We stayed in a house in Jaibalito on the shores of Lake Atitlan for one week.  The town can only be reached by boat and has no vehicles in town.  As you will see, they don’t even believe in wheelbarrows!  One interesting incident happened on the day we took a private boat to Panajachel to transfer to Antigua.  We were stopped by a “coast guard” boat with three men armed with rifles.  We thought it was a drug check, but it turned out we were supposed to be wearing our life jackets.  This in spite of the public boat passing us at the same time with no one wearing life jackets and not enough life jackets for everyone on board.  The private boat driver quickly gave us life jackets to wear and we were on our way.  You can read more comments on our experiences by clicking the “Lake Atitlan” category in the left column.

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This was the perfect spot to enjoy a cup of coffee before breakfast.

All the fisherman used these wooden "canoes" for fishing.

We had a beautiful sunset every night. It was a little cool and breezy in the evening to enjoy the sunset from the pier.

Our dining area was on the front porch and we had an avocado tree in the backyard that provided us with fresh guacamole.

Every morning the supplies for the day would show up at the public dock. The only way to reach Jaibalito is by boat.

There are no motorized vehicles in Jaibalito. Every day the women and children would carry supplies from the dock into town. These bags of cement weigh 92 pounds!

This woman is weighing our order of tomatoes at the market.

This monkey is at the nature reserve on Lake Atitlan.

This picture of us with our friends Jean and Ron was taken in front of the waterfall in the nature reserve.

The trails in the nature reserve had a number of suspension bridges.

There are three volcanoes around the lake.

Taken at the nature reserve.

What a view for lunch!

The hotel had caged rabbits that were impossibly cute.

The hotel had beautiful gardens and animals.

We visited the Mayan village of San Pedro where these children were decorating one of the buildings in town.

San Pedro is noted for using only natural dyes in its weaving. The table cloth here is more typical of the rest of Guatemala with its vibrant colors.

Chichi as it is popularly known is best known for its market every Thursday and Sunday.

They were working on the roof of the church in Chichicastenango, which resulted in these sunbeams inside.

The sound of women making tortillas was everywhere in the food court area of the market. Yes, we survived.

In contrast to this cemetery, all the tombs in Antigua were white.

The boat provides a plastic sheet to help keep those in the front of the boat dry. We counted fourteen life jackets and about 25 passengers.