Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan

From Antigua we drove through the mountains to Chichicastenango, a town known for its huge Sunday market where anything and everything is on sale. It is a good place to buy hand-woven textiles, pottery and artwork. Bargains abound and it is expected that the price will be negotiated. The Maya hereabouts are famous for their adherence to pre-christian beliefs and their religion is an odd mix of Catholicism and shamanistic ceremonies derived from the ancient Mayans.
After our shopping fix, we moved on to Lake Atitlan. This is a beautiful volcanic lake nestled among three volcanoes. It was formed 85,000 year ago by the Los Chocoyos eruption which blew ash as far as present-day Florida.The amount of magma expelled was such that the surface terrain collapsed leaving a roughly circular 8x18 km circular hole which filled with water.
We stayed at La Casa del Mundo Hotel which is built into a hillside. There are breath-taking views of the volcanoes from each of its 18 rooms.The lake shore is dotted with small villages most of which are only accessible by boat. Most of the villagers are of Mayan descent and there are two distinct dialects spoken here ....I was told that there are even noticeable accents from one village to the next within a dialect which is remarkable since these places are only a few kilometers apart.
We enjoyed our stay here although Mary experienced a day of GI upset.
We will return to the boat to prepare to leave the river this week and then on to Roatan.