Santiago de Atitlan: Lake Atitlan
The next part of our trip takes us to. It takes us around 90 mins on a mini bus to get to Panajachel, a lively village on the side of the lake (normally frequented by backpackers) where we were supposedly deposited at the public pier. Or not!
The driver actually dropped us off at the private pier (hmm, do you think he got a back hander from someone????) so either we walked in the heat, completely lost, to try to find the public pier or we paid for a private water taxi. It didn’t take us long to decide as whilst we were discussing the price our bags were whisked away down the rickety pier.
As it worked out it was brilliant, we had the boat to ourselves and the boatman delivered is directly to our Hotel’s pier on the opposite side.
Hotel
The hotel was right on the lake behind an amazing garden. We were very lucky as we were the only guests there.
To be honest we didn’t do that much whilst we were in Santiago apart from mooch around the pool
Can you blame us??
Lake
The lake is so peaceful and beautiful. Yet it can change in minutes depending on the output from the volcanoes. The colour of the lake changes continually from deep azure blue to aquamarine or dark grey.
We watched the fishermen paddle by, you really cannot appreciate the currents here from the photos, and we were astounded at their skill and strength as they cut their way across the water.
We found a local bar / restaurant called Quila’s quite a small place with a really nice outside space and amazing local food. One night we both had a chilli con carne which was amazingly tasty, but I couldn’t distinguish the meat from the beans, good job that I love refried beans. ? I’m also so glad I didn’t notice the sign outside saying “no dogs, no guns” until the last night. By that time we’d drunk them dry of white wine ☺️
We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing time spent around the lake but we were looking forward to our visit to the Highlands.
Goodbye Atitlan xx
