Panajachel

Lago Atitlan (Aah-tee-tlan), Panajachel (Pan-ah-ha-shel)!


What a gorgeous place! Lake Atitlan is boasted as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and known in Guatemala as THE most beautiful lake. The lake has 3 volcanoes surrounding it and several mountains and 12 small villages. Each village is named after one of the 12 apostles when Christ was alive. The city Panajachel is a predominantly European town. Therefore, most people speak English! Kind of refreshing to NOT feel like I was cut off from the world! 


We woke up at 5am Wednesday morning in order to get there at a decent hour. With the traffic it can take up to 4 hours to get there. We left Guatemala City around 6:30am. And luckily it only took us 2 and a half hours to get there! On the way we stopped at a breakfast place... A hole in the wall, literally. A native woman and her daughter, who spoke an indigenous language and Spanish, made the breakfast right in front of us. 

I had black beans, chorizo, and eggs, chorizo is a type of sausage. While eating a woman trying to sell baskets and scarves came up to us asking us to buy something. The people we were with, Luis’s Uncle Pepito and his wife, were so nice that since they weren’t going to buy anything from this woman, they offered to buy her breakfast. You would never see that in the U.S! People would just get pissed she was bothering them while they ate, yell at her to go away, and then seethe with anger that someone had the gall to go near them. Such a difference! Little did I know I’d be feeling just that not too much later.


We then headed back out again and didn’t stop until we got to a great lookout point. There were little kiosks there, a mini mini market of sorts, and we were bombarded by every vender there. And when you say no, they take it as bartering and will lower the price so you won’t leave. While at the lookout the volcanoes were beautiful and clear but as we made our way down to the city the volcanoes sadly got covered by clouds. 


We were looking for a place to park when a guy on a bike asked Pepito if we needed help finding one. We said yes and the guy had us follow him to a parking lot. It seems that it was his job to ride around on his bike and find people to use that parking lot! And guess how cheap the parking was? 80 cents an hour! We parked and started walking around. Now, when we’ve walked around the market in Guatemala City and even Antigua after you say no once to the street vendors they leave you alone. Plenty of other people to go ask so not an issue. In Panajachel it was sooo much worse! The venders walk with you and keep on asking for you to buy something over and over and over. It wasn’t very conducive to an enjoyable atmosphere. We even sat down INSIDE a a restaurant to grab a drink and they would come INSIDE and ask us to buy something. The fiery redhead in me sizzled and it was all I could do to not yell at these people! Luis’s aunt said that was the first time she has seen me so mad. It is one thing for these venders to be selling out on the street, I may not like it but I’ll respect that. It’s another thing entirely when they come into a restaurant, disrupt our meal, and keep on asking us to buy something! The hard part too is Pepito likes to have fun with them and sends them on crazy missions to find hard colors and keeps on saying no but keeps on talking to them. Drove me crazy! I realized then that I am very American and may not be able to be as nice as Luis’s Uncle was. I’m such a hypocrite aren’t I? ;)


So while we were being bombarded by all these natives trying to sell their stuff, 3 children came up trying to sell as well. I pulled out my camera (I was still feeling nice at this point) to take some video of all of this. One girl, about 4 or 5, got super excited and thought the camera was so cool. She kept on trying to take the camera from me and take pictures of everyone else. When Luis asked if we could take a picture of her, she said unless we bought something from her. When I finally got her to stop taking pictures she started hugging my arm and saying “Mi nueva amiga”, my new friend. Just when I was going to get her to pose for a picture, she and the other two children bolted. They ran like the restaurant was on fire! Luis and I were left completely baffled and confused.We had no idea why they ran off like that. I then though, “Oh crap!” What if they took something from my purse?! So I quickly scanned through my things and Luis scanned through his stuff, both of us trying to figure out if they took something, which would explain why they ran away so quickly. Luckily, there was nothing stolen and Luis I just chalked it up as another random experience in Guatemala! 

Just a few of the people surrounding us while at the restaurant!

After our restaurant experience we resumed walking around Panajachel. We passed several British and American couples down the streets. Most would recognize one another and say hello. The atmosphere (despite the ruthless vendors) was actually very friendly. After walking through the streets for a while we decided to do a quick boat ride. Half an hour boating along the edge of the lake, we got to see the beautiful hotels and homes of Panajachel. We couldn’t see the tips of the volcanoes but it was still very beautiful! 

Ara, Pepito, Leslie, and Me

What our boat looked like!

The boat ride ended and we decided to eat dinner before we left. The restaurant hosts were as bad as the vendors! They would hover around us begging us to go to their restaurant and telling us the food to entice us. We picked a restaurant called Alache, we think. It had two floors and the top floor had no walls, open to the outdoors. 




We had a gorgeous view of the lake and the volcanoes. The food was delicious and the view breathtaking. All you could ask for in a day in Guatemala!




P.s. I haven’t done a travel tip in a while so here’s a very important one. ALWAYS have tissues or toilet paper with you. When using a bathroom in a foreign country they do not always have toilet paper. You could then get stuck in the bathroom, with no phone, praying your husband will come down to check on you since you’ve been gone over 15 minutes! Yes, that happened to me! Also, you need to do several sets of squats before you leave because not many toilets have seats. I was stuck in a bathroom, no sink, no toilet paper, no toilet seat, squatting for 15 minutes. I'm coming home with thunder thighs!


If you want to see more pictures go to Luis's Blog.. More photos to come!