While here we took the opportunity to take a tour to Antigua and Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Antigua is a very beautiful old city in the hills with several volcanoes around. It has, or had, over 50 churches which have been destroyed by earthquakes and volcanoes and sometimes rebuilt. This is a very ancient city with narrow cobble stone streets bordered by old homes and shops. As in most of Central America there are lots of street venders selling many traditional tapestries, clothing and pottery; some I suspect made in China as they are all the same. They love to barter therefore the first price is only the starting point.
Lake Atitlan is a very picturesque lake formed when a very large volcanic crater collapsed. The lake is surrounded with four to five volcanoes; some still somewhat active. There are also about five towns dotted around the lake which are mainly accessible by water taxi. The main industries seem to be Spanish schools and selling the usual tapestries, clothing, pottery, etc to tourists. The towns are very picturesque as they are set on the steep slopes of the volcanoes at the water's edge.
Carole really enjoyed the market in Chichicastanaga, they had a wonderful selection of local handmade items for sale.