Our Trip to Lake Atitlán

Yesterday we ventured out of the city into the heart of the Maya at Lake Atitlán.  Mary Ann has some pictures to share.  The drive was incredibly beautiful!  We got to see Mayan agriculture here for the first time, and I was astounded.  Every square foot of the country side seemed to be under cultivation no matter how steep the hills.  Each area was divided neatly into small plots with a great variety of crops in every stage of growth from newly planted through harvest, all at the same time.  And eveywhere there was corn, 10 or 12 feet high by appearance as we drove by.  Every bit of the work from planting to harvest and even to transporting the produce to market was done by hand with hoes and machetes as far as I could tell.  The abundance of produce everywhere was mind boggling, and everything they grow was so big by our standards: big corn, big squashes, giant watemelons, huge carrots, etc.  Simply amazing!

Lake Atitlán is a jewell nestled among the surrounding volcanoes and ringed with traditional Mayan villages where everyone, men, women and children, is dressed in traditional Mayan clothing.  We had a great lunch at the Hotel Atitlán and enjoyed their beautiful gardens and collection of parots and parakeets in a beautiful array of colors.  We drove some of the streets of Panajachel (the lake-side tourist town known to the many just as "Pana"), some of which were too narrow to get a car down, but were traversed by the "Tuc Tucs"--little three wheel motorcycle like taxis.  We mixed with the locals, who were only too willing to help a couple of Gringos find their "way", and we took a public launch across the lake to the village of Santiago.  Lining the main street were the ever present vendors of traditional handcrafts and the annoying and persistent women selling their weavings and fabrics.  The old Church in the center of town was built in 1547 and the central plaza was a bustling marketplace--a Chapine farmers market.

We started for home by 4:00 in hopes of getting back before dark, but the heavy traffic made that impossible.  Driving here is not just setting the cruise control and relaxing.  It is more like a three hour roller coaster ride, and that can be pretty exhausting.  Doing it at night was a whole new dimension!  I can't recount the number of cars I saw with no tail lights at all.  What a ride!