A trip to Lake Atitlan

Hi again,

I finally have a minute to catch you up on my trip to Lake Atitlan. The lake is actually a volcanic crater that is 10 miles across in some sections and known to be the deepest lake in Central America. Imagine what the explosion would have been like to create such a crater. Ash from this eruption has been found in places such a Florida and Ecuador!  True to life in Central America, three newer volcanoes have formed around the lake.

View of Lake Atitlan

The lake water level has change through the years. It used to be much smaller of a lake, but over the years geological events have changed the its drainage, so that it is currently much deeper than in previous years. There are a number of towns surrounding the lake, some more traditional, older towns, others now immersed firmly in the land of foreigners and tourists. There are deep and rich histories both geologically and culturally to this area, but alas only so much I can write here.  One other historical note, unfortunately in October 2005 the lake region was heavily impacted by Hurricane Stan. The major damage to the area was done by flooding and deadly landslides.

View of Lake Atitlan from San Marcos la Laguna

So on a Saturday morning at 5:30am I was picked up by a mini bus for my adventure. In true Central American style, I was originally told 6am by the man who arranged my trip and fortunately stopped back by his office the day before my trip to just make sure the trip was still a go. He said that I would actually need to be ready by 5:30am- so it was a good thing I stopped by his office! When the drive showed up I showed him my ticket and he told me the ticket was only for a tour. Fortunately having dealt with these types of incidents before, I was able to point out that my ticket clearly had transportation also included. Having a little extra Spanish helped a great deal in that regard.  So off we went on a 2.5 hour trek from Antigua to Lake Atitlan.

Image From: http://gocentralamerica.about.com/od/topattractions/ig/Atitlan-Gallery/Lake-Atitlan-Map.htm

Upon arriving Panajachel we met up with our tour guide and hoped in our boat off across the lake to visit the towns of San Marcos la Laguna, Santa Clara la Laguana, San Pedro la Laguna, and finally to Santiago Atitlan. It was wonderful to see the diversity of these towns. For example San Marcos has become a New Age town where there are many yoga studios, meditation areas, and hotels for those wanting to take yoga and meditation retreats. These areas are mostly run by and used by foreigners, though some Guatemalans live and work there as well.  The towns of Santa Clara and San Pedro and Santiago were more traditional Guatemalan towns, though clearly influenced by the large tourism industry coming through Lake Atitlan. For example, in the town of Santa Clara there are huge artisan coops for textiles, paintings, and ceramic crafts.

San Marcos Meditation Pyramids

Another very interesting cultural item was going to see Maximon ("mashy-mon") (name and person in the Maya culture) and San Simon (the Christian figure) in Santiago Atitlan.  The color of the candle you get and burn for Maximon will help you with particular problem. So depending on your religious affiliation you either think of or refer to him as a saint or a ancestor that is a portal to the supernatural. Each year a new family is chosen to care for Maximon. He (his wooden stature) is attended to each day and he is given rum and continuously smokes each day. This is a wonderful example of religious syncretism, where two religious ideologies and practices have merged. The small home was filled with smoke from the chain-smoking statue and he (the statue) was also fed regular rum. This is also an example of the way in which religion and tourism can also mix. I asked various people about how they felt about bringing tourists to see a religious figure and was told that this was a way to support financially the practice of taking care of 'grandfather' as the figure is called in a local Mayan language. 

Sorry there is not time for more details on all of this! There was so many wonderful experiences in my time at Lake Atitlan.

A very interesting trip...

Chris