#panajachel

(vía "Lake Atitlan Art, Panajachel, Central America Landscape, Travel lovers, Bohemian art, Vintage travel, Gift for him, Gift for her" Sticker for Sale by LitzoyGlobeArt)

Guatemala Days 7-11

Lake Atitlan

The last 4 days have been spent at Lake Atitlan in the town of Panajachel. On Saturday Emily arrived to Antigua and to our surprise we got upgraded to a deluxe suite which was very fancy.

The next morning we took a shuttle to Panajachel, one of at least 11 towns on the shore of Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan is an enormous lake formed from a volcanic crater that is thousands of meters deep. There are at least 3 separate languages spoken by the indigenous people in the surrounding area, that’s how big around the lake is.

On Monday we explored the Atitlan Nature Reserve which was really cool. We hiked to the lakeshore, went across suspension bridges through the jungle, and saw spider monkeys and coatís (a central american variety of raccoons which only live in high altitude jungles).

On Tuesday we did a tour of three different towns along the lake. We got to the different towns by boat. First we went to San Juan La Laguna which had a lot of fair trade textile co-ops. This has helped combat a lot of social problems such as poverty and lack of education access, and has helped elevate indigenous women of the area. Several families team together to weave and form the co-op and whatever the co-op sells the profits are divided equally amongst themselves. A requirement for entering the co-op is enrolling children in school. We visited one of these co-ops and learned more about the weaving process which is incredibly complex. It take between 3 weeks to 3 months to weave a single garment. Unfortunately a lot of factory made copycat products are sold on the street for less than a 10th of what it costs to produce handmade products.

After San Juan La Laguna we stopped in San Pedro La Laguna for a drink. This town has a lot of expats and unfortunately has lost a lot of its ties to their indigenous culture. It’s now known as a party town (San Pedro La Locura is the nickname).

Finally we went to Santiago Atitlan, the largest of the lakeside towns. Even though it was only 15 minutes away by boat from San Pedro they spoke a completely different Mayan language (there are 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala and most are completely unrelated to each other linguistically).

In Santigao Atitlan we visited some religious sites. They practice synchronism between Catholicism and traditional Mayan practices. We visited a church where both Mayan ceremonies and Catholic Mass are practiced, often at the same time. It was very similar to a church I visited in Chiapas, Mexico in the town of San Juan Chamula which also practiced Mayan-Catholic synchronism.

We also visited the shrine to the local deity Maximón. The deity is believed to inhabit a wooden statue and the shrine location rotates to different homes every year. It is tended to by the family living in the home and a shaman. The statue is over 500 years old.

On Wednesday we got a day pass to a local resort for $20 and we got to use their pool, beach, and got lunch. It was very luxurious. We walked back to our hotel from the resort and barely missed a huge thunderstorm. It started maybe 10 minutes after we got back. The lightning caused a power outage in Panajachel which lasted nearly 30 hours. We had to navigate by flashlight and eventually candlelight once the flashlight died. It was very spooky but also kind of nice to be disconnected from everything.