San Juan La Laguna

San Juan La Laguna climbs a hillside above Lake Atitlan and has taken a different direction from its busier neighbours: rather than bars and hostels, its main street is lined with weaving cooperatives, painters' galleries, medicinal plant gardens and a coffee cooperative, most of them run collectively by women or by families. The weaving groups work with natural dyes, growing or gathering the plants and insects that give the colours and demonstrating the process from the raw cotton onward. The painting is a local school, mostly in a raised viewpoint perspective looking down on lake, volcanoes and fields, and the galleries sell directly. It is quieter than San Pedro next door.

The main sights

• Natural dye weaving cooperatives - plants and insects used for the colours.
• Tz'utujil painting galleries - the local school of raised-perspective work.
• Medicinal plant gardens - the community projects along the street.
• Coffee grown and roasted locally - the cooperative above the town.

When to go

November to April; the wet months make it harder. Half a day, easily combined with other lake towns. Cooperatives keep working hours and are quieter early.

Good to know

Demonstrations are aimed at visitors and end at a sales table, which is fair enough but worth knowing. The main street is steep. Boat services stop in the late afternoon and the last crossing back matters. Prices are higher than in market towns.

Nearby

San Pedro La Laguna is south-west; Panajachel lies across the lake.