Colorful Guatemala

I came across beautiful landscapes and people around Lake Atitlán and the ancient capital Antigua.

I visited Guatemala to see the Mayan ruins of Tikal and to visit Copan in Honduras, which is hours away from Guatemala City. Guatemala City did not impress me so my return from Tikal I spent a few day in Panajachel at  Lake Atitlán. The Lake is surrounded be three volcanos, a wonderful scenery. Close by are the markets of Solola and Chichicastenango which I visited on their markets days Solola is more rural, Chichicastenango more touristic with its picturesque church. First a few impressions of Solola. These impressive colorful textiles I last saw in Bolivia. Now let us jump to Chichicastenango.

My last stop in Guatemala was Antigua, the former capital and with his colonial inheritance of course a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is nicely located with volcanos close by. I had planned to hike a mountain in order to see a close by volcano. But just on my arrival this volcano erupted, making the tour impossible. Ashes covered also Antigua. People rushed to donate food and clothes for the affected villages around the volcano. Workers were cleaning the roofs from ashes. The city layout is pretty straight forward. It is divided in squares. As Antigua attracts so many tourists the city lives from this source. A lot of restaurants, souvenir-shops and street vendors. The dominate daily life; Guatemalas middle-class has houses in the outskirts in huge gates communities. But I still prefer Antigua to Guatemala City, which is not an inspiring place. And of course Antigua also has it´s markets….