Lake Atitlan

This morning, I made plans to meet up with my friends Ana and Carlos from WWC (Warren Wilson College). I have met them a few times in Antigua, and it’s always so good to see familiar faces :). I left the airbnb and walked over to where we were meeting for breakfast, and Ana, Carlos, his wife, Irma, and 3 year old son, David, met us. Little David was so cute! It was so awesome to see Ana and Carlos, and we talked a about how crazy it was that its been 10 years since we were at Wilson together. Where does the time go?! It seems like it was just a coupe of years ago. Hehe

Soon it was nearly 11:00 and I had to get going back to the airbnb to pack up for our first shuttle ride….to Lake Atitlan! This would now officially mark the beginning of unknown territory for me! Yippee! The shuttle ride was not was I was expecting, and the road to Panajachel was winding and so were my insides,* giving a new definition to hairpin turns….I was feeling nauseous the entire time. Ugh. I never get carsick or suffer from motion sickness, but this time I succumbed to the worst of it lol. We even had to cross a river at one point. It wasn’t very deep, but we were later told that during a heavy rainy season, it can be impassable. I was hoping to document some of the adventures of this ride and the scenery, but all I could do was close my eyes and hope for it to end soon.

*credit for that line goes to Dana! Hehe, thank you!

We make it to Pana, and I’m so grateful to get out of the shuttle and onto sturdy land haha. Our little hotel is super cute, and rather secluded away from the city center. We drop our bags and take a trip to the supermarket and buy some groceries. Then we just came back, cooked dinner, and relaxed. Dana and I sat outside with a cup of coffee, writing and journaling about the last couple of days. It was pretty chill, and a surreal experience, to be sitting in the middle of Guatemala, together, knowing we would be traveling together for the next several weeks! 🙂

The next day we woke up around 6, had some breakfast, and headed to the local ferry landing to catch a “lancha” to San Pedro, where we would meet Matt the geologist, who would take us on a hiking tour up “Indian Nose,” and give us a lesson in the area’s geology. What a great tour! Matt had a dog, Spike, who traveled with us, and led the way up through the private properties of corn fields. The whole mountain is owned by various individuals and there is a petty game of charging people for access, and creating pathways through only one property, causing a lot of confusion for anyone trying to figure out how to get up there. We were so grateful to have Matt for that, and he as such an animated guy!

Once at the top of the Indian Nose, he gave us a geology class. He taught us some basics about the earths tectonics, how volcanoes are formed, and how Lake Atitlan was formed. I learned that rather than it being a crater lake, which are only found on the top of volcanoes and filled with rain water, places like Atitlan, Illopango, or even Coatepeque, or Crater Lake in Oregon, are actually calderas. Calderas form when a giant pool of magma is beneath the surface, and it bubbles up and erupts from multiple points, creating instability, and the land sinks to the bottom of the magma chamber, basically sinking in on itself. I loved this tour so much, as I really learned a lot, and it gave me a new appreciation for the vistas around the lake, as I could now identify certain geological features. 

On the way back down, we learned about how all the little towns have a beef against one in particular, San Pablo. They let their grey water run down the hills, into the gutters, and eventually into the lake itself. It was pretty funny listening to Matt talk about these rivals, as it appeared he has taken on the same sentiments as his fellow lake neighbors. 

Matt dropped us off in San Juan, and we walked around and enjoyed some lovely street art, and we popped in for lunch at Almas de Colores, a restaurant that hires people with special needs. They also train special needs people in a variety of jobs, including sewing, crafting artisan goods, and cooking. It was nice to support a local business, especially one that is offering employment and development opportunities to people who may have a tough time otherwise. 

After we had our fill of walking about, we decided we’d check out San Marcos, known to be the hippie town. So, we meander down to the docks, and we can see how windy it has gotten, and observe all the white caps on the lake, and the crashing waves on the shore. This is gonna be a bumpy ride. We can’t quite make up our mind if we want to hop on last minute or not, and we quickly ask the price, and it was more than we thought, so we haggled it down a bit, but was still 5Q more than we wanted. But we were on the boat, and we were going. Well, Hayden didn’t step on the boat, as he wanted the true price. Street Justice Hayden! So off Dana and I go, on a ride I’ll never forget. 

We start going full speed through the waves, and we come crashing down hard, shaking us to the bone. There is a group of 3 women who are just screaming and howling and asking the boat to slow down. The guy sitting behind Dana and I said in Spanish that they can’t slow down or the boat will capsize. Great. Hahah. And so the ride continues, water splashing into the boat, soaking our pants, and Dana got hit by a giant splash in the face lol. We just locked eyes and laughed about our predicament and held on as tight as we could to the seats in front of us. I was enjoying the ride, as much as one could when injury was almost certain, lol. Meanwhile, the other ladies continued screaming and being the perfect example of a bad tourist, demanding the boat slow down without understanding why we had to continue and stressing the other passengers out. In the end, it was all very comical, and I’m glad I could laugh about rather than freak out like the other ladies :).

We make it to the San Marcos docks, and we wait for Hayden to join us. Several boats come and go before we see Hayden, but he made it, and we were reunited and safe and sound. We head up the path, and it’s like hippie overdrive; health food stores, hippie jewelry, a “spiritual cafe,” etc. It took away from the local ambiance, and we discussed how it seemed to go against the hippie culture. Many locals can no longer afford to live there because the hippie folks have moved in for cheaper than they pay back home, but paying exorbitantly more than the local norm, forcing locals to move away. It seems to be the same in Antigua, as Ana was explaining at breakfast, and I’m sure in countless other places in the world. It’s a shame that tourism can have a negative effect on the local areas. 

After just a short time in San Marcos, we grab a chocobanano and head back to Pana. The boat ride was much better, but when we got back, we tried to pay 50Q for 3 of us; after we were told it would be 15Q per person, for a total of 45Q. This guy wanted us each to pay 25Q. We fought him and explained that we were told it was only 15, but he pressed on, even threatening to call the police. We stuck to our guns, and he just waved us off, and Hayden yelled back, “stop trying to rip people off.” Haha, epic. I think it’s moments like this that make tourists weary and try to avoid being ripped off in the first place, even if it’s a question of a couple of dollars. It’s more about the principal than the money. If we were always given the fair/local price, maybe we wouln’t question it as much? After all, nobody likes being ripped off. Lol

We make it back to the airbnb to pack up and get ready for our super long shuttle to Semuc Champey. But, not before Hayden and I went out to see the sunset at the lake. It wasn’t as wonderful as we’d hoped, as the sun was behind the mountains, and it was difficult to get the right angle for a photo because of how the light was filtering into the lake area. But we enjoyed exploring just a bit more and were glad we took the time to see the sunset. The photos never do it justice anyways, hehe.