Transport On The Lake
All lakeside villages are served by small fast boats called lanchas . Lanchas do not run to a fixed schedule but depart when the owner has enough passengers to cover fuel costs, so you may have to wait around a while, sometimes up to an hour at quiet times of the year. There are two piers in Panajachel. The pier at the end of Calle Rancho Grande is for Santa Catarina, San Antonio, San Lucas, Santiago Atitlan and lake tours. The second pier at the end of Calle del Embarcadero is for all villages on the northern side of the lake: Santa Cruz, Jaibalito, Tzununa and San Marcos; some services continue on to San Pablo, San Juan and San Pedro. There are also direct lanchas to San Pedro which cut straight across the lake in a white-knuckle twenty-minute ride. The last boats on all these routes leave around 6.30pm. Unfortunately, rip-offs are the rule for tourists: you'll be asked for two or three times what locals normally pay, so unless you can convince the boat owners that you're a resident, expect to pay around US$1.30 per trip. Another scam is charging more for the last boat of the day. Tours of the lake (US$8-10), visting San Pedro, Santiago Atitlan and San Antonio Palopo, can be booked in virtually any travel agent; all leave around 9am and return by 4pm.
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