Monday 22nd August 2011
January 4th 1881, "My dear Mother, On my return to the capital on the 2nd, I found yours of Nov. 15th awaiting me. Another Christmas has come and gone, I must say I spent mine rather dismally, was rather unwell and was with Spanish speaking, unsociable, people, and what with the heat was glad to rest in a hammock the greater part of the day, and read. Christmas is not thought much of by people here; Good Friday, and some other days they observe much more, but except in the towns, weekdays and Sundays are much the same. Left Las Nubes finally on December 14th for San Agustín, a coffee estate on the slope of the Volcan Atitlán - a very hot, dry place, remained till Boxing Day, then went up into the mountains to a cooler place and spent about a week at San Lucas and Panajachel (Indian villages) and in Godines (7000 feet); magnificent scenery here - the Lake of Atitlán, surrounded by lofty mountains (including the volcanoes), very hot in the day, and equally cold in the night - but all too dry and dusty for my work. The lake seen at sunrise and sunset was well worth a long journey to see; had occasion to cross in an Indian canoe, starting long before daylight, and the sun rose while I was crossing; in daytime in dry season, the mountains look too brown and colourless, they are best seen at sunrise or sunset."
So described my great grandfather George his experience of Lake Atitlán…..and although we did not have the occasion to cross the lake today in an Indian canoe, we did take a full day’s tour by fast launch around the lake, stopping in the lakeside villages of San Marcos La Laguna, San Pedro La Laguna, Santiago Atitlán and San Antonio Palopó, where a most colossal rainstorm broke out, almost preventing our return to Panajachel.
It is interesting how GCC experienced the lake region as being arid; at this season it seems green and lush, whereas he must have seen it at the height of the dry season. Whatever season it is seen in, Lake Atitlán is undoubtedly, as George says, well worth a long journey to see – and not just at sunrise and sunset.
