Lago Atitlan is an incredible freshwater lake situated in the highlands of Guatemala and surrounded by three cone shaped volcanoes.  It is quite the picturesque scene, the water and the volcanoes, the jungle around and of course the incredible colors of the Guatemala weavings all come together for an amazing image. 

We arrived to the town of Panajachel – called Pana – and met with our local guide Pablo, who promptly took us to the local boat dock to catch a boat to the surrounding towns.  The lake has 12 little towns or villages around it and each is unique in its own right. 

The town of San Juan was my favorite in that it is quite a small town – less then 2000 people – many of whom have organized themselves into cooperatives to work together in order to bring visitors to their small town.  They have several weaving collectives, where the women weave the famous Guatemalan colors, not only do they do the weaving but they also make the dyes from natural sources, for example the orange color is from carrots.  They showed us around and had the plants for each color growing right there. We also visited a collective where they make medicines from plants and an artisan gallery with amazing paintings. 

We were treated to a delicious lunch of a traditional bean soup served with mini-tamales followed by a traditional Guatemalan chicken dish, with rice, vegetables and of course the handmade tortillas that were being made right in front of our eyes.  The desert was sweet plantains in a chocolate mole sauce. Yum!

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Ellery & Brian are now in Guatemala, scouting a 2010 adventure!  Here is an update we received from Brian yesterday:

Hola from Guatemala!  Ellery and arrived yesterday after a long but pleasant journey.  The flight was a red-eye and we woke to the dawn breaking over a picturesque landscape below.  The Gulf coastline was flat and marshy here, the ocean invading to form lagoons.  As we flew further inland, the coastal flatlands gave way to steadily rising hills, reminiscent of Hawaii in both their steepness and vibrant foliage.  Eventually the hills showed their true origin, as volcanic peaks appeared, cresting the ridgeline.  There were several calderas, collapsed craters that had filled with murky wáter.  We even saw one that must have erupted in the recent past, as the forest below was drowned in its now-cooled lava, bare except for a few adventerous plant colonists, its cráter adorned only with a few wisps of cloud. 

We had a good overview of Guatemala from above.  Farms abounded and the terraced hills spoke the agrarian lifestyle that´s still very much alive here.  As we were landing I tried to ask my seatmate (an old woman who looked uncannily like my neighbor from back home) what was being grown, but she was busy muttering prayers under her breath!  ¨Thank God!¨ she exclaimed as we landed, and I couldn´t agree more.  We were finally in amazing Guatemala…