Lake Atitlan 🇬🇹

Welcome to Lake Atitlan

After this torture for our bodies, we were looking for a place where we could relax and enjoy ourselves. Of course, everything on a backpacker budget. For this, we chose Lake Atitlan. The lake is about 1/5 the size of Lake Constance. In the midst of volcanoes, an oasis of diversity has formed. Small villages are located in the individual bays, which could not be more different in vibe. However, everywhere you were reminded of Lake Como or Lake Garda. One of these places was San Pedro (a party place that we stayed away from), San Juan (the most local) or San Marcos (a hippie stronghold). We decided to take the shuttle to the latter place directly after descending from the volcano at 2 PM. We spent the first night in an unremarkable hostel, which we quickly left the next day. Then we stopped at Ahau. This hostel convinced us so much that we stayed here for 5 nights. The two owners, Erikk and Daniel, have turned the place into a small tropical home for travelers. Erikk's favorite saying was "Peace & Love" and Daniel's was "See you in the future". We lived in a German bubble of 8 people and did many day trips, family dinners, and an aloe vera production together. For example, we went to Cerro Tzankujil (Nature Reserve), Indian Nose, or Chichicastenango.

Cerro Tzankujil

On Wednesday, we walked to the small nature reserve Cerro Tzankujil. Just a 10-minute walk from our hostel at the river, there is a small oasis next to a small harbor. On the one hand, there were many viewpoints here to look out over the lake and enjoy the day in peace. The green of the trees and the blue of the lake harmonized perfectly. On the other hand, there was also a 12-meter high diving platform into the lake, to find the inner balance between adventure and relaxation.

Unfortunately, our journey changed a bit here because Tino broke his foot here. It is now forgiven. We had everything checked in a hospital with an X-ray machine. Due to the exertion from the hike to the two volcanoes, his body could no longer provide full support in case of a misstep.

Indian Nose

On Friday morning, 5 of us set our alarms at 3:45 AM so that we could start our way to Indian Nose at 4 AM. We managed to leave at 4:15 AM. It was going to be challenging because according to Apple, the sunrise was supposed to be at 5:39 AM. Since we wanted to do it without a tour, and I staged this, I was chosen as the tour guide and had this written on my chest. Unfortunately, there is no chicken bus (name for the public colorful buses) from San Marcos, so we simply set out in the dark at night and wanted to see if we could find a bus, a tuk-tuk, or a hitchhike. After a few minutes, we found a tuk-tuk driver who offered to take us to San Pablo, where we could get on a chicken bus. Since there was really nothing on the streets anymore, we agreed and negotiated the price down a bit. On the way, I had to get out several times because the slope was too steep for the 6 of us. Accordingly, I always walked a bit ahead. When we arrived in San Pablo, we realized that if we waited for the bus, we would miss the sunrise. However, we negotiated an acceptable price again and were driven to the entrance of the park. After a short time, a man with a machete and a camouflage jacket came towards us in the middle of the forest and fields and told us that he was the guard of this private property. I had heard before that a father and his son would rob tourists without a guide with a machete. I told everyone about this, and we were a little nervous, but his articulation did not match that of a robber. We decided to follow him, and he took us to the beginning of the hike, where he then asked each of us for 50 Quetzales (about €6). This was also written on a self-made sign. I knew that the entrance to Indian Nose cost exactly the same amount. We paid the bill and were supposed to do the 20-minute hike alone. When we arrived at the top, we realized that we were about 20 meters below the actual viewpoint on a privately built lookout point. However, we were there exactly at 5:39 AM and we were the only ones there with the same view. We were happy about the privacy and the fact that nothing happened to us. Now we enjoyed the rising sun over Lake Atitlan and its volcanoes for over half an hour. When we got back down, our guard was waiting for us and transported us on a pickup truck for only 5 Quetzales, which took us to the next village, from where we walked home. We stood in the back of the open load area and could continue looking out over the lake. All in all, this made the trip super adventurous and we will never forget it.