Our two incredible months of exploring and falling in love with Mexico were over, and we were now excited to start a new adventure in Guatemala. Neither of us knew what to expect, but we got a taste of the beauty of the country on our van ride from San Cristobal, Mexico to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. However, we arrived super late that first night so we weren’t able to catch a glimpse of the lake, and just went straight to bed.
We had a bit of an emergency situation that next morning when our hotel toilet overflowed and started spilling into our room!! Luckily, the hotel workers were able to get in quickly and fix the problem. We packed our stuff and left it at reception as we went to explore the little town. Our plan was to only spend one night in Panajachel, and take a boat across the lake to another small town for the remainder of our stay.
On the way down to the lake, the streets were so colourful, the people so aesthetic and beautiful. We could already tell this was a really special place. When we arrived at the lake, we couldn’t believe our eyes. The views of the volcano-surrounded lake were spectacular! We walked around, so happy and in awe of our surroundings.
After exploring for a little while, we found a yummy looking food stall to order some lunch — grilled chicken with rice, guacamole, and we treated ourselves to a glass bottle of coke (it slapped)!
We grabbed our stuff from the hotel and hopped on a boat leaving for San Juan La Laguna across the lake, our new home for the next week or so.
The ride across was gorgeous but quite painful, as we were slammed repeatedly against the hard wooden seats after each wave. Still, we couldn’t take our eyes off the truly magical landscape on all sides.
Docking in San Juan, we were greeted to even more beauty. The local women, from young girls to old ladies, were all dressed in bright and intricately decorated traditional clothes. There was a massive hill straight up to town that was bustling with shops, men playing music on long marimbas and turtle shells, colourful decoration and art, and people laughing and chatting. We were immediately enchanted, though it was slightly less enchanting to have to walk up the hill with all our baggage.
We powered our way up, and at the top saw a row of tuktuks. Completely spent, we hopped in one to take us the rest of the way to our hotel, Eco MayAchik.
Eco MayAchik is an environmentally friendly hotel, complete with composting toilets and solar panels for energy. We had a cute little cabin with an extra bed and a desk. The grounds were stunning and we spent some time getting acquainted with the area and the adorable hotel dogs. We had booked 6 nights at this hotel, which was a total treat to be staying in one spot for that long.
The hotel had a booklet full of tour options for the area, and we went through and picked ones we were interested in. There was a lot to choose from and we were already in love with the area so we were excited to start exploring.
The next morning we got ready for our first tour of the day: a visit to see stingless Mayan bees. It was a short walk from our hotel to the conservation area where a girl introduced us to the world of Mayan bees. They had many different types of bees and they’re all so tiny. Although they don’t have stingers, they do bite!
These bees don’t live in the typical beehives that we’re used to, but large mud-looking hives on the ground or in trees.
Each drone and worker bee only lives about 3-4 months, but the one queen bee will live for 4 years, and she has all the babies. When the queen dies they pick a new worker bee to be queen by putting royal jelly on her head: “Queens are not born, they are made”.
After checking out the different bees, we were introduced to their products and their health properties. We ended up getting some honey with propolis in it because it’s good for sore throats and Wini had a sore throat at the moment.
Our next tour was to a weaving school called Batz Asociacion (LISI) not far from our hotel. We were greeted by Fatima, who introduced us to the amazing art of weaving from beginning to end.
She started by showing us uncleaned cotton, both brown and white, and had us clean some pieces by removing the seeds inside. Then she showed us how they transform the cleaned cotton into threads by twisting the fluff of cotton around spools, and letting us try for ourselves.
She then introduced us to the different items (leaves, bark, flowers, fruit, and even bugs) that they boil and use to dye the cotton. For example, if you boiled and crushed conchinilla (a type of bug) it creates a bright red colour. However, if you add lemon juice to it, it turns bright pink Incredibly there were two different items that changed colour depending on whether they were collected on a full moon or not!
After they created the dye, the next step was to soak the thread in a banana liquid, to help the dye bind to the thread. Then you dip the soaking thread in the dye, and once again in the banana liquid, and it’s good to go!
