Panajachel, Guatemala

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Panajachel is sometimes called "Gringotenago" (place of the foreigners) because of the steady stream of visitors arriving since it was discovered by the backpacking community in the hippie hey days. The tourist crowd is younger on average than in Antigua, and the trinket sellers are intense. We could see why Pana is so frequently visited, it is a very beautiful place and has a comfortable atmosphere. Most of the Caucasian tourists are from Europe, Americans may be still scared away by the travel warnings (the locals will tell you not to walk around the lake on your own because of bandits).

Some kind of tropical paradise.

Earning my "buy one get another one free" dinner at Seva.

This looks like a scene from The Lord of the Rings (when Sauromon is sending the storm against the Fellowship). Lake Atitlan is recognized by the New Age community as being one of locations of earth's few vortex energy fields. While on our shuttle ride out of Pana, the driver stopped at a point in the road where the van appeared to roll uphill.

You can see one of the tuk-tuk taxis here, one of them even had "tuk-tuk" written on the side.

Volcano at sunset.

Yes, we ate here. They had vegetarian food and it was pretty good. It was strange to see the TVs showing some sort of bodybuilding competition (without sound).

The beach.

Heather and Dan at sunset.

Chicken bus! We rode a Chicken bus from Antigua to Pana, we sat right behind the driver so we had good leg room. The ride was quite an experience, the busses pick up passengers everywhere along the roadside. No poultry passengers on our bus, though.

Another beautiful sunset.

San Antonio, one of the other villages around the lake.

The twin volcanoes seen from a scenic lookout on the road to El Carmen.

Bonus- our stopover in Tapachula, Chiapas (Mexico).

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