemalteco" with me, probably
meant we were targeted less often than most!
We soon established a very pleasant routine, some tourism
followed by a leisurely lunch more tourism, a late siesta, then hit the town
for dinner a "few" drinks. We serendipitously happened upon the
Circus Bar, a restaurant, bar, pizzeria with live music and it was just right.
A great atmosphere, we sat at the bar and Francisco the barman was attentive
without being pushy and treated us both well, my “measures” got decidedly
larger as the evening wore on!
Actually, I quickly realised that this change of routine was
just what I needed and as I had very amiable company, had lovely weather etc. I
was able to relax, blow the budget completely and set about having a jolly good
time! Eduardo and I proceeded to make
the very most of our time.
I managed to get sun burned on the Saturday, as being the
last to board a launch to cross the lake
Eduardo and I sat at the
back, outside and the combination of sun, spray and wind managed to turn half
my face and one shoulder and half my neck a delightful shade of bright red!
Both Eduardo and I seemed to have a sense for how to take a
detour of the tourist routes and delve into the little lanes and as a result in
Santiago were able to find the “real” town centre complete with Fair in honour
of Saint James, and In San Pedro la Laguna to find a Restaurant/Café in the
most beautiful grounds, quiet, no music just the sound of the breeze and bird
song and to enjoy freshly made fruit drinks and wholesome whole-food! So ideal
for a leisurely 2 hour lunch, sans Alcohol!
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| Cucumber, mint, ice .....NO ALCOHOL! |
We had arrived at the “harbour” for launches to/from Santiago and assumed the
same place would be where we left for our return to Panajachel – wrong! But it was again fortuitous as in order to
reach the other landing stage we had to walk through the more Guatemalan part
of town, up some steep hills and down the other side, but this gave us the
chance to see the lovely town square and church of San Pedro.
Over the last few years the level of the Lake has been
steadily rising, a tropical storm in 2010 and heavy rains earlier this year
have seen the overall rise in the lake to be about 14 feet some 5- 6 feel more than the usual change due to
rain. Athe Lake
has no rivers leading from it. This has
resulted in the loss of many Lakeside houses,
cafes, and attractions, in San Pedro what was obviously once a restaurant is now
the landing stage for the boats as you walk along gangways that were at what
would have been table height to reach your boat.
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| I now realise that my eyes open wider with more alcohol! |
Strangely, both Eduardo and I were a little quiet come
Sunday, got up late, gingerly managed breakfast, both complaining of a slightly
out of salts stomach, nevertheless the day was spent quietly walking around
taking pictures, and having lunch, having extended the checkout time at the
hotel we could even manage a siesta before it was all back on the bus for the 3
hour journey to Antigua.
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| Occasionally, I manage to get everything right and take apretty good picture Eduardo is well pleased with this! |
Definitely I am more of a traveller than a tourist, I am
confirmed in Knowmadic existence and wouldn’t swap for the world (at the
moment)! [Euromillions not
withstanding!]
Finally, the people of Lake Atitlan still very much wear traditional costume and NOT as a tourist attraction, this is everyday wear here. I simply loved the bright colours of the men - who are definitely peacocks here!
Every village has its own design and colours and the men sometimes weara king of blanket wrapped around their middle as part of their costume.
Here is a wonderful video about Guatemalan costumes ......
So that's it for this week BUT
if you want to see more pictures go here
Hasta Luego Amigos!
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