After spending a week filled with walking, sightseeing, and hiking in Antigua, we hired a driver and drove to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Lake Atitlán is a short seventy miles from Antigua. But the time to cover that distance was more than two hours because the road winds around hills and mountains and through several villages.

Lake Atitlán is a vacation destination for Guatemalans to escape the big city, but it is also a favorite for tourists and backpackers. There are eleven Mayan villages around the lake, each with a distinct character and tradition. You can take a boat ride, jump in a tuk-tuk, hop in the back of a pickup truck, or grab a chicken bus to these villages. Lake Atitlán is also surrounded by three active volcanos: Volcán San Pedro, Volcán Tolimán, and Volcán Atitlán.

Panajachel

While planning our trip, we debated between moving each day to a different village or staying in the biggest lakeshore town of Panajachel. We decided it would be more relaxing to stay in an Airbnb near the shore and take day trips to the other villages. Panajachel’s shoreline is lined with vendors, restaurants, and boat taxis ready to take off for the villages.

Pana (as the town is referred to) and all towns around the lake are populated by Indigenous people. Most women proudly wear typical Mayan clothing hand-woven in bright colors. Weaving is an important craft and we watched women weaving fabric for huipiles (blouses), blankets, and scarves. Farmers and residents gather at the market on Thursdays and Sundays to buy and sell their fruits, and vegetables.

We found Panajachel to be charming and most evenings we walked to the lake and sat at an outdoor bar or restaurant to watch the sunset behind the volcano.

We took a tuk-tuk to a nearby village where we hiked in the Atitlán Nature Preserve. There are several trails connected by hanging bridges that led us to the top of the waterfalls. After our hike, we walked to a nearby hotel and had lunch while looking out over the lake.

San Juan La Laguna

After a couple of days exploring Panajachel, we boarded a boat taxi to San Juan La Laguna. The walk from the dock to the center of the village is lined with shops and vendors. Tour guides and tuk-tuk drivers provide private tours. We spent part of the day browsing handicrafts and admiring the colorful streets covered with umbrellas.

Later, we toured a small bee preserve called Xunah Kaab (Flower Honey in Protomaya). The matriarch of the bee keeping family, Xunah Kaab, is a third-generation beekeeper who cares for native bees. The family started a cooperative in 2016 to help save the bees which are a native population since the time of the Mayans. Xunah Kaab currently has forty boxes of five species of stingless bees, it also has a hotel for solitary bees, orchid bees, and is the largest bee preserve in Guatemala.

We ended the day with a tuk-tuk ride to the mirador for a scenic view of the village.

San Pedro La Laguna

Our next day’s trip was to the village of San Pedro, near San Juan. San Pedro is known as the place to go for backpackers because it has low-cost hostels and the best nightlife in the area.

We found a unique, out-of-the-way restaurant called Zoola San Pedro where we sat on the ground, relaxed, and enjoyed Israeli food.

Of course, we grabbed a tuk-tuk ride to the mirador for a scenic view of San Pedro.

After a week, we returned to Guatemala City for our last night in the country. That evening we had a chance to reflect on our experiences in Guatemala and our preference for slow travel.

Slow Travel

We realized after this two-week trip and last year’s two-week trip to Puebla, Mexico that we may not be suited to “fast travel” anymore. We define a two-week trip as fast travel because each morning we leave our apartment to sightsee, hike, tour a museum, take a cooking class or go to a nearby village.  Because we are trying to see all the sights that we can during our trip, we are tired and don’t enjoy each experience as much as if we moved at a slower pace.

It is important to us to take a breather during our visits, get to know the surroundings, and to connect to where we are – it makes all the difference. We are still figuring out how we can take longer trips while not missing our grandson (age 2) growing up. But we decided that our next trip will be for at least a month.

When we traveled full-time from 2018-2020, we stayed in each country in South America for 3 months or more. This pace allowed us to avoid the fatigue of being on the move and trying to see all the sights. If the stay in a particular location was too short, we found ourselves tired and at some point, we had to stop and regroup.

We thought about the other benefits a longer trip provides.

The feeling of belonging and a sense of home. When we stay longer, we can rent our own place and feel at home, which is something we need when we are away from home. We like the sense of stability and security. We also need our “regular places”: a coffee shop, a daily walking route, and a grocery store. All of those make us feel like this is our place.

Established routines. When we are traveling, we like to create habits. The routines of daily exercise, a walk around town, and cooking meals gives us peace of mind and create anchors in our life.

Save money. When we stay longer in one place, we find those cheap, healthy restaurants, discount shops, and big grocery stores which allow us to stock up on ingredients and cook our meals. Those places are hard to find if you stay in the city center and jump from one location to the other. The monthly rate for housing can be 50% less than the daily rate. Of course, we save a lot of money by not traveling all of the time. Flights are expensive, especially if you move often.

Getting to know the place. We can visit more places when stay only one or two weeks and then move on, but really getting to know a place (including all those hidden locations and unique neighborhoods) takes time. Staying a month allows us to immerse and live as a local in the location, and not just pass through.

Experience activities that take more time. With slow travel, we can participate in activities that take weeks to complete. We have practiced Spanish for three months with a tutor, joined a health club, and joined a weekly read-and-run group.

Understanding people. Slow travel gives us more time to develop relationships, but also to observe and notice things about people and their cultures. A deeper understanding of cultures and countries is one of the biggest gifts of travel. Relationships require spending time together and trust takes some time to build, so longer stays mean we are more likely to create relationships.

So, the next time you hear from us it will be to reflect on a month-long trip to Spain. Nos vemos amigos.