Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan which is best seen from the town of Panajachel (Pana-ha-shel) is Guatemala's most beautiful lake and is boasted as one of the most beautiful in the world as well! This was a great trip for us since not only did we get to see a wonderful and gorgeous lake surrounded by 3 volcanos, but we also got to see the markets and culture. After reading through the post and picture comments, please be sure to click on the pictures you liked to see them in better resolution, they look a lot better that way.

I am very proud of these first shots because I decided to make them a small project and do what I did for my Antigua post...make them a panorama using GIMP.  I edited the pictures in Lightroom and then used GIMP to blend and adjust the pictures together.  The fourth is the panorama...let me know what you think.

Here it is


This was the preview picture that I put up on Facebook

Check out the indigenous workers.  These ladies walked around with scarfs and tablecloths drapped on their shoulders and arms while carrying their stock of different designs on their heads.

Who's that beautiful diva behind those Foster Grants (Angels)? 

Talk about starting young...this was the daughter of a street vendor that we walked by.  The little girl saw us and chased behind us for...no kidding...about 40 feet.  She has a shawl in one hand and money in the other, ready to give us change...hahaha.

I loved this area...this is the same boat as the one from the Facebook preview but just at the end of our day.  It was so cloudy in front of the volcanos that you could barely see them.

 Heavenly - that what Katrina said when she saw this picture (post edit).

This was a hotel (with a heck of a view!) but take notice of the sunken ship that lies on the edge of the shore...not sure why its there but it was definitely interesting to pass by it on our little boat ride. 

I chose this one to be black and white because it looked great with the effect but also to give it an older mood since the canoe that this man is in is hand made...carved right from a tree! 

The 3 big hotels in Panajachel, all just a couple of feet from the water.  Imagine waking up and seeing the huge lake and 3 volcanos in the morning or at sunset (I have some of those below).

We were walking by an alley and I saw this little girl, I immediately backpedaled and took out my camera.  This little girl was making bracelets to sell.

This is where we had dinner, on the second floor.

This was the view from our restaurant.  I took the opportunity to take a few minutes and photograph the sunset.  I watched the sun fall from about 2 inches above the clouds (from my perspective) until it was completely gone.  It was about 10 minutes of fun picture taking such as this one with the sun rays clearly showing.  Hint: To get this darker, orangy hue I delayed the shutter speed.

Believe it or not but this was taken about 15 minutes after the sun disappeared into the clouds.  This dock was about 3 flights of stairs down from our parking spot but I just had to climb down and take pictures. 

The dock did not look the safest so I didn't venture onto it but stood right about where this picture starts and was snapping away happily :) 

This was taken from a side angle to the dock from above to show more landscape and also the passing boat.

All in all, this was an awesome day.  The street vendors got to be a little much, especially when they came up to your face while you were eating so that you would buy from them and some often begged for you to buy something.  Besides that though, the weather was amazing, the sights breathtaking and this lake is truly one of the prettiest locations that I have had the privilage of visiting.