Highs and Lows in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
It’s a crisp but clear morning on Lake Atitlan, and Josh and I are celebrating his 24th birthday with chocolate chip pancakes, locally grown coffee and a view. The early sunlight breaks over the volcanic peak and glistens down onto the ripples of the deep blue water as the whole lake begins to sparkle.
We spent the past few days relaxing at the secluded Atitlan Sunset Lodge, cabin-style apartments nestled into the steep terrain about 10 minutes outside of the village of Santa Cruz la Laguna.
Lake Aitlan is a volcanic crater lake formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago that sits 1,562m above sea level in the western highlands of Guatemala. Three volcanos surround the lake: Atitlán, Tolimán, and San Pedro, but you won’t need to worry about an eruption as they have been inactive since 1853.
Later that morning Josh and I are waving our hands like windscreen wipers trying to catch the attention of a boat driver. We are moving from our dream lakeside accommodation to a more backpacker budget-friendly stay in Panajachel. After some manic waving, we accidentally flag down two boats but following a small debate on which one to get on we are whizzing over the lake waters on our way to the next stop.
The boats, or '“lanchas” as they are called here in Lake Atitlan, rarely choose the most direct route. Instead, we find ourselves snaking from one side of the lake to the other as the journey gets rather bouncy. Most of the waves on the lake are caused by the heavy traffic of lanchas ferrying people from one village to another.
Immediately as we get off the boat in Panajachel we are launched into the frenzy of the boat docks. People bellowing out destinations trying to fill up their lanchas, food stalls with queues of people so large I can’t even see what they sell and the odd person approaching us and offering some illegal products all with really unusual nicknames.
We slip away from the docks and arrive at our new home for the next 2 weeks. There is a beautiful courtyard sprinkled with plants and hanging greenery just steps from our new room where we relax and play a game of cards. It’s here that I get chatting with a long-term resident, Juliette, a Canadian who spends 3 months a year living in Lake Atitlan with her husband. Over the next few days, we met in the kitchen, where I often found her baking or providing me with life advice, cooking tips and travel recommendations.
One morning Julitette tells me about a nearby nature reserve where you can spot spider monkeys and Josh and I decide to make it our adventure for the day. As we head out of the crowded streets of Panajachel and into the low-lying rainforest of Reserva Natural Atitlan the noise turns from tuk-tuk engines to birds chirping. They offer a ziplining tour through the rainforest and I jump at the chance, whizzing through the canopies overlooking the lake, sign me up.
Our instructor shows us all the safety bits and bobs we need to know and straps us up into harnesses before we head off. Halfway up the trail, the instructor stops and in a hushed tone tells us to look into the trees ahead. I see a flash of something leaping between the tree branches, the spider monkey swings around a few more times before resting on a branch only a few metres from us. I’m told they aren’t native to this rainforest but instead, they found refuge here after being kept as pets. The rest of the walk to the first zipline is silent as we all listen and look out for more of these energetic monkeys.
As I’m getting clipped onto the first zipline it dawns on me that we are now way above the treetops and a tinge of fear sets in as I step off the platform. I’m flying above the nature reserve spinning around and trying to catch a glimpse of what’s around me. I steady myself for long enough to look down and see rich greenery trickle down the steep cliffside to meet the deep blue waters of Lake Atitlan. Whizzing down the ziplines in a zig-zag shape the view of the lake slowly disappears and once again I’m engulfed by the rainforest, with colours changing from a sea of green to colourful blooms as my feet land on the forest floor.
With the ziplining completed it’s time to explore the rest of the nature reserve. We stop by the butterfly geo-dome which is home to 12 different species and around 1000 butterflies before heading to the trails that loop around the reserve. The trail takes us across a handful of hanging bridges suspended up in the enormous trees with views over the thriving flora and fauna and even a small waterfall within the nature reserve.
We wander back to Panajachel and decide an ice cream would be an appropriate treat for the day’s hiking efforts. Unfortunately, this ice cream causes Josh to have a severe allergic reaction and go into anaphylaxis.
We rush to the local hospital and they immediately begin to treat Josh but it takes a few hours before his airways begin to open back up. These hours feel like days and between the concern on Josh’s face and the amount of doctors and nurses around him, I feel as if I’m living outside my body, helpless and frightened. Later that evening the doctor informs me he thought the worst was over but that Josh would need to stay in overnight for monitoring.
Thankfully Josh recovered fully and it’s all quite a blur now, but the things I do remember are the acts of kindness. The nurse in the hospital who helped me make a bed so I could stay the night with Josh, the receptionist who somehow managed to decode my panicked Spanish and calm me down when we arrived, the pharmacist who drew me a map of Panajachel and its pharmacies to help me track down the medicine Josh needed, the doctor who had to repeat things again and again because my brain was struggling to take it all in and Juliette who made me laugh every time my brain would wander to the ‘what ifs’. I will be forever grateful for these people.
The next week goes by in a flash as Josh spends most of it resting and I float around here and there, but most of our plans of adventures around the lake take a back seat. I take daily walks to the shores of the lake, play a few card games and continue my kitchen chats with Juliette.
The day before we are due to leave we take a lancha over to the village of San Juan La Laguna. The village is decorated with multicoloured hanging lanterns and umbrellas from the moment I step off the boat to the top of the main street. The vibrancy is infectious and seeing the detailed and bright murals on the buildings brings a smile to my face. We join a tour of a small coffee farm where our guide explains to us the climate, altitude and volcanic minerals found in the soil in Lake Atitlan making it the ideal destination for growing coffee.
We try a cup of the coffee that is grown, harvested and roasted right here in San Juan La Laguna and I can tell you it tastes a lot better than Costa. We spend the rest of our time browsing through a few of the artisanal shops and feel a little sad when we can’t fit one of the beautiful paintings of the lake in our tiny backpacks. The downside of backpacking is the lack of souvenir purchasing that can be done. We would have a whole wall of paintings and prints if we could find a tardis as a backpack.
On our last day, I take a final stroll down to the lake shores. The streets are lined with sellers of traditional textiles and the lakeside is full of energy, with an enticing smell of grilled food, queues of people at the various food stalls and touters belting out the destination of the next boat leaving the dock, it never stops on the shore of Lake Atitlan.
For anyone travelling with severe allergies, I can’t stress enough how important it is to travel with your Epipens, keep them on you at all times and ensure they are kept at the right temperature. These life-saving devices are something most people living in Guatemala don’t have access to.
