So many reasons to visit Lake Atitlan in Guatemala I almost ran out of room

A recent trip to Guatemala, my 84th country, blew away all expectations I had about the trip. It’s one of the best places I ‘ve been, especially Antigua (no not the island in the Caribbean), but that will be the subject of a future post. This post is about Lake Atitlan. Prior to writing this post, I listed all the things to do and reasons to go in a notebook and used letters to separate each bullet point. The place is so amazing with so many things to do, I almost ran out of letters!

Lake Atitlan is about 3 hours drive from Guatemala City, but ideally, you should do it after you have visited Antigua. From Antigua, its about 2.5 hours drive to the lake. Here’s a 3 day itinerary for Lake Atitlan, and hopefully, you will see why you should get there ASAP:

Day 1

Departure to Chichicastenango Market – Assuming you are coming from Antigua, you should start your day early; 9AM is when we left. Hire a guide and driver. You need one, message me. Your first stop today should be Chichicastenango. Why? Because it has the largest market in all of Central America! I picked up these amazing hand carved jaguar (which has a special place in Mayan culture) masks for about $20 each, and promptly hung them on my wall when I got home:

The market itself is impressive. Tons of colors, sights and smells to dazzle your senses.

Aside from the market, there are some other cultural sites in the area including a couple of churches. Our guide explained to us how Mayan and Catholic religions are practiced together in Guatemala. I saw lots of examples of this influence in the churches and its something very unique you won’t see anywhere else in the world.

There is also a cemetery with really colorful mausoleums. If that’s not something which interests you, skip it.

We tried to find a local place and although I always insist on a local place, I find that guides are always worried that their clients will get sick and tend to choose places they know which cater to tourists. Anyway, we had a typical meal with some chicken stew and grilled beef. I found that the structure of a Guatemalan meal usually consisted of plantains, protein, rice, beans, avocado, lots of stews, local cheese (sometimes), and always tortillas. I spoke to many locals and they all agreed this was a staple of Guatemalan food. Similar to rice for Asians or bread for the French. They are also very particular about their tortillas. They need to be prepared fresh, the day of consumption, and by hand. They are made with corn and thicker than the Mexican variety. I loved this about the culture. However, I was sad to hear that the art of making them used to be a common skill among most of the population but is now declining.

Chichicastenango to the Hotel – Casa Prana – After lunch, our guide proceeded to drive us to the city of Panajachel where a boat from the hotel would be picking us up to take us to the hotel. I chose Casa Prana as our base for the next three days. There are only two ways to get there: boat and helicopter. We chose the latter for our departure back to Guatemala City, and I believe boat in and heli out is the optimal choice. Upon arrival at the dock, our captain and boat were ready and waiting. This is because you Whatsapp the hotel when you are 30 minutes away and they will then send the boat.

From there, it was a 10 minute ride to the hotel. Upon arrival, I got my first glimpses of the scenery:

There are a ton of reasons why you should stay at Casa Prana (and a couple downsides, but these are relatively minor). First, let me show you our room – The Prana Suite. Although many online will rave about the “Luxury Suite”, the Prana is the best option. The only reason “influencers” like the Luxury Suite is because it has a very Instagrammable copper tub in a panoramic bathroom. However, the Prana suite is larger and has better views. Here is a room tour:

Casa Prana used to be the summer home of a family until it was converted into a boutique hotel. In all, there are only 8 rooms so its likely you will never see anyone during your stay. The whole place feels like you are living in a grand mansion with tons of chill spots and so many experiences to have. Here is a view from the pool:

Here are 12 things you can experience at Casa Prana:

1. Play pool. There is a pool room with a bar. We would have pre-dinner drinks here and play a couple games of pool. We would also play after dinner (there are no TVs in the room).
   

2. Workout to amazing views of the lake and volcanoes. One of the great things about the Lake is the incredible views of the many volcanoes in the vicinity. The gym, which is on the 2nd floor of another building on the property, has great views of the lake and volcano.

While the gym equipment itself was not particularly well maintained, they had everything you need for a good workout:

3. Order drinks anywhere on the property, or food, or cigars, or pretty much anything you want, using Whatsapp.

4. Enjoy some of the most incredible sunsets. The sunsets from the lake are just incredible.

5. Have cigars and marshmallows by a fire after dinner. Cigars were stored well and reasonably priced. Marshmallows were complimentary (just Whatsapp).

6. Get a massage. On the first floor of the building with the gym, there is a yoga/massage room. The massage was excellent and very reasonably priced.

7. Have a Mayan Sauna – After my massage, I make use of the sauna (you guessed it, just Whatsapp and they will prepare for you). It was nice and steamy with fresh mint inside.

