Panajachel

By Christopher Minster

Minster

“Pana,” as it’s known to locals, is the biggest hippie town south of California.  It is located on the banks of Lake Atitlan in central Guatemala, a postcard-perfect lake surrounded by three majestic volcanoes: Atitlan, San Pedro and Tolimán.  It’s not a very large town, and if you were to remove the hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and curio shops, you’d be left with some churches, a few dusty streets and the municipal building.

Panajachel is all about de-stressing and chilling out.  It’s a tourist town without a lot of the typical problems that tourist towns have: it’s never drunk and rowdy, the crime level is relatively low for Guatemala and even the street kids selling gum, candy and hand-made bracelets are fairly laid back and not as irritating as they are in other places.  Many of the full-time residents are Americans and Europeans who moved to Panajachel years or decades ago, seeking a simpler life in a place where it’s always warm and sunny and you’re never more than a few steps from a marvelous view of the lake and mountains. 

Panajachel is a good home base for exploring the region.  Up the hill is the town of Sololá, where the residents still wear traditional, brightly colored clothing.  The lake itself is an attraction: there is a small beach, but the water is pretty cold and few people swim in it (locals think they’re crazy).  There are several picturesque towns around the lake, and tours will take you there by boat.  You can shop in Panajachel or in any of the other lake towns: if you’re an art lover, take a look at some of the paintings.  Some tours offer horseback riding or mountain biking.  The town of Chichicastenango, world-famous for having one of the two or three largest native markets in Latin America, is within day-trip range.  There are several Spanish schools as well.