Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you book or buy something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend places and services I have personally used or vetted. Choosing where to stay at Lake Atitlán is not as simple as picking the … Read more
Most 5-day Guatemala itineraries try to cover three destinations and end up doing none of them well. This one doesn’t. It focuses on two places: Lake Atitlán and Antigua Guatemala. Where to base yourself, how to move between them, what is worth your time, and what to skip. Written by a Guatemalan who has been … Read more
Women in Santiago Atitlán still wear their beautiful huipiles embroidered with birds and flowers to buy tomatoes at the market, the same way their mothers and grandmothers did long before tourists arrived. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid growing up in Guatemala, and that detail still tells me more about this town … Read more
San Marcos La Laguna is Lake Atitlán’s wellness hub — the village with the highest concentration of yoga studios, breathwork facilitators, and retreat centers at the lake, and the home of Cerro Tzankujil Nature Reserve, where the cliff jumping platform 12 meters above the lake is one of the most exhilarating things you can do … Read more
Inside the weaving cooperatives of San Juan La Laguna, Tz’utujil women sit at backstrap looms and explain what they’re doing in ways that make you understand, maybe for the first time, what this tradition actually is. Which plant made the blue. Which insect made the red. How long her grandmother spent teaching her. I’ve sat … Read more
Before 6 AM on a clear morning in Panajachel, with the water still and the sky just beginning to lighten, the three volcanoes appear across the lake. San Pedro, Tolimán, Atitlán. All three, unobstructed. It takes your breath away. I’ve been watching this view my whole life and I still stand there for a few … Read more
This article contains affiliate links. If you book or buy something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products, places, and services I have personally used or vetted. Planning 10 days in Guatemala and not sure how to make every day count? … Read more
This article contains affiliate links. If you book or buy something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products, places, and services I have personally used or vetted. Planning 7 days in Guatemala and tired of seeing the same recycled itinerary everywhere … Read more
If you are planning Holy Week in Guatemala and trying to decide where to go, Semana Santa at Lake Atitlán offers something that no other destination in the country can match: twelve indigenous villages, each with its own Holy Week traditions, spread around one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. While most travelers … Read more
Maximón is Guatemala’s most mysterious and misunderstood spiritual figure, and possibly the most fascinating thing you will encounter in the entire country. He is a wooden deity who sits in a smoke-filled room accepting offerings of cigars and liquor, and he will grant petitions that no Catholic saint would touch. Want revenge on someone who … Read more
