Friday, November 30, 2012

Panajachel & Lake Atitlan



Our second attempt to visit Panajachel was successful.  The first time we scheduled a trip a strike over power rate increases caused us to have to cancel.  This is our first glimpse of the lake as we approach Solala, the town just above Panajachel.  


This is the main drag of Panajachel where most of the shopping and restaurants are located. The city is very clean and impressive to tourists.  


We had pizza for lunch in this delightful little restaurant.  


Panajachel is wall to wall tuk tuks, shuttling folks to the lake, hotels, shopping, wherever.  


We are on the 5th floor of the hotel and the view is magnificent from our balcony.




Part of the mystique of the lake is that its appearance changes dramatically from day to day.  It is worth the 2 1/2 hour drive from Xela just to see the sunset.  Our humble point and shoot camera does not do it justice.


We found a delightful French restaurant on Monday night, but this is our breakfast spot in the hotel on Tuesday morning.  The food was excellent and our company with the Darrington's was even better.


Other views of Monday's sunset.




One of the roads surrounding the lake, which is usually traveled on foot by the locals.  This man is wearing typical traditional traje dress of the men from this area.  We did see one flete (pick-up with iron rails along the side) that carried 22 people into Panajachel for just a few coins.




Tuesday morning we head back to the shops early.  Sr. Darrington is walking in front of me and so far only one tuk tuk is in sight.


One of the beautiful trees along the way.


The LDS chapel in Panajachel.  Most buildings are guarded by solid gates that don't afford a look into the property.  Our church buildings are lovely and viewable.  This one is small.



Today the lake is calm.  On other days it literally swallows the small boats.  The lake can be treacherous, so we are happy to stay on this side and observe.  This is a lovely place and we will want to return to it before October 2013 when we head back to the U.S.  No stomach distress, no flea bites, bags and bags of treasures to take home.  What more could you want?

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