[vc_row gap=”10″][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”16148″ img_size=”full”][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”Lake Atitlan for the Non-Backpacker” google_fonts=”font_family:Roboto%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C500%2C500italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic” el_class=”widget-title”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

SAN JUAN LAGUNA, Guatemala – Celebrate a birthday through solo travel by traveling to one of Central America’s most Non-Backpacker friendly destinations!

As I was searching for my next destination to go to celebrate my 28th, especially for a short duration, Guatemala kept coming up. I’ve been inspired by Lake Atitlan for ages from the spiritual and artistic points of view of the area. Not only that but the area is still very authentic in Mayan culture and as you may know I’ve studied and researched their culture in my art history classes and independently. I’ve said this when my family and I went to Yucatan in Mexico for my 21st, but I’m always fascinated when I’m actually standing in the same exact location that their ancestors did who built the pyramids (and other structures) that have lasted thousands of years. I have yet to go to Egypt but am working up to it, however, I am sure I will feel the same about Egypt when I do eventually go.

Accommodations

Considering the trip was literally 5 days, I had to make sure that it went smoothly and for that I chose to book with Uxlabil Eco Hotels. I particularly enjoyed the fact that this hotel was a chain and had a location in Guatemala City and Lake Atitlan, and not only that but their Atitlan location was adjacent to one of the most artistic towns in the Atitlan region; where you can see textile/weaving demonstrations, coffee tours and plantations, medicinal and herbal gardens, historical architecture and art galleries. As you can guess, my senses had a bit of a field day. I was able to book shuttles and taxis through the hotel who had called them before I arrived and the taxis were extremely prompt and made the trip a lot smoother.

From the outside, the itinerary was ambitious and possibly risky however many articles said to treat the journey to the lake as part of the experience, and I am very glad I went into that trip with that mind-set! My itinerary started about mid-day on Thursday when I departed from Boston, which my flight was delayed due to a technical error and I literally only had about 15-30 minutes to make my connecting flight in Miami. It had been a very long time since I had last connected through Miami and I had forgotten how nightmarish that airport was. I ran with my heavy equipment bag and everything else down at least a mile to the next terminal to make my flight. Considering it was a short trip, I couldn’t waste anytime and needed to make that flight. Thankfully I made it with 6 minutes to spare. Having a connecting flight in Miami, meant that it was 2 and a half hours to Miami and 2 and a half hours from Miami to Guatemala City.

San Juan La Laguna

I got into Guatemala City around 9 pm. Got to the currency exchange, got my luggage and found my taxi and was checked into the hotel by 10:30 pm. It also helped that this location was about 10 minutes from the airport. I ate, showered and was in bed by 11:30 pm. Considering I had to get up at 4 am, which wasn’t too different from my usual 5:30 wake-up time, to make the 6 am taxi to Lake Atitlan.

The taxi to Panajachel was about 2.5-3 hours, then from Panajachel to San Juan La Laguna was about a 2 hour boat ride across the lake. I’ve been surrounded by boats and on them before and I am generally not afraid of them, however, I was totally not expecting this boat ride to be extremely bumpy! So much so I was pretty shaken up upon arrival and I actually fell and banged my leg against the fiberglass boat and bruised my leg! Thankfully it didn’t prevent me from walking around. I also thought for a moment that I was in over my head since the road ahead of me off the pier was literally a 45 degree angle and with all of my luggage and equipment bag and especially after the day before. I thought the entire town was like this! But it apparently was only the side roads and the town itself had plateaued out and was extremely walkable. The region also had 3-wheeled ‘took tooks’ or taxis that were able to climb these steep roads. I was also very thankful for the temperature. The locals may have all been wearing winter coats, but I was in short sleeves and coatless. The temperature never got above 75 degrees when I was there and that made a huge difference for my heat exhaustion, I don’t think I could’ve done it if it was above that.

The hotel consisted of 3 floors of bedrooms, a dinning and lounge area – which had the most spectacular view, a dock, gardens, jacuzzi and spa, as well as many other amenities. The food was geared towards international travelers but had local, authentic flavor and produce. For dinner I had essentially a 3-course meal with soup, a main entree with side dishes of vegetables and rice, tortillas and finally desert. The menu did have an authentic mayan meal if you were looking for something of that flavor.

Departure

Sunday, I made my way back to Guatemala City. And I should have expected this, but Sunday was kind of annoying. There was  a lot of waiting around for the public transportation as it was much slower on Sunday. Additionally, there was also a lot of traffic going into Guatemala City, so a 2.5-3 hour trip turned easily into 3.5-4 hours. I basically retraced my steps back to the Guatemala City location. They had also upgraded me to a 3-person suite at the Uxlabil Eco Hotels which was very nice! I also enjoyed the fact that my flight home was in the afternoon so I did not have to get up super early. The flights home went well and nothing went wrong. However, I did find it interesting that I was flagged by TSA for SSSS. SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection and it appears on a passenger’s boarding pass when they’ve been selected by TSA’s Secure Flight system for enhanced security screening. I am very thankful for the travel group I am apart of for teaching me about this. Basically you get swabbed down before boarding the flight from Guatemala City. And actually because of the area I was in, I was actually thankful that that they had done that for possible drug smuggling or something could’ve been on my clothes, etc. that may have prevented me from reentering the country.

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