Lake Atitlán and Panajachel

Panajachel or Pana is a small bohemian town located at the side of Lake Atitlán, the third biggest lake in Guatemala. It is one of the most visited places in Guatemala. Like Chichicastenango, it is a great place to shop Guatemalan Handcrafts. It is also the perfect place to do nothing. It has a lot of small hotels, as well as some very nice five stars hotel. It has great hotels and restaurants, some expensive, but most are real cheap, it also has an ecological park “Buenaventura” and a butterfly farm inside Hotel Atitlán and some of the most bohemian places in the country.

Lake Atitlán has volcanic origin, at it is a former crater. It is sourround by four volcanoes:

  • Tolimán
  • Atitlán
  • San Pedro
  • Santa Clara

It is also sourrounded by many small towns, being the most famous Panajachel. I remenber being taught that there were twelve town, each with a name of Jesus apostles, thruth being this is not accurate. Some of the towns are:

  1. Santiago Atitlán (James)
  2. San Jorge La Laguna
  3. Santa Cruz La Laguna
  4. Santa Lucía La Laguna
  5. San Marcos La Laguna (Mathew)
  6. San Pablo La Laguna
  7. San Juan La Laguna (John)
  8. San Pedro La Laguna (Peter)
  9. San Lucas Tolimán
  10. San Antonio Palopó
  11. San Andrés Semestabal (Andrew)
  12. Agua Escondida

(Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus (Jude), Simon,  Judas Iscariot and one James are missing and there is no Matthias either)