Lago de Atitlan & Santiago

(travelled January 2012)

Atitlan is a Mayan word that means “the place where the rainbow gets its colours.” I was in Lake Toba 2 years ago with friends and we also stayed at a village next to the lake and that was one of my best trips to Indonesia. This time round, Lake Atitlan offered the same kind of tranquility that Lake Toba did. More so, we stayed at a resort, Posada de Santiago, which is by the lake that offers sauna, swimming pool and hot tub, among others. The two evenings were there, we just hung out by the lake, have mojito and watch the day passed us by. If that’s not relaxing, I don’t know what else is.

You might think we paid a hefty price for it, but we didn’t. We took the cheapest room, ie. US$50 per night (US$25 per person) and with facilities like that, we basically didn’t go anywhere else besides hanging out at the resort. Well, we did go to town for half a day, and that’s because I had an emergency and need to buy something at the shop *sheepish grin*.

Santiago is the biggest Mayan village on Lake Atitlan, and about three and a half hours drive away from Antigua. Locals depend on the lake for basic washing, drinking as well as fishing. There are three volcanoes around the lake – Volcan San Pedro, Volcan Toliman and Volcan Atitlan. In the mornings, men with straw hats get busy at the market or going to the field to harvest coffee (it’s the season now). Fridays and Saturdays are market days in Santiago, which means more stalls are opened with crowds of locals and tourists looking for bargains.

Prices are quite decent – blue eyes bought a small pouch for Q35 while our brunch, comprising of omelet with coffee and beef burger with tea, amounted to Q76. In fact, our total cost including transport accommodations and meals over the 3-day, 2-nights in Santiago amounted to about Q2,780 for two persons.

To go to town, we hailed a tuk-tuk, which can carry a maximum of two passengers. It cost about Q3-Q5 per trip and the trip takes about 10 minutes, depending on which part of town you want to go. The ride can be quite an adventure since the driver goes up and down the hill area. The view is also a bit different when we’re in the tuk-tuk compared to walking.

Our day out in town was fun! Had a simple breakfast at a local cafe. The waiter didn’t speak a lot of English but was patient enough to try to communicate. We walked around the marketplace and tried to avoid some of the fast running tuk-tuks 🙂 The day was gorgeous – blue skies, clear clouds. Blue eyes had a nice chat with the teenager who was maning the souvenir stall. He’s quite a smart salesperson – the minute he observed that we liked certain colours, he would immediately offered those shades in different forms. Blue eyes finally settled on one of the colourful pouches that he offered and he smiled in glee 🙂

Looking back, we will always appreciate Guatemala for its tranquillity and thankful that we had such good rest in this beautiful country. The nature and landscape is amazing. Not always easy to be living on a land that is always at risk of volcano eruptions and economy wise, not as competitive as neighbouring countries but life goes on. People make do. They survive. A true reflection of human strength and resilience.