Lago Atitlan

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I got here to the town of Panajachel yesterday and immediately found a cute hotel and fell asleep. I had an tiring day on a series of chicken buses getting here. It wasn't bad, just long.
After a long nap I looked around the town which isn't much to speak of. It's a gringo tourist town with booth after booth lining the streets with Mayan, Mexican, and Caribbean tourist kitsch, hotels, restaurants and travel agencies. I can eat well here with many of the restaurants serving Plato Vegetariana Tipico (including tofu), but it's not Guatemalan food by any means.
The lake itself is breath taking and I understand why so many Americans wound up moving here and then telling their friends. The lake is a collapsed volcano crater filled with water. The surroundings are beautiful.
Today I took a boat ride across the lake to see a town on the other side. It was mostly more of the same. I did go to see Maximillon the rascal saint of the Mayans who wears a hat, and has a cigar and a bottle of liquor near him. The figure looks more like a cool bad guy in a 1940's movie. He is not just the saint of good things, but of all things. They parade him around with the figure of Jesus on holy days.
I'm leaving tomorrow for Antigua overnight and then on to the Mayan ruins of Copan, then on to the Honduras to take scuba diving leassons. I don't want to leave Guatemala, but here I can always come back another time.

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Photos

Lago Atitlan
Very pretty

Panajachel
Not really very pretty