Adventures in Atitlán Day 3: Panajachel

Atitlán Adventure day number three started with a beautiful drive a quarter of the way around the lake and over to Panajachel (commonly referred to as “Pana”).

Fortunately, the skies were clear and I was able to get a few good shots from a popular photography spot along the way.

Arriving in Panajachel, we made our way through a busy city center down to the waterfront, where there are stalls upon stalls of vendors, a multitude of restaurants, and an incredibly gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. (Lake Atitlán is surrounded by 3 volcanoes, Volcán Atitlán, Volcán San Pedro and Volcán Tolimán.)

I’ve heard a lot of descriptions about how beautiful Pana is but none of them could have done it justice.

Lobster on the waterfront for lunch? Oh, yes!

The view wasn’t bad, either!

After lunch, we drove up into the actual city of Sololá, which is the capital of the department of Sololá.

On the way, we stopped to see a waterfall. It isn’t flowing much at this time of year, but that’s ok; we have an excuse to go back!

On the other side of the road is a lovely spot overlooking Pana.

Below: Hotel Atitlán is a luxury hotel on what was at one time a family-owned coffee plantation. There’s a helicopter pad, an infinity pool on the lake from which all three volcanoes (Atitlán, Toliman and San Pedro) can be seen, and a botanical garden which is a tourist attraction in and of itself. From what I understand, it is more accurately described as a collection of gardens extending from the hotel’s entrance to the lake which can take up to 2 hours to explore.

For a $10 tourist fee as opposed to a $150 overnight guest fee (haha) a tour of Hotel Atitlán is already on the next trip’s itinerary!

The hotel is also within walking distance to the The Atitlán Nature Reserve, which I cannot WAIT to go back and see. It has a butterfly sanctuary, suspension bridges, a zip-line, three nature trails… and spider monkeys! Being a nature reserve, there’s also a campground, a park and, of course, lots of beautiful flowers.

An off road trip down into a remote village not frequented by tourists… We weren’t sure whether we should be there but found the people very friendly; they cheerfully returned our greetings, and several children shouted to us in English and waved goodbye as we drove up the hill on the way out of town.