RickshawFan
Verified Outdoor Recreation Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2013
- Messages
- 10,953
- Reaction score
- 54,082
I'm just getting to this. Terrible thing.
At the same time, I'm strangely humored at the idea of resorts, yoga retreats, pollution, and speedboats at Lake Atitlán. I was there before there was a single resort (just one hotel), and it was an area almost exclusively inhabited by indigenous folks. I even have a photo of myself in bathing suit on a dock at the lake, with not a single sign of occupation down at the shores (there was a village—Sololá—a bit above the immediate shoreline).
Spectacular, both because of the setting and the culture of the people who lived there. Of course, all that got wiped out by subsequent government "anti-guerilla" activity that was specifically directed at local indigenous groups.
But this would be a very dangerous place to go solo anywhere, let alone on the water. You'd be in waves and wind. It might as well be an ocean. Kayaks (maybe a sit-on-top?) that are wide and shallow are hard to steer and don't track well; they would easily get caught in a wind.
It doesn't surprise me if no one local is talking. I really don't see why they would. Visitors might as well be a separate universe.
At the same time, I'm strangely humored at the idea of resorts, yoga retreats, pollution, and speedboats at Lake Atitlán. I was there before there was a single resort (just one hotel), and it was an area almost exclusively inhabited by indigenous folks. I even have a photo of myself in bathing suit on a dock at the lake, with not a single sign of occupation down at the shores (there was a village—Sololá—a bit above the immediate shoreline).
Spectacular, both because of the setting and the culture of the people who lived there. Of course, all that got wiped out by subsequent government "anti-guerilla" activity that was specifically directed at local indigenous groups.
But this would be a very dangerous place to go solo anywhere, let alone on the water. You'd be in waves and wind. It might as well be an ocean. Kayaks (maybe a sit-on-top?) that are wide and shallow are hard to steer and don't track well; they would easily get caught in a wind.
It doesn't surprise me if no one local is talking. I really don't see why they would. Visitors might as well be a separate universe.