THIS is GUATEMALA?! 😍 (3 days at Lake Atitlán)

Welcome to Guatemala, a gorgeous underrated country in Central America, home to active volcanoes, colorful cities, and vibrant blue pools tucked in the jungle. For the next two weeks, we're going to be exploring this country for the first time and experiencing as much of it as we can. And we're kicking things off in Lake Atitlan, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, surrounded by dramatic volcanoes and with small Mayan villages dotting its shore. Over the next few days, we'll be exploring a handful of them. And today we're starting in San Marcos La Laguna. Figuring out where to stay along the lake was pretty tough because there are tons of options and each town has its own pros and cons and personality. But we chose to stay near San Marcos La Laguna because we found this amazing Airbnb. This property is called Alas del Angel, which started as a family home in the 90s. It is located right on the lake with tons of greenery and flowers, plus a restaurant and pool. It is absolutely magical out here. They have a bunch of different room options and we're in room A6, which is basically like a little apartment. From the lake in the common area, it is quite the climb to our room. Good workout. Welcome to our home for the next three nights. It's a pretty small apartment, but it's really interesting because it's actually split up among three levels. And when you first walk in, the first level is the bedroom area and the kitchen. In the bedroom, we just have a bed. It's very simple. The bed's comfy. That's pretty much all there is to say about it. And then on to the kitchen. This kitchen has just about everything you could need to cook a meal. We have a small fridge with a freezer, we have a microwave, a little toaster oven. They provided a blender and a coffee pot, all the utensils you need to cook, pots and pans and glassware. And then over here, we have a small portable stove, which is unlike any stove I've ever seen before. You just lift the top and then there's four burners and it runs off of propane. We have a small bar seating area, which overlooks our amazing view, which we'll show you in a second. And then honestly, I think my favorite part of this whole kitchen is this, this huge jug with purified water. This Airbnb is about like a three minute tuk tuk ride into town. So if we had to go into town every time to get water, it would kind of be a pain. So this is just a huge, huge help because you cannot drink the water from the sink here in Guatemala. And then down these stairs, which have these really cool patterned tiles on them, is our bathroom. The bathroom is pretty simple. We just have a toilet, a sink, and a shower, and the shower has a rainfall showerhead. And then on the ground, they have all these stones around it. So it kind of feels like you're showering outside. And one thing I love about this apartment is that there are tons of windows everywhere from every single room, even when you're doing your business, you can see the views outside. And then if you go up these steps, we have our living room, which is pretty unique. It's basically just some cushions on the ground and then a low table on top of it. And I wasn't sure how comfortable this would be, but it's surprisingly very comfortable. We ate dinner here last night and just hung out. And I honestly, this is like the perfect napping spot. You can just lay down with an amazing view. And speaking of the view, the best part of this apartment are the patios. We actually have two patios. We have one downstairs, which has this hammock swing chair. And then we have the one up here, which is the star of the show. This patio is incredible. It's basically just a wooden platform with zero railing. So we're living life very dangerously and on the edge up here. But the views from up here are just phenomenal. We can see multiple volcanoes and mountains. And of course, the lake. This patio is one of the main reasons why we booked this Airbnb. But another big reason is because they actually have free kayak rentals, which is one of the best ways to experience the lake. We normally are in a double kayak. So this is the first time I think we've ever been in our own kayak. So this should be an adventure. Normally, when we're in double kayaks, one person can paddle while the other one is filming or just taking a break. But that will not be the case today. We will both have to work. Oh, I can't even film by myself. It just fell down. This is hard. About 84,000 years ago, a super volcano called Los Chocoyos erupted for the final time and its chamber collapsed, forming a caldera that filled with water and became Lake Atitlan. Today, it is the deepest lake in all of Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 meters. So some people compare Lake Atitlan to Lake Como in Italy, and we haven't been to Lake Como, so we cannot confirm if it's like that. But it does kind of remind us of the Amalfi Coast in Italy with all the buildings just lining the cliff side and this blue water and then all the mountains around. It is crazy beautiful out here. Even though the water of the lake looks super inviting, we've read that it's not the cleanest of lakes. Some areas of the lake are polluted and there's only certain areas where you can safely swim. I think we're going to skip getting into the water and just enjoy it from the kayak. But I can see and hear people hooting and hollering and jumping into the lake over there. These people are so brave. Cliff jumping is not my thing at all. We didn't fall in the deepest lake in Central America. We've headed to the town of San Marcos, and this town is specifically known for yoga, meditation and wellness retreats. And we've been walking around for a few minutes and it feels like we're walking through a huge