Panajachel & Lake Atitlán

On July 17th Neil and I left the big city and headed northwest along the Pan American Highway to find the city of Panajachel and beautiful Lake Atitlan--about a 3-hr drive. (Some say that this is the location of the Waters of Mormon.) We stayed in a hotel called The Posada of Don Rodrigo and this was the view that we had out of our side door. This is a view of Cerro de Oro (the small one), Volcan Toliman, and Volcan Atitlan behind it.

Each morning the local kids would be jumping in the water and swimming along the boat dock. Many larger boats take the tourists to visit the villages along the shores of Lake Atitlan where they find different types of handicrafts.

All of the volcanos surrounding Lake Atitlan are dormant and make a lovely frame for the lake. The one on the right is called Volcan San Pedro.

These kids looked like they were really enjoying themselves!

We haven't found out the name of this little bird yet, but he had such a wonderful song to sing to us. Maybe our son-in-law, Tyler, might be able to find out what kind it is....?

This was the back door of our hotel room where you could just walk right out into a garden area and look out on the lake and volcanos. Neil seems to be studying our Guatemala guide book so that he could tell me more about the area.

We passed this scenic waterfall on the steep and windy road that led to the town of Panajachel. There were other ones also along the way.

These Mayan clay masks are made and sold by the people living along the shores of Lake Atitlan.

We were very impressed with the many, many shops and stalls where you could buy colorful hammocks, dresses, fabrics, belts, huipiles, and bedspreads, like this one.

We can never take enough photos of the children. These boys knew that a wheelbarrow had many uses---to help with their parents work, and as a place to play.

Now here is a picture with a story. These are shoeshine boys. They were probably about 8 or 9 yrs. old. The one on the left came up to us (with an angry look on his face) and said, "You take our pictures and you pay us." I (Kathy) looked at him and said (of course, in Spanish), "Why would we want to take pictures of boys who don't know how to smile?" The boy on the left looked a little confused while the one on the right began to smile a little. I told them that we only took pictures of boys who had smiles on their faces and that I didn't know if they could smile. I started to see that they didn't really speak much Spanish---just the little bit needed to make money with doing shoeshines. I again told them that I needed to see some smiles if they wanted to be paid for their photos being taken. They finally both understood and gave us these beautiful smiles. It was good to see the angry look leave the face of the little boy on the left.


Neil asked this little boy if he could take his picture while he was eating a snack of "mango on a stick." We really had a wonderful time in this area.