Central America 2008, part 15 (Guatemala: Lake Atitlán)
While I was waiting on the shore for more people to gather up for the excursion on Lake Atitlán, I saw a young man coming there and also waiting. When the small group finally formed and we all embarked, that young man sat next to me. Soon we started talking, since we realised we could communicate both in English and in Spanish, but it was clear to me that these were not his native tongues. I asked him where he was from and it turned out he was from Italy! I personally always find this particularly interesting because, on the one hand, in addition to the Serbian citizenship I also have the Italian one and, on the other hand, because I have always had a special “radar” for my compatriots from the Apennine Peninsula. All in all, we spent the rest of the day speaking in Italian.
However, in addition to this, Matteo was an exceptionally handsome man, although also significantly younger than me. When I returned to Belgrade later and spoke with a very close friend about the trip, unavoidably telling her about a cutest Italian. But, she is very conservative and almost angrily she reproached me asking how I could speak about him saying he was so handsome and attractive “when I could be his mother.” I laughed at this and said that maybe I could be his mother, but I was not! So, the problem solved. Still, let it be clear, Matteo was continuing with his journey around Guatemala directly after the excursion, thus leaving Panajachel, but that was not a reason for the two of us not to spend the entire excursion together. I quite enjoyed his company as a matter of fact and I’m sure that he enjoyed mine, too.
In any case, we started to sail by boat across Lake Atitlán in the direction of volcano San Pedro and village San Pedro La Laguna.
Although the day seemed perfect, I was a little worried because of the weather forecast I had read, but I was told that the weather tended to be quite good in the morning, while generally speaking it got a little cloudy in the afternoon. And so it did, but it did not rain and neither was the wind too strong to spoil our excursion on the lake.
I have already said that Lake Atitlán in Guatemala is situated at the altitude of 1562 m. The lake was created a long time ago thanks to the collapsing of a volcano. Its surface area is around 130 square kilometres, while the largest depth is 320 m. Many think that the lake is one of the most beautiful in the world, primarily because of such imposing surroundings.
Guatemala has the surface area of 109,000 km2 and topographically it may be generally divided into lowland areas in the north part of the country and hilly and mountainous areas in the south part, while the highlands are located in the southwest and this was precisely where I was spending these days. Because of such high altitudes, although this area is in the tropics, it has “eternal spring.” However, in addition to high mountains, there is also a large number of volcanoes, since Guatemala is located at the meeting point of three tectonic plates and for this reason this entire region is famous for its earthquakes, as well as volcanic eruptions.
So, not only was Lake Atitlán created at the place of a former volcano, but also in addition to different mountains, it is surrounded by three impressive volcanoes that are still active. These are volcanoes San Pedro (3020 m), Tolimán (3157 m) and Atitlán (3537 m).
When at the beginning of the excursion I looked in the direction of volcanoes Tolimán and Atitlán, I could actually not see two volcanoes, but only one (and that one was Tolimán), while in front of it, closer to the lake’s shore, I could see a hill called Cerro de Oro. This is a parasitic lava dome and it is presumed that at some point lava which is a part of the configuration of volcano Tolimán flowed here. The summit of the hill is at the altitude of a little over 1600 m, which suggests a high mountain, but since it rises above a lake that has the altitude of 1562 m, then this is a hill, after all, which may be seen in the photo.
When the boat moved a little, I could have a better view at volcano Atitlán, which is the highest of the three I’ve been mentioning. By the way, volcano Tolimán has two craters, as opposed to volcano Atitlán which has a perfect conical shape.
Around the lake there are several villages, but the excursion of this day included visits to three of them with the first one being San Pedro La Laguna.
Over time, this place has become a tourist destination because of Spanish language courses, the night life, hiking in the surrounding nature and climbing of volcano San Pedro. Still, Matteo and I skipped all of that and took a side path in order to get to the very shore of the lake.
The place by itself was really pretty, but what was most striking for me was the weather that was perfect – sufficiently sunny for me to be in short sleeves and yet pleasantly fresh because of the breeze, and all of this seemed ideal. I guess this is that constant impression of spring that is mentioned so often.
After a short while by the lake’s shore, we returned to the centre of the village following the same path.
Although we reached this village by boat, it is not isolated, but rather it is linked with the rest of the country by roads, so there were motor vehicles here.
We got to the local market here and although I knew that the local population did not like to have their photos taken by visitors, I could not resist, primarily because of the truly beautiful traditional clothes mostly worn by women. On the other hand, even when I had no intention to take photos of them directly, I could not avoid them, particularly when using my video camera. These traditional clothes mostly consist of colourful skirts, waistbands and aprons, but they often included large scarves in which young moms could wrap up their babies.
When they would see me with a photo-camera in my hands, the local women would most often just turn their backs to me.
But, some of them could not do this, like the woman at whose stall we bought freshly squeezed orange juice.
After a short stay in this village, we gathered again on the boat and continued sailing in the direction of the next destination and that was village Santiago Atitlán. Along the way we passed by local fishermen and shipping operators.
Santiago Atitlán is situated on the shore of a deep bay, right across volcano San Pedro, while volcano Tolimán is in its background. As we were approaching the pier where the boat docked, we could see some crowds on the shore.
These were numerous women dressed in predominantly blue traditional clothes who carried full water pots on their heads. It was obvious that they were taking water from the lake and carrying it somewhere.
As far as I understood it, this was communal work or a bee, since a church was being built and everybody lent a hand with this. By itself this was not that important for me, but such concentration of picturesquely dressed women caught our attention and we all went closer to them in order to take photos of the scenes and the people we were surrounded with.