cloud of incense. It's just attacking your senses. Mixed with food. Mixed with food. So it's kind of a different smell. This area has been heavily gentrified, and we've heard that this has had a negative impact on the local community. So our hope for today was to go have lunch at a spot called Konohel, which is owned by local indigenous women and gives back a ton to the community. But unfortunately, despite their sign saying they're open every day, I guess today is not that day. So now we're on the hunt to find somewhere to eat. That's hopefully somewhat local. All right, we found our spot. We found a nice woman selling tortillas with eggs and beans and some spicy salsa inside a school courtyard. This is exactly what we wanted. It's super simple, but it is super good. Our plan for the rest of the day is to hang out at our Airbnb. But first, we need to make ourselves a special little drink. As you all know, we have been huge fans of Element for years, and we are so grateful for their continuous support of our channel. If you're not familiar, Element is an electrolyte powder that helps us stay hydrated and replenish electrolytes while traveling and being active, like kayaking in the hot sun on Lake Atitlan. Element has both fruity flavors and chocolate flavors that come in packet form. But we have recently become obsessed with their sparkling drinks, which include the same amount of sodium, magnesium and potassium as the packets, but with some fizz. They are hands down the best sparkling water drink that we have ever tried. But unfortunately, we could not bring them on the plane. Darn liquid rules. So instead, we're going to make our own fizzy Element mocktail. All right. For our mocktail, we have some club soda, some mango juice, a citrus salt element and some lime. Pour a little bit of the element in there. And then I'm going to add the club soda very slowly, because as you can see, it starts to fizz like crazy. You have to be super careful mixing element with sparkling water. Oh, it feels like I'm doing a science experiment right now. And then we're going to add some mango juice for some extra fruity flavor and some color and a little squirt of lime. And we're just going to try to make. Oh, and it plops in and then plop the lime in. If you want to try Element for yourself and make your own fancy mocktails, head to drink LMNT dot com slash A plus K to get a free sample pack with any order, which includes eight flavors to try. Cheers. Heck, yeah, man. We're going to be making these all the time at home now. Oh, that is good. I think I should be an element bartender. This is delicious. Since we have a kitchen in our Airbnb, we're going to cook a few meals while we're here. We went to a really nice grocery store in Antigua before coming to Lake Atitlan, and tonight on the menu, we have some pasta with some tomato cream sauce and some broccolini. It smells so good. It's good, too. It is four forty five in the morning, and this morning we are hiking up Indian Nose, which is a popular overlook to hike up to for sunrise. This is a lot steeper than I thought it'd be like hundreds of stairs. We made it. Yes. And wow, what a view. Lake Atitlan has three major volcanoes that line its shores, plus multiple others off in the distance and seeing the silhouette of these peaks in the darkness towering over the flickering lights of the towns below just goes to show the immense scale of this area's scenery. While you're sitting here enjoying the sunrise, you can get chocolate or a coffee. And they are making it just right over there, over the fire, and it comes in these super cool clay mugs. And as we enjoyed our coffee and bread, we were treated to a show as the sky turned shades of pink before the lake became flooded with sunlight. This was totally worth getting up at three a.m. You don't technically need a guide to hike up to Indian Nose for sunrise, but we highly recommend it for safety reasons. And it makes it a heck of a lot easier logistically to get there in the dark early morning. We booked our guide on Trip Advisor and we'll put the link in the description below. And one thing to know is that most tours will only pick up from San Juan, San Pedro or San Marcos. And instead of being dropped back off at our Airbnb, we asked to be dropped off in San Juan, which is one of two towns that we hope to explore today. And for our first stop, we're on the hunt for some more coffee because it is very much needed after that mega early wake up call we had this morning. Oh, my goodness. You're cute. So cute. And very friendly. Oh, hello. I already love this town. They have cute and sweet dogs. We found an awesome little local spot called Cafe Las Marias. It is teeny tiny downstairs. They have the coffee roaster and then upstairs, there's just two tables with eight seats. And the policy is that you have to share your table with others if others arrive. And there's an amazing view out the window. That's where we hiked up to this morning for sunrise. All the way up there. It's tucked down a side road and then you go down an alley and then you actually have to ring a bell to get in. So it would be very easy to miss this spot. It is a very cool hidden gem. Yes. San Juan is known for its art, textiles and artisan shops all over town. You can find so many colorful buildings, many of which have murals painted on them, plus colorful walkways and fun, colorful decor hanging above the streets. It is the town I was most excited to visit along the lake, and I am loving it so far. The locals have been so friendly and compared to yesterday, which is a very heavily gentrified area. This area feels a lot more authentic and local. I love walking around these super small towns early in the morning because you get a really great glimpse of the local life. We saw tons of ladies on the street