Lago de Atitlan

---

We took a shuttle from Antigua to Panajachel, or Pana as it is known, on Thursday afternoon, September 10th. We found a nice hotel room with a shared bath at Mario's Rooms less than a block away from the shuttle station in Pana and settled down for the night there. It had a beautiful courtyard full of plants.

The next day, we went to Santiago de Atitlan because most of boats were going there at the dock and we wanted to see other towns around the lake. (Actually, there were 2 docks and the public boats going elsewhere on the lake left from the other one, but we didn't know it at the time.) Once there, we were followed by a guy who insisted on showing us the hotels in the area and we just couldn't get rid of him! Since there was only one street, he started walking ahead of us and into the hotels to "show us around". Naturally we got overcharged seeing as he gets a cut of the room rate. Hopefully, we can learn to be more insistent as we learn more Spanish to get rid of these guys!

The 15th of September is Guatemala's (and all of Central America's) Independence Day, so many events and fiestas were happening everywhere. In Pana the morning before leaving, we saw a parade go by in front of our hostel. In Santiago, there was a competition of bands from different schools happening at the town square down the block from our hotel room. We had a hard time seeing anything as I think the entire town showed up to watch.

Early the next day, we headed to San Marcos and got seriously overcharged by a private boat - mostly because we were completely naive and have no idea how much it really costs to get anywhere around the lake. San Marcos was a tiny town, so after getting there, we walked around and found the Hostel del Lago with a nice view of the lake. Unfortunately there was no electricity at the hostel, but the view made it worthwhile. We met a girl there from England who showed us around town and told us that the price of the boat to San Pedro was only Q10 (Quetzales). We stayed there overnight and just relaxed the rest of the day.

---

Photos

Boats on Lago de Atitlan
View from the docks at Pana

Comments

[MIA WEBB]

LOVE ATITLAN
It was so nice to see your pictures and here a little about your experience. Having made a trip to Atitlan it's always nice to hear someone else who appreciates it. Yep, mom and I had "Peter Pan" when we got off the boat in San Pedro who wanted to help us get a room but I'm a bit of a ......."really??? :!" type of person so I think he took the hint after that. Glad you guys had such a good time. HAPPY TRAVELS!