8. Enjoy breakfast on your balcony -I found the food at the hotel ranged from ok to good, with breakfast being the standout. Note they have their own herb and vegetable garden on property. Also, breakfast is not included in the room rate, but every night, I would send a Whatsapp with my breakfast order and time. They would deliver it every morning (they forgot once but after I followed up, it arrived within 15 minutes) and set if up on the balcony. The bread was made in house and was so delicious as was the coffee. The best part was having breakfast on the balcony with incredible views of the lake, pool, and volcanoes.

9. Lounge by the pool all day – on our second full day at Casa Prana, we stayed on site the entire time and started the day lounging by the pool.

10. Have dinner in a different amazing setting every night. At Casa Prana, you order dinner via Whatsapp and just tell them the location you want it and the time. There are so many spot, but the best is the Orchid Room. It could not be more picture perfect. The food at dinner was just ok but nothing really blew me away. However, ingredients were extremely fresh and everything was whole food, high quality.

After dinner, we took out dessert outside, in a garden table area beside the main house.

On the second night, we had dinner out door, at the long table:

…and on the last night, we ate in the main dining room:

11. Chill by the lake –The hotel has two areas lakefront where you can relax, and also, two hammocks.

12. Lounge in the hammock on your balcony – I don’t know if every room has one, but if you book the room I suggest, it will, and this was the perfect spot to relax before dinner or while waiting for breakfast to arrive in the morning.

There are a couple things I did not like about this place. The first is that there is no AC. The temperature, due to the elevation is not hot or cold. I would call it room temperature, BUT I still like to sleep in a cold room, that is below room temp. The hotel will give you a fan but its not the same thing. Second, the lunch by the pool was not good. The tuna was not fresh and the reason I ordered it was it was described as a Mexican type ceviche (and my experience with ceviche in Central has been really good). However, the quality of ingredients are preparation was not good.

The fish and chips were ok:

The other thing you should be prepared for are bugs. You are in nature after all. However, I can say I did not get bit at all and I did not put bug spray on. I did have to get rid of a spider, 1 or 2 ants, and 1 or 2 flies in our room. Before coming, and reading reviews, this was my biggest fear, but I’m glad that overall, it wasn’t a big deal. The place does a good job of cleaning the rooms.

Day 2 – You should spend this day going around the lake and visiting some villages. I think there are 16 or 18 different ones and you can Google them to decide which appeal to you. I went with three and arranged a boat and guide (you can also take the public boat which you just flag down from the dock). The first village was San Juan. Here are the cool things to see in San Juan:

1. The main strip. When you get off the boat, you will come to a color street with cafes and stores on either side.
   

2. Check out local art gallery – This one was pretty close to the dock when we got off the boat.

3. Check out the amazing art work on the buildings.

4. See the blending of Mayan and Catholic religions in the main church

5. Have some amazing coffee and chocolate at Cafe San Juan. Guatemala is known for its coffee and chocolate (though the best I’ve had is still Costa Rica), and the best I had while in the country was this place.

6. See a demo about how the locals dye cotton and make textiles. One thing which surprised me about Guatemala is how many people still wear traditional Mayan clothes. I learned that you can tell where someone is from by their outfit. In San Juan, our guide took us to a place to watch a demo:

One thing amazing about Guatemala is that while they are obviously setting up spots for tourists, it wasn’t TOURISTY. It was well done with the culture preserved.

After San Juan, we hoped on our boat and went to the second village of the day – Santiago. This is the largest village around the lake.

Here is what you can do:

1. Check out the street life. Because the place is larger (about 70k people), you can feel the hustle and bustle of the place compared to the others. Its nice to just wander the streets and check out life on the streets.

2. See more blending of religion at the main church.

3. Have lunch. Our guide brought us to a local spot. Because we were on a lake, I went with the fried fish.

4. Visit a Mayan Church. This was one of the more interesting stops.

Our last village of the day was Santa Catarina. It was my least favorite. The village is really small and its known for the blue buildings, but they are not well maintained.

Day 3 – On this day, we had the amazing breakfast at the hotel (see above) and then headed back to Guatemala City. In order to maximize our time at the lake, I decided to take a helicopter back which I arranged months before. The helicopter company also arranged a lot of our cars, drivers (though there is also Uber), and guides. If you want their info, message me, I highly recommend them. This was a cool way to see some sights. The pilot was supposed to show us 4 volcanoes but he only tried to go to one which was covered with clouds.

And there you have it. Three perfect days in Lake Atitlan. I think its the perfect amount of time to stay there. Any shorter and you will not see enough, and any longer and you may get bored. As I write this, memories come back and out of 84 countries I have been, I would place Guatemala in my Top 10.