COLUMBUS, OHIO–Ever since I first laid eyes on the blue expanse of Lake Atitlan, I have wondered about the towns surrounding her shores. Little by little I explored them over the years, mostly haphazardly, leaving many unseen. If I were to go back and look through my old journals I know I would find many, many lists with the exhortation, “Return to Atitlan, visit and photograph each town,” or something of the like. So, on this last trip I finally got that done. Or almost. I only made it to San Lucas Toliman in the night to photograph a political meeting with Diputado candidate Enrique Rodriguez, and there is the little town of Cerro de Oro at the base of that fascinating mini-volcano just down the road from there. And, it seems, there are many little pueblos in the corner between San Antonio Palopó and San Lucas Toliman that no one ever mentions. Listed below are the towns I visited and photographed. All are hyper-links that will take you to that gallery. Most are on the lake shore though a few, like San Andres Semetabaj and Patanatic are up on the caldera’s slopes and a few like Pueblo Concepcion and Chaquijyá are farther away, out of site of the lake though not its guardian volcanos. There is plenty left to do. The more I have hiked the area and traveled its roads and towns by pickup and bus the more clear it becomes that one could spend a lifetime exploring Atitlan and the Department of Solola. There are hundreds of towns, rarely visited, back in the folds and slopes of its mountains. There are volcanos to climb and festivals to observe and, as anyone who has visited knows, the lake itself changes moment to moment. Look away and look back and the clouds and light have taken on some new character. A boat is cutting its way across with a long white wake and the wind has raised the waves. So this, as always, is the completion of a major effort looking forward to new explorations.
SIGNS & STREET ART of PANAJACHEL
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