Atitlan

Lake Atitlán is certainly the most beautiful of all the high mountain lakes in the Central America landscape. Situated at 5,123 feet above sea level, this azure blue lake is 1,050 feet deep and 80 square miles in area. Surrounded by three spectacular volcanoes, Tolimán, Atitlán and San Pedro; Lake Atitlán also offers its colorful surrounding villages that practice traditions which have survived for centuries. Atitlán is a Nahuatl word for "place of water". More than 85 thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption wiped all forms of life leaving a huge crater that later created "the most beautiful lake in the world" as the famous novelist Aldous Huxley referred to it when he visited Guatemala.

The lake offers an idyllic climate with comfortably cool days and pleasantly warm evenings all year long. Only occasionally does a strong wind known as the Xocomil which disturb thistropical paradise, lashing the lake's surface and sending fishermen scurrying to shore. Half of the villages around the lake's shore are occupied by Maya Cakchiquel inhabitants, while the other half of the shore belongs to Maya-Tzutujil people. According to an ancient Cakchiquel legend, the lake, which originally belonged entirely to the Tzutujils, was divided between the two groups after Gagavitz; the first great Cakchiquel leader hurled himself into the lake and changed into Gucumatz, the feathered serpent god of the Mayas. As recorded in the Annals of the Cakchiquels, “the waters darkened, and then a north wind blew and a whirlpool formed in the water that moved the surface of the lake”. Upon witnessing this display of power, the Tzutujils agreed to give half of their lake to the Cakchiquels.