LAKE AMATITLÁN, GUATEMALA

Lake Amatitlán is a volcanic lake located 28 km from the city capital of Guatemala, it has a territorial expansion of 12 km of length and its name derives from ancient Nahuatl language, which means, “a place surrounded by Amates”. Lake Amatitlán was developed due to sudden fissures in the tectonic-volcanic plates that connect these 4 volcanoes Pacaya, Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. During the past years, the lake has continuously suffered harsh contamination up to an extreme that the purity of the water is no longer drinkable, this was mainly caused by years of lack of waste management by the municipality, it was also due to considerable amount of toxic waste caused by local homes, companies, textile factories and lack of pro-environment policies. Despite these facts, Lake Amatitlán still has plenty of other options to undertake like hiking trails, volcano hikes and above all it’s a perfect spot to promote sports climb in natural rock.

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Amates: A unique tree that grows mainly in Central America, this tree is often used and harvest to create a type of bark paper used during the colonization. Later it was replaced by European paper.