Guatemala · GT

Santa Cruz la Laguna

Santa Cruz La Laguna clings to Lake Atitlán's northern shore in Guatemala's Sololá highlands, a municipality of the villages of Santa Cruz and Tzununá plus several smaller hamlets. There is no practical road in, so you arrive the way everyone here does—by boat from Panajachel, sliding across calm morning water until a narrow strip of shoreline resolves into houses stacked above the docks and green slopes climbing steeply behind them. What makes the place memorable is its double nature. Down at the water sits a relaxed lakefront strip of hostels, cafés, kayak rentals and a dive center aimed at travelers; straight up a steep path, a hundred metres or more above the lake, lives a traditional Kaqchikel Maya town with a 16th-century church, a plaza and everyday rhythm largely untouched by tourism. In between and all around are arguably the finest volcano panoramas on the lake.