Panajachel

The village of Panajachel on the shore of the beautiful Atitlán Lake has art galleries, textile, handicraft shops and restaurants of different kinds. Like in Antigua there are several confortable hotels.
Around the lake, going by boat or by road, you can visit 12 beautiful villages, where the mayan people live with its traditions. On the right side of the lake you can find the villages of Santa Cruz, Tzununá, San Marcos, Santa Clara, Santa Maria Visitación, Santa Clara, San Pablo, San Juan y San Pedro, both at the foot of Volcán de San Pedro.

Santiago Atitlán at the foot of Volcán de Tolimán y Atitlán.In the left side of the lake you can find San Lucas, at the foot of the Volcán de Tolimán, and very near by boat is San Antonio Palopó and Santa Catarina Palopó. Over the mountains and by road you may visit Agua Escondida, Godinez, and San Andres Semetabaj.

The mail boat, sailing everyday in the morning may take you across the lake for a visit to the charming village of Santiago Atitlán on the opposite shore and come back at noon.The town of Santiago Atitlán is located on an embankment of broken lava.

The Bay of Santiago is amazingly beautiful, it is surrounded by the three volcanoes mentioned above and to the south, by a volcanic range crorwned with fantastically formed crests, mute witnesses to formidable geological cataclysms which occurred in the remote past.
The range and the summits of the volcanoes are covered by luxuriant forests of the type called subtropical very wet mountain forest, in which pine, oak and other native species predominate.
The tz’utujil people have their own regional dress. For men, this consists of short trousers reaching to the knee, white with purple strips, and held at the waist with a long band, hat and long-sleeved shirt (in earlier times the shirts were made locally). Women wear colorful cotton blouses white with red and purple vertical strips, with geometric designs and small multicolor birds embroidered into them.

A few miles to the south of the town of Santiago Atitlán is the lookout of king Tepepul, which is the gateway to the Quetzal Reserve, the habitat of this bird which is the symbol of Guatemala, and an ideal place from which to see the slope of the highlands and the plains of the coastline of the Pacific Ocean.The town of Santiago Atitlán continues to preserve its traditional cultural personality, despite changes in the community brought about by contact with the outer world. The houses are generally distributed around patios{yards}which are used to raise domestic animals and carry out other activities, such as the manufacture of handicraft. Except for the center, the town is made up of narrow alleyways which zigzag in apparent disorder along the length and the breath or the urban hub.
Tz’utujil is the local language of Santiago Atitlán. This belongs to the Maya family of languages, and it is one of the 24 Maya languages spoken in Guatemala. Although most people speak Spanish, there are cases of persons who only know tz’utujil, particularly the elders and the women.

The skirts called "cortes" , are of red fabric wrapped around the body and reaching to the ankles. They also wear colorful shawls, called "perrajes", together with a multicolor band called "tocoyal", measuring approximately 60 feet, which they wrap around the heads to give the effect of the shining sun. The women weave and embroider the family’s clothes, with exception of the "cortes", which are woven in the weaveries.
A great number of atitecs (which is the name given to the natives of Santiago Atitlán) practice popular Maya Catholicism, called locally "The Custom". This is essentialy a merger of mediaval Catholicism introduced by the Spaniards in the 16th Century and the pre-Hispanic Maya religion.

Despite the advent of different Protestat and neofundamentalist churhes especially after 1950, a considerable percentage of the people continues to be faithful to "The Custom", whose ritual and ceremonial aspects conserve the traditional Atitec cosmovision handed down fron generation to generation since the 16th Century.
"The Custom" resolves around the system of "cofradías" (brotherhoods). The "cofradía" is a religious institution with origin in the Middle Ages, and was incorporated into the \Maya communities by the friars in the process of evangelization of the Maya population. During the colonial period (from 1524 to 1821) the "cofradías",apart from the religious Catholic Chuch. Although it was alien to the traditional Maya culture, the "cofradía" system was soon adopted by the community as its own and acquiered the category of a cultural fortress making it possible for the Atitecs to retain the cultural identity. Nowadays, the "cofradías" and "The Custom" are the principal mechanism by means of which Santiago Atitlán faces up to the challenges of the present without losing its Maya specificity.
"The customs" has its public and private moments. Its public manifestation can be appreciated during religious festivities, and the include socio-religious events such as processions and traditional dances. Privately, "The Custom" accompanies the individual from birh to death. Maya high priest serve as guides to the people accordingly as prescribed by tradition, they bless new houses, perform planting and harvest rituals and ceremonies associated with birth, marriage and death. They also assure the permanence of publics rituals. It is on these men and the profound knowledge of the cosmovision and wisdom of their people that the permanence of the ancestral Maya Tz’utujil culture depends.
Mountaineering.

It seems that most of Guatemala, with its tall powerful volvanoes, is trying to touch the sky. The rugged sierras in Guatemala are a climber’s dream.
There are two titans : the Tajumulco, the highest volcano in Central América, at 4,200 M. above sea level ; and the Tacaná, reaching 4,092 M. above sea level. Both are in the San Marcos region. Around the Atitlán Lake you can see just in the south the Tolimán which has a twin-peak summit and reaches 3,158 M. above sea level. The ascent is technically more challenging and requires six hours. Once on top, you can spend the night, so it’s advisable to take a sleeping bag, warm clothes and enough provisions.
The Atitlán volcano, just at the rear of the Tolimán volcano, rises to 3,860 M above the sea level and takes a whole day to reach the top. The effort is rewarded by a wonderful view.
The San Pedro volcano just at the south west of the Atitlán lake can be climbed relatively easily. If you begin your ascent at the crack of dawn, you will up in the clouds by midday.
Hang gliding.
With its clear skies, Guatemala is a great place to go hang gliding. If you decide to glide over Lake Atitlán you get an eagle’s eye view of the three volcanoes : Tolimán,San Pedro and Atitlán. These impressive sentinels stand watch over the green ravines and as far as the eye can see. Guatemala skies are clear and breezy, perfect for professional competitors and novices alike.
Lake Atitlán.
If, in a cleft in the green mountainous blanket, we were to place a turquoise set in the clouds descending from the Tolimán, Atitlán and San Pedro (or as the cakchiqueles called Choyjuyub that means volcano of the lagoon), it could not surpass the breathtaking beauty of Lake Atitlán.
Every year bevies of reddish colored ducks waddle beside the willows on its banks while herons sink their feet into the sand and scan the blue water for a black lobina to swim unwittingly by. There is no bluer more water than that of Lake Atitlán. No wonder it’s called "the most beautiful lake in the world".
Now you are ready to leave Panajachel and take the road to Sololá and Chichicastenango or only "Chichi" as commonly is called.