Next, Fatima demonstrated the process of weaving using a kind of back loom. It was so impressive to watch her at work, especially with the backdrop of all the beautiful pieces that she and the other local women had created.
After that mesmerizing demonstration, we browsed the shop filled with scarves, blankets, purses, and clothes all hand made by local women in awe of all the time, patience, and skill needed for each piece. They said for each item 85% of the proceeds went to the weaver, and the remaining 15% went to the school to teach more women how to weave.
Wini bought a gorgeous scarf that Fatima made.
We thanked the women, and headed out to explore more of San Juan. Everything was absolutely beautiful, colourful, and lively. The people here are so aesthetic, especially the women in their traditional clothes, which we now know are all handmade designs!
The next morning morning we woke up early at 3am for a sunrise hike. It was freezing in our little cabin, and we went down to wait for our guide and noticed another girl from our hotel also ready to do the hike. Her name was Maclayne, and she was Canadian as well (from Calgary).
Our guide, Gaspar, arrived and we began the hike. The beginning of the uphill portion and high elevation hit us like a ton of bricks. We do a ton of walking in our travels, but this was our first ascent in a very long time and we were gasping for air for the first couple stops, but after that we started to get into the swing of things.
It was completely dark, so we had to use our headlamps to light the way, but above us was a sky full of stars. As we continued to ascend we began to make out the silhouettes of the mountains and volcanoes around the lake, and a red glow near the horizon.
On the way up we got to know MacClayne more. She works as a music therapist and singer-songwriter (you can check out her music here – she shot this music video at the lake!) planning to travel for a couple months. She was so sweet and easy to talk to, an instant friend.
We got to the summit just before sunrise. There were a ton of other foreigners there, so we found a spot on the viewing platform and waited. A local person came around and handed out teas and coffees. Just before the sun came up someone started playing Here Comes The Sun, and we all cheered when it finally popped up over the distant volcanoes — just as it did, Volcan Fuego erupted. Magical!
It was one of those special life moments when you realize how beautiful the world can be and how connected we are all to each other. Everyone was in high spirits at the top.
Soon after the sun rose, almost everyone cleared out right away, but Gaspar didn’t rush us and we got to soak everything in for a little longer before starting our descent.
MacClayne told us the airline had lost her luggage so she was waiting for them to deliver it, but hadn’t booked a place to sleep for the night. We told her we had an extra bed in our cabin, so if she wanted to stay the night she could. Funny how quickly you can feel comfortable with someone!
On the way down we also told her about our plans to meet up with a friend of a friend of mine. My highschool friend, Nikita, saw I was in Guatemala and put us in touch with her friend Audra who was living on Lake Atitlan. We made plans to visit her later that day, so we invited MacClayne along too.
Audra had invited us to check out a cafe, Trece Cielos, in the town of Tzununa across the lake. We were honestly all feeling pretty rough and exhausted from the hike, but we didn’t want to bail so we sleepily headed down to the docks and got our tickets to Tzununa.
We arrived at the cafe, which had a super hippie vibe. The kitchen was a school bus that was somehow up the giant hill, and it felt like we were in a big tree house or something. As soon as Audra walked in I knew we had made the right call by not cancelling. She was a total ray of sunshine, and all of us went from not feeling like socializing to laughing and chatting happily away. Audra’s friend came over and joined us, a Swedish ER doctor living in Denmark who was a hilarious vibe as well. It was such a fun day getting to know both of them.
That evening we picked up pizza again and had an early night & slumber party with Mclayne. We were going to do a movie night but we were all seriously pooped and passed out by like 8pm hahah.
The next day we said our goodbyes to MacClayne as she booked a new accommodation in another town on the lake, San Marcos.
We spent the day recharging, and booked a sauna experience in a stone hut at the hotel for the evening. They gave us a bundle of various plants to lie on the hot stone and pour water over, filling the chamber with herbal steam. It was the perfect rest day.
