Lake Atitlán
is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, and is Guatemala's most important national and international tourist attraction. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank. The lake basin is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago.
Lake Atitlan & Surrounding Villages
House With A View
Imagine waking up every morning and looking out at the serenity and beauty of this lake. We rented a hillside house for a week and enjoyed this incredible view. Although the mornings were beautiful, I liked the colourful sunsets with the bellowing clouds forming around the peaks of the volcanoes.
Day Trips
Spending a day boating to several villages is a great outing. Rent a private boat for the day and explore. Once there do as the locals do and hop in a pickup truck or Tuk/Tuk. Each village had its own charm or interest. Some were native craft orientated and others restaurants and small museums. All very interesting.
Chichicastenango
Surrounded by valleys with mountains in the horizon, Chichicastenango seems isolated in time and space from the rest of Guatemala. Its narrow cobbled streets and red-tiled roofs come alive on Thursdays and Sundays, as these are the two days of the famous native market. If you’re lucky, you may be there on one of the days when a religious ceremony is celebrated, more than likely on the steps of Chichi’s main church - Santo Thomas.
The Masheños (citizens of Chichicastenango) are famous for their adherence to pre-Christian beliefs and ceremonies, and the town's various cofradías (religious brotherhoods). They have mixed catholicism and these pagan beliefs into a unique religious structure that is still very important to them. Most of the masks used in these Mayan ceremonies were made at this museum.
