Lake Atitlan Boat Tour

Our "free day" excursion offered tourism and a first exposure to Guatemalan culture and villages in transition.

For our free day, we had three different groups of people on three different experiences that we chose to participate in, my group went to Lago de Atitlan.  

Lake Atitlan is a two hour bus ride south west of Antigua over curves and hills reminiscent of an old Valley Fair roller coaster at times, despite the relatively new pavement and divided highway.  Lake Atitlan is the deepest lake in Guatemala with aquamarine waters inhabited by several species of fish including black bass, perch, and tilapia.  The lake has no outlet rivers, so it is susceptible to variable water levels, leaving some buildings awkwardly submerged on some of the shorelines.

The boat tour departed from Panajachal on the North shore of the lake.  As we depart on our tour, I am struck by the juxtaposition of a lone jet ski cruising around between our crude fiberglass tour boat and the looming green hills and mostly dormant volcanoes that encircle the lake. Panajachel and the other villages we visited are communities rich with old local and Mayan culture, yet changing as exposure to the rest of the world increases.


The first village we visited was San Juan la Laguna, a city whose wooden dock port is surrounded by recycled plastic jug buoys holding the local fisherman's nets. The village, like the others on the lake, is seated on a fairly steep hill.  Its a place like our Duluth, MN, with its vast ,deep lake and steep position, and yet not similar at all.


Our guide brought us to the Galleria de Arte where several local adult and child artists showcase their culture with oil on canvas.  The paintings highlight local culture with bright harvest scenes, portraits, and corn presented in a pop art fashion.We also went to the Women in Colors Botanics tactile shop where we saw a demonstration of hand spinning, spooling, and dying cotton using natural ingredients like eggplant and annetto.

With the influence of cheaper clothes made in places like China and influences from other cultures, locals are buying less of the traditional hand made clothes and focusing of the opportunities with tourism.
The second village we visited was Santiago Atitlan
on the south shore of the lake, sitting below the looming Toliman and Atitlan volcanoes.  At Santiago Atitlan, we ate lunch and were exposed to another example of old local culture coexisting with world influence.  Our guide took us to see a shrine where people come and give offerings of local alcohol to a statue representing a local cultural god of smoke and liquor.  A shaman and the family who host the shrine for the year sit around the room to receive worshipers and tourists alike.From there we walked past a small deer skin on a wall, next to a drooling sleeping old man slumped on the side of the road, and in front of the teenage boys playing on their cell phones and to the large Catholic Church.  We watched as the congregation poured in with traditional white striped pants on the older men and colorful head-wear donned by women as they entered the church.

Here I am (Amber  Peterson Allina Mental Health) in San Juan la Laguna.

The boat ride back to Panajachel across the big lake was a time of reflection for my mind to process the massive download of information received on this first exposure to Guatemalan culture, a very profound experience so far even on our "free day"