Thinking about the World’s most
beautiful lakes yesterday reminded me of a beautiful lake I’ve been to but would
like to visit again someday: Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. In the summer of 2011,
I spent two weeks living with a family in Antigua, Guatemala and studying
Spanish. On the weekend, I made the trek out to Lake Atitlán and spent a few
days learning about the Lake and the local culture and people.
Lake Atitlán has been called one
of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is a very large lake, and the
deepest lake in Central America. It’s flanked by volcanoes, and its surrounding
land is populated by Mayan villages. There is no road surrounding the lake and
connecting these villages. Many of them are only reachable by boat. The small bed
and breakfast I stayed at was only accessible by boat, and I spent a whole day
boating around the island with a group of new friends. Although solo travel can get a little lonely, it can also be a great way to meet new friends- Guatemala was no exception! (You can read more about Lake Atitlán on its
Wikipedia page: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atitl%C3%A1n). Here are a
few pictures from my trip, although pictures, especially my amateur ones on a point-and-shoot camera, definitely do not do this lake justice!
There was a huge algae bloom on
the Lake the year I went, and the areas near the shoreline were often full of
dead algae, which turned the water brown and smelled not so lovely. Depending
on who you asked, this was either a normal cycle of algae blooms, or the result
of overpopulation and climate change. I’ll leave that debate to others, but in
this picture, if you look closely, you can see some of the streaks of algae near
the shoreline.
Although I love traveling, and
have been lucky enough to see some amazing places, there aren’t too many places
that I would actually make a point of visiting again. This is because there are
just so many places I want to see, and time and money are such limited
resources. Lake Atitlán, however, is one location on the list of places worth a
return visit. Perhaps when Baby Girl is old enough to understand and appreciate
the Lake, I’ll take her there and she can enjoy boating around the lake between
the different villages. For now, it’s nice to reminisce and look at old
pictures of this beautiful lake!
Xoxo,
Diana
No comments:
Post a Comment