Posts Tagged With: Panajachel

It was the usual 7am start to the morning with classes at 8am, but this time we were taking another trip out again. This time, we were headed for the town of Panajachel nested next to Lago Atitlan, a high altitude lake in the highland area of Guatemala. The cool thing about this though, is that volcanoes dot the surroundings of the lake, making for some REALLY nice scenery. Around the lake, there are 12 different towns, named after the 12 apostles (so we were told).

The shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 12:30pm, but this being Guatemala, they shuttle eventually came at 1:20pm. After our mishap in Flores, we are quite keen on NOT missing our shuttles! The shuttle driver was a bit crazy, and he made the ride so choppy we’re pretty sure some people threw up in the back. Alan almost did too!

The town of Panajachel is quite touristy, but not that cheesy. In some ways, it reminded us a bit of Pokhara! There were two main roads which lead you straight into a long dock & beach area where a lot of bars are located for those perfect sunsets over the lake. The best thing for us about Panajachel though, was that somehow and someway, there was an Singaporean restaurant here! Having had enough of the usual tortillas and corn-based things, we generally try to get a fix of Asian foods once in a while. And surprisingly, this place served GREAT authentic Asian food…. cooked by Mayans!! Globalization, eh?

At night, we headed over to a bar labeled PANA ROCK (clearly a rip off of Hard Rock), listened to some Spanish rock songs, drank a few beers and commented on how things are so expensive for locals.