Lake Atitlan

“At the water” is the meaning of Lake Atitlan.  Lake Atitlan is one of the deepest lakes in Central America with a depth of 1,120 feet. Amongst it’s beautiful waters lies various Lakeside communities including: Santa Marcos, Santiago, Panajachel, San Pedro, and Santa Cruz. When one first catches glance of the lake on a clear, sunny day-it stuns the eyes with it’s beauty.  The mountains surround it and literally lay on the top one another creating a picturesque wonderland.

It’s a Lake with a lot of spirituality that surrounds it’s waters. There are villages include the two main ones: Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel.  

The area of the villages is surrounded by beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, chile verde, strawberries, and pitahaya fruit (red with yellow spikes). There are avocado trees, mango trees, and coffee farms as well.  They are especially present in San Pedro. 

Unfortunately, this beautiful region suffered from Hurricane Stan in 2005.  Hurricane rains from Hurricane Stan caused extensive rain damage in 2005. A village Panabaj of 1,400 residents were killed by this massive landslide (Wikipedia). One can see trees in the water and some docks still floating. They definitely represent a resilient group of people. 

Some facts come from Wikipedia in this post.