Lago de Atitlan: Guatemalan beauty spot

A perfect place to chill out in,” is how Sheena had described Lago de Atitlan. And I cannot agree more. Sue and I stayed at this hotel called Lomas de Tzununa during the entire duration of our stay. From the hotel’s private dock we had to clamber up some three hundred-odd steps and it was beautiful all the way. The food too, was great. We had fish that appeared to have just caught from the lake and cooked, it tasted so fresh!

The next day we drove down with some friends, also guests of the hotel, to a village called Santa Cruz parts of which, we discovered, did not have any electricity. This picturesque village is located at an altitude and we had a pretty steep climb uphill. The seaside and the beach at Santa Cruz is pretty nice. We saw quite a few boats departing from the sea shores for the main village Panajachel.

The saddest feature about this lovely Guatemalan town is the poverty; there are vast Mayan populaces existing within the community with little to survive on, it’s heart-rending. The next day Sue and I decided to go shopping at this place called Panajachel. We loved the colorful markets laid out in the main street. We bought some fabrics with traditional Guatemalan motifs.

I also liked the hand-carved flutes and hand-woven scarves and rugs prepared by the Mayans with their symbols and motifs beautifully embossed. Really quite charming. Feeling hungry we looked around for a nice café or restaurant. We saw our friends – the same ones from the hotel – sampling some marinated seafood, raw I believe, called ceviche. They appeared to love it although I didn’t much feel like tasting raw stuff. So we had tacos, spaghetti and some local beer at a wayside stall. Rather nice.