Our next adventure, the following day was a lakeside hike from Santa Cruz to San Marcos. We had seen online that some people that had done the hike had been robbed by men with machetes, so we decided to keep it safe by going with a guide we found online, named Mingo.
He met us off the boat in Santa Cruz and led us down the path. The hike was super beautiful and Mingo pointed out tons of plants, fruits, and notable houses. He told us that the coffee trees at this elevation aren’t that healthy because a few years ago there was a blight they called ‘chicken eye’ that covered the coffee trees, killing and harming them. However, the blight only went up to a certain elevation, so the coffee trees higher up the mountain were still good quality.
He told us some of the history of the tribes on the lake, how the lake used to be a volcano, and about the different languages and ethnic groups in the area. One story he told us was a local folktale: there were two different Maya nations across the lake – the Kaqchikel and the Tz’utujil and the chief of one tribe’s daughter was very beautiful, and a poor boy from the other tribe wanted to marry her but their families refused and tried to force them to marry other people, so he killed himself by drowning himself in the lake and she did the same, so now when the winds come from either side of the lake and mix in the middle it’s said the two lovers are dancing.
He was so knowledgable and had grown up around Atitlan his entire life so he told us what life was like growing up there. He described it as peaceful, carefree, and fun. He could be out for hours all around the town with his friends and his parents had no need to worry.
When we walked through Tzununa, Mingo pointed out the different clothing from the different villages. He told us that when the Spanish came they wanted to be able to easily identify ‘their’ women, so there would be specific colour schemes for different areas. For instance, in Tzununa he pointed to one old lady and told us she was wearing the traditional colours which was a maroon coloured top and black skirt. He said nowadays the women mostly mix and match their colours, and use more synthetic fabrics because they’re cheaper, but some women still wear the colours associated with their village. He also told us that each village has images they are more associated with, like in one they might embroider more flowers, in others birds are more popular, etc.
We finished the walk in San Marcos, a very hippie feeling town, said goodbye to Mingo and thanked him for the amazing tour and boarded our boat back to San Juan for a chill night at the hotel.
The next afternoon we decided to go for a little adventure to the next town over, San Pedro. It was accessible by road, so we headed off on foot. It was a beautiful walk along the water, though the road wasn’t the most pedestrian friendly.
We stopped at an American BBQ spot for lunch, craving some big portions, as many of our meals had been pretty light at the Guatemalan restaurants we’d visited. It was definitely the right place for big portions! Our food came out huge and delicious, and we immediately swarmed by a bunch of adorable dogs hahah.
After lunch we continued to explore the cute town of San Pedro, taking in the amazing views along the lake and in the town. We couldn’t get over how aesthetically pleasing absolutely everything is on the lake!
It seemed to us like more men here were wearing traditional clothes and hats in San Pedro than the other towns we’d visited. The women in all the villages were dressed traditionally, but we had noticed the men were often wearing just jeans and t-shirts.
We were debating going back but then remembered there were hot springs in San Pedro! We found the springs, Los Thermales, and booked ourselves in for massages and the hot springs. The massages were honestly heavenly and we both felt like we had been transported to another dimension by the time they finished.
Soaking in the hot and cold pools after was the best feeling ever. Our muscles melted, and it was the perfect way to get our bodies feeling back to normal after the hiking and walking of the last few days.
On our final full day on the lake, we hopped on a boat to San Marcos, thinking of doing some kayaking. However, apparently you have to go pretty early to kayak as the winds start to pick up in the afternoons and make the water too choppy. Instead, we spent the afternoon watching people jump off the tall diving platform into the waves. Neither of us were interested in joining them, as the clouds and wind made it a little too chilly for us, but we enjoyed the show.
We headed back across the lake to San Juan, savouring the incredible views that never get old. Neither of us felt ready to leave this magical, peaceful place and were already scheming for our next visit — but we also wanted to see a bit more of Guatemala before meeting up with my siblings in Panama.
The next morning we gathered our things and rode the boat back across the lake to Panajachel to take the “Chicken Bus” (a completely decked out old school bus the locals use to get around Guatemala) to our next stop: Antigua!
