Adventures in Central America: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

I had a long, ambitious day today, making a day trip out of Lake Atitlan.  In an ideal world I would have enough time to spend a couple of nights around the lake, but, as it was, I only gave myself the day.  After a "tipico" Guatemalan breakfast (refried beans; fried eggs; fried plantains; bread; and coffee)--during which I read a Guatemalan newspaper, complete with a commodities price page that included an update on the day's coffee prices--I caught a packed-to-the-gills $10 USD shuttle from Antigua at 9:00.

We had a stop for gas, bathrooms, and snacks at some point along the highway.

Sometime after our stop we eventually began our descent on the northwest side of the lake.  Coming down towards the lake was really something else--absolutely spectacular; but unfortunately I was never able to get a good picture of it.

Lake Atitlan is surrounded by many small villages and towns, but there is no road circling the lake, so the easiest way to get between most of them is by ferry.  In our case, our first stop was San Marcos and from there there is a road to San Pedro, which was my destination.  We arrived around 12:30.

Originally I wanted to come to San Pedro to hike up the Volcan San Pedro, but I wouldn't have time for that today.  Instead, I was really only here to get a sense for the village and then take the ferry across the lake.  I walked around, ordered a banana smoothie, and ate lunch.

San Pedro, like many of the lake villages, is popular amongst expats, especially hippies and retirees, so it definitely has an interesting tourist-hippie-Mayan vibe.  I went down to the pier to catch the ferry at around 13:30.

The ferries are remarkably powerful speedboats with maybe twenty or so seats (probably can fit double that if people are motivated).  They reminded me of the ferry my brother and I took across the Amazon.  Crossing the lake from San Pedro to Panajachel (roughly directly across the lake) took about twenty minutes, I think, and cost about $6.  Actually the boat went so fast that the crossing was not especially enjoyable (very bumpy); plus, it was quite cloudy, so there was not much of a view.  It did give me a good sense for how big the lake is though, and I was surprised that I could not see land on three sides for much of the trip.

In Panajachel I walked around again and then relaxed by the lake with my book and a street-made mojito.

At 16:00 I caught another $10 shuttle back to Antigua. 

All in all it was a day of a lot of travel in cramped shuttles, but I felt like I had gotten at least a taste of the Lake Atitlan culture, and the few hours I had there were quite relaxing.