Falling in Love with Lake Atitlán: My First Journey to Guatemala

On my first trip to Guatemala, I was young and footloose, seeing the world with wide-open eyes. The promise of the “land of eternal spring” drew me in, but the living Maya culture captured my imagination with its ancient weaving traditions, intricate textiles, and every color of the rainbow woven into traditional dress.

We landed in Guatemala City at five in the morning after a red-eye from Los Angeles. As the city was just waking up, we left it behind and climbed into the highlands. I felt myself exhale.

The air turned cool and clean. Cornfields rolled past the window. Women sat weaving by the roadside while their children played nearby. Goats grazed on the hillsides, and little stands sold corn and fresh sliced fruit. Women walked by with baskets balanced gracefully on their heads.

Everywhere I looked there was color, movement, and the rhythm of daily life. Then our chicken bus began its winding descent into the Atitlán basin.

That first glimpse of the lake stopped me in my tracks. Three volcanoes rose from the water, their silhouettes mirrored on its emerald surface. Alongside the wonder came something I didn’t expect: recognition. An intuitive sense of coming home.

It felt as though I had been here before, as though I had been waiting my whole life to find this particular corner of paradise. More than three decades later, that first moment still feels so vivid.

Today, as I welcome guests to Villa Sumaya, our lakefront hotel and retreat center in Santa Cruz La Laguna, I think of it often. It reminds me how a place can invite us to pause, open our senses, and remember something deeply familiar within ourselves.

Your own journey to the lake

Your trip here won’t involve a chicken bus (unless you want it to). But the road still climbs through those same highlands, past the cornfields and the weavers, and that first view of the lake is just as breathtaking. Here’s how to make the journey an easy one.

Land in the late morning. Fly into Guatemala City (GUA) between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The drive to the lake takes 2.5 to 3.5 hours depending on traffic, which brings you to us in time for our 3 p.m. check-in. If your flight lands later, spend your first night in Guatemala City or Antigua and set out for the lake the next morning.

Let Kan Tours take care of you. We’ve worked with Kan Tours for over 10 years, and they handle shuttles and boats for our guests’ arrivals and departures. The charges go onto your guest or group bill at Villa Sumaya. Their coordinators are bilingual, so email them at booking.kantours@gmail.com for rates and bookings. The drivers speak only a little English, so the coordinators are your best point of contact.

Arrive by water. Villa Sumaya can only be reached by boat, so the last leg of your journey is a 10-minute ride across the lake from Panajachel to our dock. Most guests like to have a private boat waiting, which Kan Tours can arrange. Public boats also run from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., leaving about every half hour, for Q25 per person. Just ask the captain to drop you at the Villa Sumaya dock.

As the boat pulls away from Panajachel, take a moment to feel the breeze off the water and watch the volcanoes rise around you. This is the part of the journey I never get tired of.

Whether you come for a yoga retreat in Guatemala, a personal retreat, or a peaceful stay beside Lake Atitlán, I hope you find time to discover your own connection to this extraordinary place. Wander through the flowering gardens, rest in a hammock, and watch the light shift across the lake and volcanoes.

Perhaps, somewhere along the way, you will feel it too: that intuitive sense of coming home.