Casa Bambu in Tsunaná

We left Antigua and took a 2 hour ride to Lake Atitlán. We had so much luggage and Skipper that we hired a private van (they do not allow dogs on buses).

We took the van to Panajachel which is one of the larger towns on Lake Atitlán. The lake was formed 84,000 year ago from a caldera, or lake caused by a sinking volcano. It is approximately one mile high and surrounded by 3 volcanoes one of which regularly emits puffs of smoke.

Panajachel serves as the major town for all the transportation needs in the area. From there one takes lanchas to reach the other towns around the lake, and buses to and from nearby cities. The roads aren’t maintained well enough to take cars to and from towns around the lake, although there are tuktuks available if you are up for a long teeth-jarring ride.

When we arrived in Panajachel we requested a lancha take us to Tsunaná which is the town for our AirBnb. Being later in the day the regular public lanchas were pretty full so for $150Q we hired a private lancha. First the lancha captain took us to a different town on the way to Tsunaná named Santa Cruz. When we told him we were going to Tsunaná he took the boat back out into the lake and turned the engine off. As we drifted in the lake he demanded that we pay him an additional $50Q to continue our trip. I called the owner of the lancha company. He insisted we told him we were going to Santa Cruz, except I’ve never even heard of Santa Cruz. When booking the lancha I showed the actual reservation on my phone and he had corrected my pronunciation– not Tsunána (zu-NAH-na) but Tsunaná (zu-nah-NAH), so I knew very well that I hadn’t said Santa Cruz. At that time we had made an agreement, $150Q for trip to Tsunaná. The driver and I continued our stand off in the lake. I think Kim and the kids were tired and just wanted to be done traveling, but I refused to be extorted for more money. I called the owner of Casa Bambu and let him know we were floating in Lake Atitlán in a standoff with the lancha driver and might be late getting in. The owner spoke with the driver and the driver ended up taking us to the correct place, throwing our stuff on the dock and driving off in a huff.

Although my initial experience at Lake Atitlán left a bad taste in my mouth, the area is breathtaking and our AirBnB just beautiful. It is called Casa Bambu, and is more like a hotel and retreat center with a restaurant.

After all that time in Antigua not sleeping it was so good to rest and catch up on sleep at Lake Atitlán. The temperature was in the 70s in the daytime and 50s at night.

There are two cats on the property, and once they found out our family not only will pet them but is closely associated with dog food and treats they were regular visitors to our room.

The owner of the place has his own farm and in conjunction with a second local associated farm provides the food for the restaurant. He has had his farm for 10 years, the other one just started 2 years ago. He is teaching organic permaculture to both local gardeners as well as travelers from all over the world. He has chickens for fresh eggs and goats for milk and cheese. The restaurant is all organic, vegetarian, and excellent. I don’t think we realized until we got there how much we were craving fresh vegetables and juices.

We went on a tour of one of the farms. They use the waste of the goats and the chickens to make their compost, and then grow coffee and vegetables.

The farm has its own restaurant, also serving organic vegetarian food.

We can never get tired of this view.