The lake

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We travelled to Panajachel yesterday, this time by tourist shuttle, which was luxurious in comparison to the chicken buses. I was incredibly happy that I wasn´t careening down the perilously steep and narrow road in the chicken bus! It dropped us at the door of our hotel, Hotel Atitlan, which is simply gorgeous. It is supposedly Guatemala´s best, and it really is fabulous. We have hand-carved furniture in our room, local art, wrought iron beds and handcrafted patchwork eiderdowns. We had booked this so long ago as a Christmas treat, but it has been worth it. It is a colonial, rambling building nestled under the mountains and set amongst the most beautiful garden. They charge non-guests to come in and view it even. All rooms are lake facing, although the room Lucy and I are in is sheltered by the garden so I have to tiptoe on the balcony to spy the lake. I confess to serious room envy when I checked out Jack´s room, as his is a little way from ours and sitting on his balcony he has an uninterrupted view of the lake and the volcanos that are on the other side. Truly spectacular.

The lake has a number of little villages dotted around it, however Panajachel is the largest of all the settlements, with around 20,000 people or so who live here (I think! I don´t have my guidebook with me). It´s a dusty little town, quite touristy, and not that dissimilar to other tourist towns in Thailand, with locals selling souvenirs and local specialities from stalls lining the streets. There are some gorgeous things to buy (as well as a lot of junk) but when you have to carry it on your back for the next few weeks it´s easy to resist! Pana itself isn´t particularly attractive, but the Hotel is about 1km away and we feel like we´re in our own little world. Yesterday afternoon in fact I spent lazing by the pool reading my book. Very relaxing!

The weather is great, not as cold as Xela in the evenings, and very hot in the day. I overhead a young British girl on the phone to her granny and she described it very well - ¨really hot, but not so hot that you sweat like crazy¨. Very accurate!

Words do not do the lake itself justice. It´s large - 18km from west to east and 8km from north to south. Ít´s bordered by three volcanos - San Pedro to the right (from our vista) and then Toliman and Atitlan on our left. The lake itself is a crater and very deep, averaging 280m. At any time of day it is simply stunning -- as the brilliant sunshine dapples the water during the day, or at dusk with the volcanos fringed in soft pink light. The volcanos themselves are beautiful. They look exactly as a child might draw a simple mountain, straight steep sides like a triangle.

Guatemalans clearly love Christmas. I have heard Christmas carols continuously since I have arrived nearly. Curiously though, none of us remember hearing Feliz Navidad! We had a special Christmas meal at the hotel last night, which was quite American in influence I suspect (no beans and rice!), including pumpkin pie and candied yams. It was quite nice, but not as good as we´d all have had at home I suspect!

This morning (Christmas morning), Lucy and I enjoyed breakfast at the hotel overlooking the fabulous lake view, which you can never get sick of. Then we met up with Jack and went for a walk in a local reserve, which was near our hotel. It was so beautiful, with waterfalls and we also saw some spider monkeys. A nice way to spend Christmas morning!

Cam - you asked about the food but really, it´s nothing to write home about! I suspect what we´ve been eating isn´t particularly typical Guatemalan food. There is rice and beans, but not as much as I was expecting, and some avocado, but again not as much as I was expecting. In the Mayan Inn we had a ¨typical¨dinner, which included a very strange cucumber egg/omelet concoction, rice, beans, beef, and most surprising of all a half avocado garnished with tomato sauce! Jack, who has been here before, promises us that the food in Antigua is great. I´m looking forward to it.

And in answer to your second question - the only television we´ve watched so far was Friends!! Again - some things are ubiquitous.

Anyhow, it´s now mid afternoon and probably about time to head back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. Jack has also just returned with some vino for us to celebrate Christmas with tonight. He follows instruction very well.

Hope you have all had a great Christmas - Feliz Navidad from Guatemala!

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Photos

Hotel Atitlan
In Panajachel

Our gorgeous hotel in Pana
This was such a gorgeous spot. Nice place to celebrate Christmas.

The view
Jack definitely won. This is the view of the lake from his room.

Feliz Navidad
Christmas morning - we were walking through a nature reserve. These people are not the monkeys, but we did see some!