cooking tortillas. We're walking by a school right here and there's a bunch of small kids playing basketball in their open air gym. Back when I was a PE teacher, that would have been my ideal gym. We have a bit of time until our lunch reservation, so we have decided to go tour a local bee farm. These are Mayan bees. Yes, these teeny tiny little things are bees. They have been cultivated by the Maya since pre-Columbian times, but they aren't your typical bees. Besides their small size, they also do not have stingers and are known for producing honey that has medicinal powers, treating eye conditions, skin and respiratory issues and infections. As we toured around the farm, we got to see a bunch of different Mayan bee species ranging from the size of gnats to more of what you think of when you think of bees. And at the end, we got to try their honey, which is a bit different than the kind you typically consume. Tangier or tart, more tart. Kind of fruity. Yeah, a little fruit taste. These are so different than any honey I've ever had. That one's like lighter. Feels thinner. Thinner. Yeah. Wow. It's like bitter. Oh, wow. That is interesting. Oh, it's like alcohol. Yeah, it tastes like alcohol. And bitter. Yeah, like medicine. Yeah. That was a completely spontaneous stop for us, but I'm so glad that we came here. We learned so much. Even though the tour was in Spanish, we actually understood quite a bit of it, which was a very exciting moment for us. I had no idea that bees could be that small. I had seen one of those flying around. I would have never guessed that it was a bee. And as someone who is very, very scared of bees, I was so grateful that they did not have stingers. So the tour and tasting are completely free, but they ask at the end of the tour and tasting that you give either a donation or you buy some products. And we got some tasty little souvenirs. Yeah, this is the miel y tamarindo. It kind of tasted like a jelly. It was kind of fruity. It'll be really good on toast. And then we got the chocomiel, which is basically Nutella. Chocolate and honey. Can't go wrong with that. So good. There is a huge Maya community in Guatemala in general, but especially here at Lake Atitlan. And for lunch, we came to a spot owned by a Sotho Hill family, which is one of the ethnic Maya groups. It's located in a super cool building. It's kind of like a earthen structure with like these skylights in the top, really high ceilings and then a completely open kitchen in the back. So how this place works is I reserved us a table via WhatsApp and they sent me a menu with four different options. Each option has, I believe, an appetizer, a drink and a main meal. And I'm not totally sure what we ordered. I picked the beef and the chicken option, but I was googling it and I couldn't figure out what it actually was. But we're starting off with a pineapple drink and then this tostada with this green maybe guacamole green sauce on it. And some cheese. It looks so good. These little mugs are super beautiful. It tastes like a really mellow pineapple juice with a hint of sweetness. That's so good. I haven't even gotten to my tostada and the main course is here. That is so limey. That is delicious. So we have the chicken dish here. This is the beef, and they both come with some steamed vegetables and a starch. Oh, man, that is so good. There's so much flavor in here. I can't really pick out the flavors, but there's a lot of it. And the chicken, yeah, it's slow roasted. It just comes off the bone so easy and it's so juicy and tender. This beef is so interesting. It appears to be cubed and it's in kind of a red maybe tomato based sauce. Mm. Has good saltiness to it. I'm not sure what the sauce tastes like. And it, of course, came with a little platter of tortillas. Corn is a huge food item here. And basically everywhere we've been, we just see people constantly making fresh corn tortillas. And I love the corn tortillas here. They're kind of a little bit thicker than I'm used to. Just moist and mmm. All right. We got dessert. This is pineapple, carrots and honey. Interesting mix. And it also smells like there's some cinnamon in there, too. I thought it was apple. It smells like like an apple cinnamon, like pie filling. Cold. Our plan for the rest of the day is to head just down the road to San Pedro and to get around the lake. You have two main transportation options. You can either take a launcher, which is a boat, or you can take a tuk tuk. And one very important thing to know is that there is a different price for tourists versus locals. And a common thing that happens around here is that they try to overcharge tourists for these rides. So our Airbnb host gave us kind of a pricing guide. So we know how much we should be paying to get between destinations. So one of our top tips for visiting the lake is to do your research on pricing and make sure you agree upon a price for you. Get off with them because you don't want an unfun surprise when you get to your destination and you have to pay. Here we go. These are a ton of fun to ride in. They come with air conditioning. Natural air. Actual. One of our favorite things to do while traveling is to check out hot springs. And while there is a natural hot spring on the other side of the lake, there's a spot here in San Pedro called Los Termales that you can soak in. It's not a natural hot spring. They just heat the water for you. But we can't think of a more relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Oh, wow. That is hot. Oh, oh, oh, yikes. Wow. It'll be like a lobster in here. Oh, I don't know if I can do it. We have been sweating all day long. So the thought of getting in hot water sounded relaxing, but also sounded like it was just going to make us sweat more. But thankfully, there's also a cold pool that you can