{"id":257,"date":"2015-09-08T20:55:17","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T03:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asideofsunsets.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2015-09-08T20:55:17","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T03:55:17","slug":"finding-our-zen-at-lake-atitlan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/08\/finding-our-zen-at-lake-atitlan\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding our Zen at Lake Atitlan"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

4 Days in Guatemala \u2013 Part 1<\/h3>\n

After giving up my seat on a work trip from Florida and spending the night in Atlanta, I was awarded a $700 credit from Delta \u2013 I just had to use it within a year.\u00a0 Knowing I didn\u2019t have a lot of vacation days to play with because I was already taking a week off to go to Iceland, I started looking up short, direct, affordable flights from LAX.\u00a0 We landed on Guatemala.<\/p>\n

You may think 4 days in Guatemala is not enough \u2013 and trust me, if you want to see all the highlights, it\u2019s not.\u00a0 Guatemala is much bigger than you think and they don\u2019t have the infrastructure like we do in the states.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t make it to Tikal or Semuc Champey, but we did spend 4 wonderful days at Lake Atitlan and in Antigua.<\/p>\n

We took a redeye from LAX and as soon as we landed in Guatemala City we hopped in a car and made the three-hour drive to Lake Atitlan.<\/p>\n

Tip:<\/strong> hiring a car to get from Guatemala City to Lake Atitlan costs around $100 but I was able to lay down and nap for most of the trip so if the bus schedule doesn\u2019t work with your flight times \u2013 it\u2019s pricey but so worth it, especially if you have limited time.<\/p>\n

We had booked two nights at Hotel Atitlan<\/a>.\u00a0 It was perfect for us.\u00a0 Lake Atitlan is made up of 7 villages \u2013 all with a slightly different vibe (and size).\u00a0 Panajachel, or Pana, is the main village you arrive at and then you can opt to make a further drive to certain villages or hop in a boat to the village of your choice.\u00a0 We like to have the option to go to different restaurants and check out nightlife so Hotel Atitlan offered us the best of both worlds \u2013 a 5-minute ride from the main streets of Pana but in one of the most peaceful settings I had ever been in.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”241″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We spent the afternoon by the pool before getting checked into our room and setting out towards town.\u00a0 We stopped by Crossroads Caf\u00e9<\/a> to drink and buy some delicious coffee and then ducked into bars as a torrential rain storm passed by.<\/p>\n

Tip:<\/strong> If you’re a coffee lover, take a few minutes out of your day and stop by Crossroads for some coffee and friendly conversation.<\/p>\n

That night was Toby\u2019s birthday, so after an uneventful dinner, we discovered Circus Bar<\/a> where I was able to score ice cream with a birthday candle and the live band sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”224″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”225″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The next day we woke up early, had breakfast, and bargained with some of the men who handled boat trips before deciding we would visit San Juan La Laguna and San Pedro.\u00a0 San Juan is known for their textiles while San Pedro is more of the backpacking town.\u00a0 We wandered up and down their mountainous streets, taking in the scenery, food, and local beers.<\/p>\n

\"Church
Church of St. Peter in San Pedro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By early afternoon, the water was starting to get rough (this is common in the afternoon and was no joke) so we made our way back to our hotel to relax before another night at Circus Bar.<\/p>\n

The next day, before our drive to Antigua, we walked over to Atitlan Nature Reserve<\/a> to check out some animals, butterflies, and a quick morning hike. \u00a0Not a must-do, but when it was in walking distance from our hotel it seemed like a great way to\u00a0work off all of the Guatemalan food and beer.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4080\"<\/p>\n

Be sure to check in for part two and find out what\u00a0a Guatemalan presidential election is like.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] 4 Days in Guatemala \u2013 Part 1 After giving up my seat on a work trip from Florida and spending the night in Atlanta, I was awarded a $700 credit from Delta \u2013 I just had to use it within a year.\u00a0 Knowing I didn\u2019t have a lot of vacation days to play with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2,6],"tags":[101,121,156],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-america","category-featured","category-places","tag-guatemala","tag-lake-atitlan","tag-panajachel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.asideofsunsets.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}