Posts Tagged ‘Lake Atitlán’
Water Taxi
On Tuesday of our fabulous Guatemalan adventure, Marco arranged for a boat to take us to several different destinations around lake Atitlán. The portion visible from the house where we were staying near Santiago Atitlán was a small fraction of the whole. It is the deepest lake in Central America, filling a caldera that was formed by an eruption many thousands of years ago. Ash from that eruption has been detected as far away as Florida and Ecuador.
The first thing I noticed after we got out on the water was the view of the two volcanoes, Volcán Tolimán and Volcán Atitlán, that were behind us and much less noticeable from our perspective on shore. Our view was dominated by the magnificently sculpted San Pedro filling the sky across the water.
I wish I could describe every detail of the unparalleled beauty of each place they took us for a meal, luxurious cups of coffee (or chocolate), more shopping, and every superb view that accompanied them. I’m unable to find the words at this point.
Here are some impressions from my camera to give you a glimpse…
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The Lake
It was now Monday morning and we were staying at Karin and Bill’s house at Lake Atitlán. Marco and Bill are architects and business partners. The house is tucked beside the rustic hotel Posada de Santiago, and surrounded by incredibly gorgeous landscaped gardens.
The first thing we did when we woke up was walk across the road to the lake and sit in the hotel pool area, taking in the vista of the volcano San Pedro reflected on the water. The early morning air was calm. A cloudy mist floated above the surface of the water where fishermen in their canoes and flat bottom boats slowly plied their crafts.
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A man was preparing the chairs and swimming pool for the day, and after some brief dialogue with Marco, he delivered tall glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. Marco had thought about the possibility of taking canoes across the lake to breakfast, but he learned the hotel was fully booked and they didn’t want to give up canoes for that long.
Instead, we gladly drove to breakfast, for pancakes. From the parking area, there is an incredibly lush and beautiful garden to walk through to the restaurant. For some reason, I only took a picture of the building. Some things just defy being captured in an image.
After breakfast we drove to the market in Santiago Atitlán where street vendors displayed the many bright-colored designs and craftwork of the classic Guatemalan look. We enjoy a pleasant stroll up and down the stone streets to shop for more souvenirs, while Marco went off to find a coffee maker for the house —an essential appliance they could have used when they woke up this day.
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With no agenda for the afternoon, we passed time enjoying relaxing pursuits. The boys went off together to do young Marco’s prescribed football (soccer, for US readers) exercise workout. I threatened to join them, but then passed on the opportunity. Instead, I caught up on email a bit until, somehow it had gotten to almost 2 o’clock and we needed to make it to the hotel restaurant before they stopped serving lunch. 
I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and happily found it to be customized to a Guatemalan version of ham topped with avocado and a fabulous cheese.
After lunch, I watched part of the movie, “Guardian of the Galaxy” with Jose on his laptop computer. We paused it when Marco Sr. invited us to join everyone for some afternoon coffee/hot chocolate and cookies. We played “Golf” with a deck of cards and the board game Cranium and even some “Heads Up” with Marco’s phone, after we had him download the app.
It was feeling wonderfully like a vacation at the lake.
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To Atitlán
Flush with excitement for all we had seen of the Palm Sunday events in Antigua, we settled back into the Land Cruiser for a couple hours of driving to get to picturesque Lake Atitlán, where we would have use of their friends’ gorgeous old lake house for a few days. 
Marco decided it would make most sense to eat lunch before getting too far down the road, knowing the Restaurante El Mirador would again be a convenient option. That was at the same La Reunion Golf Resort where he took me for breakfast on our first day in Guatemala.
We had hoped to see a good view of volcanoes that first day, but the sky was thick with hazy clouds. Now on our second visit, we were experiencing a thunderstorm. In fact, with the lack of walls enclosing the seating areas, the sound of one crack was startling enough that Cyndie let out an involuntary scream. She was immediately embarrassed by her outburst and apologized profusely. I don’t believe many people noticed. Even though Cyndie was the only person to react out loud, I think everyone else experienced a bit of a silent scream inside their own heads.
Needless to say, there wasn’t much in the way of volcano views that day, either.
My being in vacation mode had me regularly losing track of time or what day it was, but after the spectacle of the Palm Sunday procession just a short time earlier, I wasn’t surprised to see the restaurant was serving a fancy looking brunch. I didn’t get around to taking pictures until I had selected desserts that looked too fine to be eaten. I liked the design that looks like a treble clef enough that it made me think of pulling out the camera.
Marco told us that it was uncharacteristically early for their rainy season to be starting, but our drive ended up involved in epic amounts of rainfall. Being seated in the car kept me from pulling out my camera to capture the drama of that afternoon, but it was probably too dark for pictures anyway.
I went so far as to make some ridiculous statement about how dark clouds always looks worse in the distance. When you eventually arrive to actual storm clouds that may have looked so ominous at a distance, they never seem nearly as dark. It didn’t take long at all for this instance to totally demonstrate the folly of my point. It just kept getting darker and darker.
Then it rained harder and harder. Unbelievable amounts of water came down as Marco heroically pushed the Toyota to proceed up the mountain road. Visibility on the windshield went from bad, to “clear enough we could see how bad.” Rain was coming down in multiple inch-per-hour rates. Runoff was beginning to become rivers which overflowed the ditches of the switchback road.
There were a few spots where it looked like a gamble to drive through, and in one place, the gushing water in a ditch was hitting an obstruction and shooting straight up into the air. Marco handled it all with a calm composure and successfully steered through the worst of it and over the mountain to the other side where the rain calmed down considerably.
When we got to the house there was a sense of relief. Then we spotted a few places where the roof leaked. It only extended the drama a tiny bit. The weather began to improve almost immediately such that we didn’t experience any further problems with leaks or floods.
We walked a short distance down to a restaurant at Posada de Santiago where Jose was quick to point out they had a guitar that was available for guests and customers to play.
We celebrated the end of our incredible 4th day with a fine meal in a very comfortable setting. Our pace would slow down a little bit now, which was well deserved, after the incredible adventures we enjoyed that Sunday. We turned in at a decent hour, and even though it was our 3rd bed in as many days, I slept wonderfully that night.
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Relative Something 