 Welcome to Blue Ocean Studios  Around the World Lake Atitlan, Guatemala We had another early morning today - we awoke to a woman screaming very loudly - we're not sure what happened, but translating about half of what our hotel person told us, there were some "other" people in/near her place. Anyways - at least it was timed with our alarm clock - 6 am. We took a shuttle van from Antigua to Panajachel - a town on Lake Atitlan - it took about 2 1/4 hours. We negotiated our way across the lake to Santiago de Atitlan via a small boat for 35 quetzals ($4.50 for us both). We didn't have hotel reservations in Santiago - we befriended a "guia touristo" - tourist guide who said he had a room for 40 quetzals per night ($6.50 US per night!) - we skipped that but had him guide us to one of the two main hotels in Santiago. About a 15 minute walk through corn fields along the lake, we arrived to find there were no rooms left (granted it's just following Christmas, and New Years just 3 nights away). We had them call the other hotel - and got the last room!
Hotel Pasado de Santiago is beautiful - at only $63 US per night, we had our own stone cottage with a fireplace, and purified water (a rarety). The hotel is right on lake Atitlan, with a beautiful view of San Pedro. Lake Atitlan was formed millions of years ago when there were several massive volcanic eruptions. It is 12 miles long and between 4-7 miles wide with a depth of 1,200 feet! There are 3 volcanoes surrounding the lake.
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Our guide started us back to the center of town. He asked if we wanted a taxi for about $1.50 total - and we said we would just walk (with him). We started walking through town - Santiago's one of the larger towns on the lake - the main street is full of street vendors mostly selling beautiful hand-woven textiles. After about 10 minutes walking through the city, I asked how much further - he said 15 minutes!! So, after about 45 minutes of walking with our full packs (1.25 hours total), we arrived at the hotel (the taxi seemed like it'd be worth it then :)). 
We spent most of the day relaxing at the hotel, which is really as close to a resort as you might get in Guatemala. Our first stop was the hammock in front of our cottage - given the 1.25 hour hike with full gear :). We had lunch, went down to the dock, and did some cat watching. We also made plans to go horseback riding on Saturday and also reserved spaces for the special New Years Eve dinner and fireworks show that will take place at our hotel. So far the food here has been delicious with all homemade meals and fresh ingredients. The best part about the hotel is that the water is purified, so it's "safe" to eat things we normally won't be able to (their smoothies are a 1.50!). 