get in and kind of alternate between the two, which we will definitely be doing. Because it's really hot. This is the hottest hot spring we've ever been in for sure. I'm just trying to like slowly inch in. It gets better if you let your body get used to it. Yeah. Just like ease yourself in. This may have been a better idea in the early morning or at night. It's perfectly cool out here. It's going to be great. It's getting better. It's getting better. Ah, my buns. They're hot buns. Hot nuts. Roasted nuts. So how these pools work is that it's 75 quetzales per person and you have to come and reserve it in person. And when you get here, you can either reserve it for right now, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes because they fill up the pool for each party. So they drain it and refill it. So it's fresh water or you can reserve it for later. And we weren't sure what to expect. There's maybe four or five pools here and we were nervous it was going to be super busy, but we're the only ones here. Yes. I don't know if you can tell, but this is not water. I am dripping. So it's time for the cold pool. Oh, yeah, this is what I needed. Oh, that's cold. Oh, oh, oh. Mix the two together and it would be perfect. It's really refreshing right now. I will say the hot one feels so much better after hanging out in the cold one for a little bit. Today is our last day at Lake Atitlan, and we're heading to Panaxal, which is the main tourist town on the lake. And to get there, we're taking a loncha. And we actually took our first loncha ride last night. And it was a lot of fun. One thing I really like about it is that you kind of get a scenic boat ride and transportation all in one. And I'm especially excited for the ride this morning because we're going to a whole new area of the lake. Boat ride was awesome. Beautiful over here. I had heard that the boat was crazy and wild and choppy, but it was a really smooth ride. The number one thing we wanted to do here in Panaxal was visit the nature reserve, which has trails, suspension bridges, wildlife and a zip line. The zip line does cost extra, so we just opted to do the free face and whole version. One of the top things I wanted to see here are monkeys, so we're on the hunt to go find them first. There's a monkey. Oh, my gosh. That was one of the coolest experiences of my life. When we first got to that viewing area, I only saw cooties, which are kind of like a raccoon. They were so fun to watch. They were eating what looked like dog food. And they start fighting with each other. Others were trying to eat it. They were amazing. I was already pretty jazzed about that. And then a monkey came walking up, drank some water, and then he found a banana and he was climbing a tree. And we got to watch a monkey eating a banana in the wild. And I'm out of breath because I was holding that zoom lens for about 30 minutes just trying to get all the shots. Oh, that was unreal. That ranks up there with seeing bears in Alaska. That was so cool. Like the quintessential like monkey viewing experience. This is a very wobbly suspension bridge. These suspension bridges are giving me Indiana Jones vibes. This last suspension bridge is definitely the best one because it passes right in front of this waterfall. Although we are here in mid-March, which is pretty deep into the dry season. So it's kind of more like a water trickle right now, a trickle fall. There are so many butterflies in here. It's like walking into a wonderland. While we have loved exploring the little towns, our happy place is definitely out in nature. So this was one of our favorite things we have done here. I cannot stop freaking out about that monkey. When we came back that way later, we saw him just dangling from the trees. Gracias. We had to run to catch this boat, so we got the last scene on it. The very front, the bumpy scene. A bit of a rougher ride than this morning. The whole ride was awesome. It was a really smooth ride. It's freaking intense. I'm really hoping some people get off at this stop so we can get a seat. Thank goodness. It's like riding a bull, but for way longer than eight seconds. That was an experience I will never, ever forget. I think we're going to have a nice Guatemalan souvenir, aka a big butt bruise. On one of those hard bumps, I felt my whole spine dislodge. Since the loncha dropped us back off in San Marcos, we decided to see if Cono Hell was open today, and they are. As we mentioned way earlier in this video, this is owned by indigenous women and all of their proceeds go back into the community. We ordered their Friday dish of the day, which is a pre-Colombian stew with corn, potatoes, red bell peppers and a chipotle chili sauce. Ooh, that's good. Has a really good spice level and you can taste the chipotle peppers in there and everything is cooked to perfection. The potatoes are nice and soft. And then the chicken is really tender and still really juicy. And then we also order one of our favorite foods, pupusas. We got one with cheese and one with chicken, and then they both came with like pickled cabbage, it looks like. And some kind of delicious looking sauce on top. This pupusa is stacked. It's perfectly crispy on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside. We could not have asked for a better way to kick off our time here in Guatemala. We arrived in the country a few days ago. We just could not wipe the smiles off of our faces. We've been to a handful of places in Latin America, and we just love this part of the world. So we cannot wait to continue exploring this country. Tomorrow we're taking a shuttle to Antigua, which is the most popular city to visit here in Guatemala. We visited it for about a half a day when we first arrived in Guatemala, and we loved the little bit we saw, so we can't wait to see more.