PANAJACHEL, Guatemala -- Guatemala is returning to its inner hippie. Known as a tie-dye haven in the 1960s and '70s, the Central American country saw a decline in visitors of all kinds as civil unrest raged into the 1980s.
Now in the area of Lago de Atitlán, about three hours west of the capital, Guatemala City, the New Age vibe is back in force. Some attribute it to the geography itself: The 900-foot-deep lake is in a collapsed volcano cone and is in turn surrounded by three volcanoes.
But even if you don't subscribe to a spirituality theory, sipping a coffee, beer, or fruit shake next to the shimmering lake framed by lush volcanic mountainsides has undeniable appeal. If you pass on purchasing power crystals, colorful cloth bracelets, and yoga classes, the Mayan locals have plenty of appealing blankets, hammocks, and carved wood masks to sell. And if you cannot subsist on cosmic energy alone, excellent restaurants abound. Otherwise, kick back and enjoy watching the dreadlocks fly by.
Four nights at the lake turned up a cross section of local towns able to accommodate budget travelers and beyond.
Most visitors to Lake Atitlán arrive at Panajachel, or ``Pana," the chief lakeside locale (population 14,000), and given the towns we visited, it offered the largest number of hotels, restaurants, and shopping options. It also offers a key jumping- off point for the must-see market of Chichicastenango (an hour away by private minibus) and the Fuentes Georginas hot springs (two hours by car).
Panajachel's central artery is Calle Santander, which runs down to the lakeside. We stayed at the mid-range Bungalows El Aguacatal, which offered rooms with kitchens. We arrived on a Saturday night in mid-March with no reservations. The weather was mild, good for shorts and a T-shirt in the daytime and a sweater at night. But we had avoided high season and the Aguacatal and other hotels we checked all had rooms to offer.
The Aguacatal is just a block off Santander, but quiet. The basic but clean bungalows looked out onto a central garden area and had a patio area with table and chairs. A barbecue grill was also available. Our group of three got a bungalow with two dumpy but adequate single beds in each of the two bedrooms and a large bathroom with a shower and intermittent hot water. The asking rate was about $60, but the clerk put up no resistance when we offered $40, because we would be staying multiple nights.
Many restaurants offer vegetarian meals, bakeries sell wheat bread and even bagel chips, and the streets are filled with push carts offering fried chicken and french fries. For dinner the first night, we ate at one of the many open-air restaurants that front the lakeside. These operations are touristy, and the waiters standing outside pushing menus in your face are bothersome. But it's worth one night of dining for the setting alone, especially at sunset. And the food was tasty. A filling plate of grilled chicken, roasted potato, and a scoop each of beans and guacamole, along with soup, was less than $8. Throw in a local Moza bock-style beer and you're set.
Café Bombay on Santander serves everything from spaghetti to falafel, all of it pretty good and pretty cheap. One of the best meals was at Circus Bar, an Italian restaurant off Santander with an extensive pizza selection. The pie with sun-dried tomatoes and herbs was excellent and under $8 for a large.
There are a few clubs and discos, but not much night life. Our favorite pastime before turning in was watching the Mayan vendors and gringo backpackers wind down as we sipped bourbon and tasty margaritas on a street- side table at Maktub'ar Café Jardin on Santander. (It's next to Pana Rock , which offers loud, live, and terrible renditions of classic rock.)
Among the most ubiquitous items for sale in Pana (and throughout Guatemala) are blankets. And there may be one to suit every taste. One popular style is a thin cotton that comes in white, black, blue, navy, brown, maroon -- in nearly every color imaginable -- with geometric stripes woven in. As the vendors will tell you, they can also be used as tablecloths, or even wrapped around the waist as skirts. We bought a white one for about $16, about as good a price as you'll get.
For revolutionary consumers, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara T-shirts hang from many a sidewalk booth. We also found a Che pendant necklace . One woman sold spray-paint art from a blanket on the sidewalk, and just about every street-side stall has colorful, woven bracelets. Some of the roving Mayan vendors who carry baskets of the tie-on bracelets were practically giving them away. We bought a stack of nearly 50 for about $1.25.
By boat is the way to trip around the other lakeside towns. (You'll be approached by a boat driver or salesman, who will tell you the price is fixed. A central ticket office does not exist.) A couple US dollars and 20 minutes from Panajachel by ``lancha," a 10-person motorboat, is San Marcos La Laguna. San Marcos is not so much a town as a conglomeration of restaurants and hotels that has a range of price options but feels upscale. The setting is scenic, with volcano vistas and lakeside views .
Hotels typically offer some array of programs that may include yoga, massage, meditation, dream analysis, psychic training , and a checklist of other therapies. Don't be surprised to see signs requesting ``quiet" around meditation cabins.
Among the more prominent locations here, at least architecturally, is Las Piramides, a meditation center which, as the name suggests, features pyramid-shaped buildings. Among the sessions offered here are ``chacras " (chakras), which in yoga are defined as the body's centers of energy.
You don't have to be an up- and- coming guru to visit San Marcos. The hotels are also the perfect locations for simply kicking back. And the food offerings here transcend granola. We had an excellent veggie pizza in the courtyard dining area at Il Giardino restaurant for less than $7.
Bouncing out of San Marcos, we hit San Pedro La Laguna, about 10 minutes farther across the lake by boat. San Pedro is a small, scruffy place, more downscale than San Marcos and without the hustle of Panajachel. If rock stars might chill in San Marcos, their roadies would land in San Pedro. The touristy beachhead where boats land is a handful of restaurants and stores, along with tables and blankets on the ground selling the usual array of crystals, beads, and leather. Up a steep road lies the center of town and a blazingly scenic, white church.
Waiting for the last boat back to Panajachel at 5 p.m. , it's hard to beat the tranquillity of sipping a lakeside coffee or beer while the sun lowers itself beyond the mountainsides. In this part of the globe, that is a high compliment.
Jeff Kass is a freelance writer in Denver . 
