Our last spot in Guatemala was Lake Atitlan which is a stunning fresh water lake surrounded by three volcanos, mountains and cliffs. It is unique in that there are twelve villages around the lake named after the twelve apostles and most are accessible only by boat.
On our drive from Antigua to Lake Atitlan we stopped at a Mayan ruin called Iximche. It was impressive how big the grounds were.
Our drive ended in the town of Panajachel which is the tourist launching point for Lake Atitlan. There were lots of restaurants and market stalls.
Our only frustration on this leg of our trip was dealing with the water taxis. We soon discovered that the difference between a private ride and a public ride wasn’t based upon the type of boat it was but it was based upon what can be negotiated with the driver and whether he already had people aboard or not. So really, almost any boat could be public or private.
Our AirBnb was about a 15 minute boat ride from Panajachel and was only accessible by boat. It was worth the frustration of the water taxis and was a super relaxing place to stay for a few days.
View from the dock was spectacular.
We ended up with the top floor and the outdoor patio was a great place to do homework or have breakfast.
The property itself was quite lovely with flowering trees and bushes in abundance. This attracted numerous song birds and humming birds which provide a constant flurry of activity when you were sitting outside.
We were about a 10-15 minute walk from the village of Santa Cruz la Laguna. We took a walk there and had lunch at little local restaurant right by the water.
The village itself was not on the lake but up the hill side with quite a interesting walk up!
One of our days here we splurged and decided to do paragliding as a family. We decided to count this as our Christmas gift to each other. If you recall from our Lima post, Annika was really taken in by the paragliding we had seen there but Peru hadn’t opened up COVID restrictions enough to allow tandem flights. Julia did a bit of research and found a reputable company that ran out of Atitlan. What a great place to do it! Much better views than Lima.
We had about a 30 minute drive up out of Panajachel to get to our launching point.
The girls getting suited up. There was a seat that you got to sit in that attached to the guide’s seat and harness. Each tandem had the main sail for flying plus an emergency parachute.
Since Annika was the one that inspired this, she was the first to take off!
A picture of Annika doing a fly-by while Marika gets ready launch, and a picture taken by Annika of Julia getting ready.
Annika getting my launch and then a view down at the launch point once I caught the updraft to get that high.
Annika got a really good guide and he even taught her how to drive for a little bit. She was the only one of us that got to do that.
Here is Julia doing a few “tricks” with her guide.
The views were amazing.
Taken at almost the same time: me towards Julia, and Julia’s guide back towards me.
This last video is a bit shaky but shows the landing. Thankfully we all landed safely and on our feet.
This was a once in a lifetime experience and another surprise of Guatemala. This was definitely not on our radar at the start of this trip but we are sure glad that we did it.