Things to do
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Chichicastenango Market
Thursdays and Sundays fill the streets around Santo Tomás church with a highland market that has run on the same site for centuries: textiles and masks at the edges, flowers, produce and copal smoke at the centre. Incense burns on the church steps through the day, where Maya ritual and Catholic liturgy share the same building. Arriving before the coaches means a quieter hour around the steps.
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Indian Nose
A ridge above San Juan reads as a face in profile from the water, and its crown gives the classic dawn view down the length of the lake with the volcanoes catching first light. Groups leave around four in the morning by shuttle and torchlight. Access is controlled by two communities, and guides are required.
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Lake Atitlán
Three volcanoes stand over a caldera lake more than 300 metres deep, ringed by Maya villages that each keep their own dress and dialect. Public lanchas link them in a circuit that can fill a day or a week, and swimming is possible from docks on the quieter southern shore until the afternoon wind gets up.
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Reserva Natural Atitlán
A former coffee estate on the edge of Panajachel now protects a ravine of waterfalls, hanging bridges and a butterfly enclosure, with spider monkeys and coatimundis along the trails. Zip lines cross the gorge for those who want them. The circuit takes about two hours at an easy pace, and the entrance sits a short walk up from the main street.
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San Juan La Laguna
Painted murals and umbrella hung lanes make this the most photographed of the lake villages, though the draw underneath is the work: weaving cooperatives run by Tz'utujil women, natural dye demonstrations and a row of painting galleries. Boats from Panajachel take about half an hour. The steep main street climbs hard from the dock.
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Santiago Atitlán
Tz'utujil life carries on here with little concession to visitors, in the largest of the lake towns. Maximón, a cigar smoking folk saint, is housed each year in a different household, and finding him means asking locally and making an offering to photograph. Market days are busy, and the crossing from Panajachel takes under an hour.