We talked to Pam and Brian countless times preparing for our trip, but the more and more we talked, the more we realized that it was going to be impossible for us to plan out every place to sleep or even every town to visit! So, we kept a couple of chunks of time completely unplanned and decided that we would follow are follies and see what happens.
As our time in Antigua came to an end we approached one of the unplanned chunks of time. Really, without much descussion we decided to head toward Lake Atitlan, more specifically, Panajachel (pana-hach-el). And from there, we would take a day trip to Chichicastenango to visit the largest market in Guatemala, if not all of Central America!
We booked a shuttle to take us from Antigua to Panajachel and started on the second leg of our journey. In our micro bus, we wound past crops of corn and towering pine trees, breezed by small villages and old ladies selling traditional Mayan clothes. After climbing the Guatamalan hills for a while, we began to drop alititude very quickly as we made our way toward Lake Atitlan. The switchbacks became monontinous until we rounded one corner that opened up a miraculous view. Many have refered to Lake Atitlan as ¨one of the most beautiful lakes in the world,¨and at the moment I could see why. The true blue water, spread out like a calm blanket, is dotted by 3 volacnaoes that jut up from the surreen water.
We continued to wind our way down to Panajachel, disembaked from our microbus and quickly found our hotel, Utz Jay, our home for the next two nights. We dropped our stuff off and immediately made our way to the shores of the lake. There, we shooed away a couple of guys trying to get us to take a boat ride, and we just sat. We enjoyed looking out at the lake and basked in the moment of being in such a ridiculously amazing place with great friends. The rest of the day passed quickly as we enjoyed drinks and food in town and anticipated our trip to the market the next morning.
-M
Lake Atitlan
Run Through These Streets 
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