Lake Atitlan - In the Highlands of the Volcanos

The beautiful Lake Atitlan is an old volcano crater ringed by volcano's who stretches up to 3500 m in high. They are not active anymore but still impressive to look at.

San Marcos La Laguna, Lake Atitlan

A cute, very quite little town on the hills with a mixture of Mayan and Hippie people. There is not much to do here - but thats why everybody seemed to be here for.

San Pedro La Laguna

A very nice town which goes up the hill very steep. Its lovely located and we had the best view ever. Busy with shopping in the local market every day to prepare Guacamole, drinking 50 cent Cuba Libre and relaxing were the main things to do for us, which was nice. :) I liked it a lot.

San Pedro Vulcano, 3100 m, Lake Atitlan

We decided to do a hiking to the high vulcano and once again I had this feeling in me again. Will it be safe?? I problably asked a few times, already annoying marco. But it seemed safe so we both took our big cameras and started walking at 5 in the morning with a guide who was supposed to be our security guide too. I was kind of angry as I saw that he only had a small, very old machete with him - you may can use it for putting peanut butter on your bread but not to scare somebody of with that thing....Rediculous.

Then he was walking quite fast ( its a fuckin steep way - loooong steep way ) like he tried to get a new record in " how long will this german girl need for getting a heart attack…………..

We just arrived at the entrance ( after 2 km steeeep walk ) and I was already quite exhausted … Fuck, were did my fitness go?? Must have taken a flight back home already without me :)
Only 4 km left. We saw the sunlights coming up in different colors before we continued our way trough lots of coffee plants and trees. I was kind of struggling but after a while u just walk, walk, walk.. Steep. The whole fuckin time. Puls: 200, sweating, struggling, walking. After another hour of walking, an old local worker overtook us ( gosh he was old – and fit ! ) as we nearly reached the first stop – the Mirador Lookout. But suddenly our Guide was running towards us, chasing us back into the trees for a couple of hundreds of meters before he told us that there were two guys with masks and guns.
I KNEW IT.
We didn’t want to risk our cameras and life’s, so we started to go all the way back. We were so angry – close to the fuckin top of the volcano and couldn’t reach it.. We bumped into another group, but they decided to go on – they got warned and took nothing with them. So angry again. Nobody told us.
As we arrived on the entrance, 2 police man were on the way to the top to figure out what’s going on there. We could have gone with them but we were not in the mood anymore and it would have been so exhausting to walk up again.
Disappointed , we went to the office to get some of our money back because they didn’t warned us and the guide with his little knife was not really a security. He was running away from them..
Wow. Well, got half our money back but they couldn’t take our disappointment..
Once again, we met Tracey and Eric again by coincidence! So funny.

Santiago Atitlan







Normally the lake is flat and nice, but the day we had to take the boat there were huge waves. We bumped around the lake like a little nutshell in the big ocean – but arrived. Just totally wet. Squeezed in between old volcanoes Santiago makes a beautiful scenery .

It also keeps a traditional lifestyle and clothing, even in between the mass of markets. In the late afternoon, once again the only tourists in town, we "met" a very important old Maya God – the Maximon. He’s living in a house and the people celebrate him around Easter time. Guess what, Its Easter!!













Maximon is a wooden figure with some silk scarves and is smoking a cigar. They bring him offerings like cigarettes and Rum. This night they all got drunk around him - with beers. So wired – but fun to see.
The next day was even a bigger celebration with tons of locals. It was great to be in between them.









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And guess what – we bumped into Tracey and Eric again! Crazy.