Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

lake Atitlán [Lago de Atitlán] is by far the most beautiful lake in the world to visit. Its green mountain ranges, blue waters and three perfectly shaped volcanoes provide a wonderful view from any of the 12 villages that surround it. Another prime feature to enjoy is the lake’s culture. Here in the highlands of Guatemala many indigenous maintained a fair share of their centuries old traditions. Many charming Mayan women still wear, with pride, their colourful traditional clothing like the “huipil” while doing their daily chores. The men working the fields often wear a knee-high short pair of pants that defines the village they come from.
Lake Atitlán, its villages and its culture are a winning combination of scenic beauty, a super relaxed atmosphere and a very friendly and accessible Mayan population. It enjoys an efficient and relatively in-expensive tourist infrastructure, while maintaining a balance with nature.



A short description of the villages surrounding the lake:

Panajachel is the centered tourist town. From here you can take a boat to any of the other villages, shop or enjoy the biggest variety of hotels and restaurants around lake Atitlan.

Santa Catarina can be reached by car or pickup truck from Panajachel by road. It has a plaza that holds the town’s main activities, painting galleries to visit and tipica for sale, on the way down to the lake. Here you also find Hotel Casa Palopó and a few restaurants.

San Antonio is a village with many of its people still wearing traditional clothing. Where in Panajachel the shoreline is filled with hotels and restaurants, San Antonio still offers union fields and other natural views. Many tourists visit this village for its ceramics factories and stores.

Santa Cruz la Laguna, only accessible by boat, is a small laid back village. It hosts famous and unique hotels like “La Iguana Perdida” and “La Casa Rosa”, also many foreign artists reside there. It’s the best place to start shoreline hikes with amazing views of Lake Atitlan.

El Jaibalito and Tzununá belong to the smaller villages at the lake. Over 99% of its population are indigenous Kaqchikel. The two villages are very quiet places to visit but do have tourist infrastructure with Hotel Restaurant “Lomas de Tzununa” and club “Ven Aca”, a restaurant bar on the waterfront in Jaibalito.

San Marcos la Laguna offers reiki, yoga, massages, aromatherapies, Chinese health therapies, reflexology, meditation, holistic treatments and other new age therapies. The famous Las Pirámides Meditation Centre offers a month long Moon-course, which addresses spiritual topics and ends in a week of silence and fasting.

San Pedro la Laguna, like Panajachel, is a true backpacker destination. Many tourists study Spanish here, enjoy horseback riding or climb the San Pedro volcano. The town offers a wide variety of hotels and restaurant, for a low budget.

Santiago Atitlan is the largest community around the lake. It was also the capital of the Tz'utujil culture and still practices many of its old traditions. The main street up from the dock offer many stores and stand where the local artisans sell wooden and other handcrafted products. The town offers a small variety of quality hotel-restaurants like Posada Santiago.