Exploring Towns of Lake Atitlán on Our Day Off

The town of San Fernando

In the midst of the fast-paced Permaculture Design Course, we got one day off. I was tempted to stay back and rest, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to have an adventure with my new friends Daniela (from El Salvador) and Ana (from Antigua, Guatemala).

There are other more popular and famous towns around Lake Atitlan. San Marcos, for example, is known for being a hippie haven with lots of yoga, permaculture, and many foreigners. Then there is San Juan which is known as the "pueblo magico" or magic town because of its colorful, colonial style and its many tourist opportunities like weaving and chocolate tastings.

However, we wanted to explore a less visited town where we could see more local culture and get more of a look into local realities. A bus driver told us about some hot springs in the town of Santa Catarina so we did very little research or investigating and we decided to go to Santa Catarina. To get to Santa Catarina, we had to take a small boat to the town of San Fernando. As we pulled up on the boat, the town looked like a bunch of concrete houses built super close together. There didn't seem to be a town center and it was a labyrinth walking between the close, multiple-story houses to get up to the main street of the town where the church and market were located.

The town of San Fernando

In the pictures above you can see the view of the lake through the church door. To the right, if you look closely there is an indigenous saint in the glass display in the church. We also heard a Christian, evangelical celebration being carried out in the local, indigenous language. The Catholic and Christian religions mixed with the local indigenous culture during colonization and this was a way that the Spanish were able to convert more local people. Today, many indigenous people in the region maintain parts of their culture but they are often Christian or Catholic. While IMAP (the Mesoamerican Institute of Permaculture) works to preserve indigenous Mayan culture and religious traditions, the influence of Christianity has been deep and lasting.

Then we began walking to Santa Catarina from San Fernando. The local people said it would take 15 minutes, but it actually took 1 hour and 15 minutes down a winding road under the hot sun! In the bottom, right picture you can see a view of San Fernando from the highway above as we walked to Santa Catarina. You can also see Daniela and Ana walking down our highway adventure. We arrived to Santa Catarina and immediately drank a cold beer!

The town of Santa Catarina

In the picture above, you can see some garden terraces. As permaculture nerds, we were critiquing the terraces, looking at how barren and dry they are without much plant diversity! We also saw this amazing Amate tree, which is a sacred tree for the Mayans. Its exposed roots over the rocks looked like a reflection into water!

In Santa Catarina many older indigenous women wear a velvet wrap over their hair. In the bottom right picture you can see the indigenous barbie doll wearing the wrap on her head. There were many indigenous dressed barbie dolls for sale. The buildings in the town center (like the blue one in the top right picture) are decorated with indigenous patterns and signs. The town center was very cute and quaint. It was much more walkable and had more public spaces to sit and visit than San Fernando. It was also more touristy.

We got to the hot springs and found that while the water wasn't very warm, the rocks and the ground were very hot-- some so hot that they could burn you! We didn't find an explanation of why but we imagine it has to do with the volcanic properties. Lake Atitlán is surrounded by three volcanoes--Atitlán (3,537 m), Tolimán (3,158 m) and San Pedro (2,995 m).

We rushed back to San Fernando to catch the last boat! We grabbed the last bus instead of walking to San Fernando. There was no space for Daniela and I so we had to grab onto the back of the bus and hold on tight. However, once the bus started going we both looked at each other with big, wide eyes. "This wasn't a good idea!" It takes a lot of arm strength to hold on when the bus starts going fast down the highway. At some point the bus stopped to pick up more people and we re-accommodated to fit into the bus with Ana. We sighed in relief!

Junk food gift

We got back to San Fernando all feeling very tired and hungry. Daniela saw a local couple having a picnic and eating a plate of an assortment of chips with lime and chili. Dani has a wonderful, friendly personality, and she asked them where they bought the food. They pointed to some bags of chips on the ground and smiled, showing us that they bough it at the store. A few minutes later they walked over and gave us a plate of chips! After eating super healthy at the permaculture institute, we were happy to eat a bunch of spicy chips.

Ana, Dani and I 😊