Lago de Atitlan

​From Semuc Champey we took the same 10 hour van ride back to Antigua before a 3 hour extension onwards to “Hostel Fe” at San Pedro La Laguna on the beautiful Lake Atitlan. Again we arrived after dark, so we couldn’t do much but have a quick shower and go to bed.

We got up bright and early the next morning, had some coffee down the street from the hostel, came back for breakfast at the hostel and set out about planning the day. Again, we were only going to have one full day here, so we were keen to make it count. After chatting to one of the owners of the hostel about what we should do, we decided on taking a boat across the lake to Santa Cruz la Laguna and walk back to San Marcos la Laguna, along the northwest edge of the lake.

Our short boat hop took us to San Marcos at first, and after it appeared that our driver was going to wait with no real time frame until he got more passengers, we decided to do the walk in reverse. 

We seriously lucked out with the weather, scoring an absolutely beautiful blue sky day. The walk was amazing, we passed through 2 extra small villages between our starting and end points, we met several friendly local “perritos” (little dogs) who followed us for a while through plenty of farmlands and forest before turning around and going on their merry way. All of this was whilst being treated to views of the beautiful lake and surrounding volcanoes. Again, will let the photos do the talking.

Just before we reached Santa Cruz, we bumped into another couple at a viewpoint who told us about a little restaurant/hotel named “Isla Verde” just down then road. We were so glad they told us to look out for it, or we literally would have walked right past the entrance and not even noticed the tiny sign on the modest green wooden gate.

This place was awesome. We had a delicious lunch on a beautiful deck overlooking the lake, surrounded by this beautiful little paradise of a garden. And extremely well priced!

With full tummies and huge smiles, we carried on for the next half km or so to the jetty to get our return boat. For having only 1 full day to explore the lake, our little adventure on the far side was amazing!

The next morning we were up very early for a shuttle back to Antigua, getting there around sunrise. We spent the day exploring the markets again for some little presents to take home. We spent 1 more night here and got the first available transfer to the airport in Guatemala City in an effort to beat those godforsaken roadblocks. We were successful, and hence rewarded with a 7 hour wait for our plane.

​Next stop… Las Vegas!