And then we started to follow them in order to see where they were going and what was being built. Needless to say, I continued taking photos and recording with my video-camera.
When I was selecting photos or making them from video recordings while writing these stories, I realised that as soon as I would take a photo-camera in my hands, these women would either turn their backs to me or they would place empty water pots in front of their faces. But, while I was recording with my video-camera, probably because I was talking all the time and moving, they were less watchful and thus the photos where they can be seen from the front are of poorer quality for they were made from a video recording.
Admittedly, I took photos of some from the back simply because they were in front of me and we moved in the same direction.
Following these water-carrying women, we got to a narrow section where people moved more slowly, so I could easily take photos of these gorgeous traditional clothes, for this was in fact what inspired me to take photos in the first place and not the women themselves who did not want their faces to be seen in some photos.
The vast majority of the population living here and around Lake Atitlán are in fact Mayas, that is, members of ethnic groups and peoples that belong to the Maya culture. The most numerous peoples who live here are the Tz’utujil and the Kaqchikel and they speak their native languages. Very often children start speaking Spanish only once they enter school.
It is precisely because of this strong feeling of belonging to the local culture that women wear traditional clothes in such a large number. Admittedly, this cannot be said of men whom we saw in a larger concentration when we got to the construction site. Their clothes were not interesting in the least, so I did not take photos of them.
When we saw why the large quantity of water the women carried uphill so diligently was needed, Matteo and I could finally head for our main destination in this place and that was Saint James the Apostle Church. Along the way we were joined by an American lady who spoke half in Spanish, half in English. In any case, it was fun.
The church was built by the Spanish when they conquered present-day Guatemala back around 1540 in the place where there used to be a temple of the ancient Maya people. The church is dedicated to Saint James the Apostle and the very village is named after Saint James, since the Spanish version of this name is – Santiago.
In the period from 1960 until 1996, there was a civil war in Guatemala between the government of Guatemala and different leftist groups. As the leftist ideology mostly advocates fight for the rights of the poor and the local population is very poor, the government simply assumed that everybody around here was supportive of the guerrillas. Like in a good share of Latin America, people here also had a habit of going “missing” and thus over 300 people from village Santiago Atitlán are considered missing, plus those who were brutally murdered while being evidently tortured beforehand. However, the big world out there usually could not care less about some nameless residents of a small village on the shores of a lake gone missing or about their torture and killing, but in 1981 there was a breaking news at the international level. Namely, there were right-wing death squads here who had their hit lists and in one such list there was a catholic priest from the USA who was the parish priest here within the catholic mission. Father Stanley Rother was very much respected and loved by the local population for he obviously sincerely cared about them and this must have been the reason why he got included into this list. All in all, on 28 June 1981 he was killed precisely at this church of St. James the Apostle in village Santiago Atitlán. His body was returned to the USA in order to be buried there, but at the request of his parishioners his heart was buried in this church under the altar. By the way, that same year, within this bloody civil war a total of 10 priests were killed.
Also, in 1990, the military authorities killed 11 unarmed civilians during a protest near a military base that was located at the end of the village and under international pressure the government of Guatemala eventually closed that base and declared Santiago Atitlán a military-free zone.
None of this was noticeable on this beautiful, sunny and quiet day when with Matteo and that American woman I walked around Santiago Atitlán and so we returned to the main street that was full of stands selling fruits, souvenirs, artisanal handiwork, etc. Although some of these fabrics and pieces of clothes I saw there were truly gorgeous, I had already decided in the meantime not to buy any souvenirs for I still had a couple of weeks of journey ahead of me. In addition, I know from experience that such colourful fabrics that make so much sense at their source lose some of their beauty by the time they are transferred to another climate. At least this is my impression.
Soon we stopped by the local green market. Among other things, on one stall I could see bananas and not a lot of one type of bananas, but rather several different types.
The bananas usually sold in the supermarkets of Europe cannot be found here at all. But rather, the bananas sold and eaten here are small, like the ones that can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo above and they are truly exceptionally sweet. Here and there, considerably more rarely, one can came across red bananas (on the left-hand side of the photo). They are somewhat shorter than those from the European supermarkets, as well as a little plumper. However, only their skin is red, while the “meat” is of the usual colour and it is slightly less sweet than those small yellow ones.
The bananas that can be seen in the middle of the photo are slightly longer than the “European” ones and have more pointy endings. They are not eaten, at least not directly, but rather they are used in cooking. Also, their name is different, that is, they are not called bananas but plantains. Among other things, the crisps made of them are fantastically tasty – they are cut thinly into rounds and then fried or baked in the oven, after which they are salted. I think that this could also be made of green (unripe) bananas sold in supermarkets, but I haven’t tried it.
Since I’m talking about the subject, it should be pointed out that all the bananas in the photo above are completely ripe and this can be seen by the dark spots on their skins. THEN and ONLY THEN are bananas ripe and it makes sense to eat them. I can never stop wondering when in Europe, my country included, I see people eating bananas with the skin still sporadically green. That means that the banana is not ripe yet and consequently its taste is a far cry from the desirable one. I personally find it disgusting, but let’s say that I just wonder at the people eating them.
In the market we also saw mangos. Bagfuls of mangos.
There was also a lot of tomatoes, dried fish from the lake, small red beans, as well as black and white beans. There was a lot of green leafy stuff, primarily coriander leaves. In any case, we did not buy anything there and in fact had to return to the boat since the excursion was to continue. Along the way, we passed by a banana tree that was full of fruits and the owners only had to wait for them to ripen.
By the way, although the banana plant is usually referred as a “banana tree” on account of its size, this is not a tree at all – it does not have a trunk or tree rings, but rather this is a herbaceous plant.