Panajachel (Spanish pronunciation: [panaxaˈtʃel], Pana) is a town in the

southwestern Guatemalan Highlands, less than 140 kilometres (90 mi) from
Guatemala City, in the department of Sololá. It serves as the administrative
centre for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The elevation is 1,597
metres (5,240 ft). Population was 11 thousand in the 2000 census, projected as
15,830 by June 30, 2020[2] and has approximately doubled each of the last few
decades. The town of Panajachel is located on the Northeast shore of Lake
Atitlán, and has become a centre for the tourist trade of the area as it provides a
base for visitors crossing the lake to visit other towns and villages.

"Panajachel" derives from the Kaqchikel language and roughly translates to

"place of the Matasanos," the white sapote fruit tree.

History[edit]
Spanish colony[edit]

Panajachel

Santiago de Guatemala

Siquinalá

Quetzaltenango
 Jocopilas

class=notpageimage|
Some of the 24 convents of the Franciscan Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús during
the Spanish colony in Guatemala and the approximate area it doctrines occupied.

In the 16th century, during the period of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, the
shore of the lake was the scene of a battle in which the Spanish and
their Kaqchikel allies defeated the Tz'utujils. After the Spanish conquest of
Guatemala, the Franciscans set up a church and monastery in Panajachel soon
afterward, and used the town as a centre to convert the indigenous people of the
region to the Roman Catholic faith. The original façade of the church still stands
and is considered one of the gems of the colonial style in Guatemala.

Panajachel was part of the Tecpán Atitlán "corregimiento" (English: Province)

and when it turned into a major municipality in 1730, Panajachel became part of
it as well;[3] regarding the Catholic faith, this was in charge of the franciscans,
who had convents and doctrines in the area covered by the modern departments
of Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Sololá, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapán, Suchite
péquez and Escuintla. The "Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús"
(English:"Province of the most Holy Name of Jesus"), as the Franciscan area
was then called, reached up to 24 convents.[3] By 1700, Panajachel had a
convent with three priests, in charge of ca. 1800 people, four doctrines and
twelve cofradías.[3]

Given that Panajachel had a convent, there was daily Mass attended by
cofradías leaders and their wives, who kept lighted candles during most of the
ceremony. Also daily, there was religious teaching for 6-year-old girls and older
starting at 2:00 pm and for boys of the same age starting at sunset; the class
lasted for 2 hours and consisted on memorizing the church teaching and prayers
and to make some exercises with the catechism and it was run by a priest or by
elder natives, called "fiscales".[4] Adults attended Mass every Sunday and holiday
and after mass, there were religious teachings in their own language.[4]
Lent was a time of the year when the friars prepared the natives thoroughly,
using their own language to accomplish their goals; every Friday of Lent there
was a procession following the Rosary steps all the way to the Calvary temple.[5]

In 1754, as part of the borbon reforms, the Franciscans were forced to give their
doctrines to the secular clergy; thus, when archbishop Pedro Cortés y
Larraz visited Panajachel in 1770, he described it as the "San Francisco
Panajachel parish".[6]

Visit of archeologist Alfred P. Maudslay in 1892[edit]

Main article: Alfred Percival Maudslay

Panajachel in 1892; notice how bare were the surrounding

hills. Photograph by Alfred Percival Maudslay.[7]

Panajachel natives getting ready for a maya ceremony in honor of the Catholic Cristo
Negro of Esquipulas in 1892. Photograph by Alfred Percival Maudslay.[8]
In 1892, British archeologist Alfred Percival Maudslay and his wife, Anne
Maudslay, visited Panajachel during their long journey throughout Guatemala;
their impressions were reported in their book A glimpse at Guatemala, published
in 1899. [9] They arrived to the town after spending a night in San Antonio
Palopó and a short trip of 12 km; Anne Maudslay described Panajachel location
as this: "a little town standing on a rich alluvial plain formed by a swift stream
which issues from a narrow cleft in the hills, and has spread out the earth in the
shape of an open fan until it forms a mile of frontage to the Lake Atitlan."[10]

By 1892, Panajachel people had already built numerous irrigation canals which
had altered the normal stream bed to work on orchards, gardens and coffee
plantations at the delta area.[10] Nevertheless, the channels were insufficient to
protect the town infrastructure against flooding, which occurred once in a while;
in fact, several years prior to the visit of the Maudslays, there had been a large
flood that destroyed several houses and left the town isolated.[10] The town itself
was not that interesting to the visitors, but their surroundings were marvelous:
the volcanos, mountains and Lake Atitlan, whose green forests contrasted with
the bare hills that surrounded Panajachel.[10] Life in town seemed monotonous to
Anne Maudslay, especially that of women who seemed to have the same day
every day, grinding corn to make tortillas and leaning over the stream shore to
wash their family clothes.[11] Only those women that sold their produce in the
central plaza market in the morning had a slightly different routine.[11]

While in Panajachel, the visitors witnessed a religious ceremony by numerous

pilgrims that were returning from visiting Esquipulas; pilgrims gathered in the
central plaza that night around fires that they set for their food, and once they
were done with their supper, they placed petates -native Guatemalan mats- on
the floor in a line that crossed the plaza.[11] Each one of them grabbed a small
wooden box where they produced a small Catholic saint sculpture, leaving that of
the Esquipulas Black Christ, in the center.[11] Once the preparations were ready,
they began the ritual by cradling from one mat to the next, always on their knees
and pressing their forehead against the floor in front of each saint; every man did
this for several times and in the end, they all gathered around the Black Christ
and sang a hymn for about thirty minutes; once done, gathered their belongings
and went to sleep on the plaza floor.[8] Anne Maudslay tells in her book that even
though this seemed like a Catholic ritual, it was, in fact, a Mayan one; several
priests that they found during their journey told them that they were not sure that
the natives had really absorbed the Catholic faith that the conquistadors tried to
instill in them for centuries.[8]
20th century[edit]
The town attracted many Hippies in the 1960s, but the numbers of foreign
visitors plummeted during the Guatemalan Civil War. After the war ended,
tourists started coming back, and Panajachel's economy is once again primarily
based on tourism.

21st century: Hurricane Stan[edit]

Main article: Hurricane Stan
Panajachel was seriously affected by torrential rains as a result of Hurricane
Stan in October 2005 with a major mudslide destroying about 100 homes along
the river.

Places of interest[edit]
Casa Cakchiquel built in 1948, was one of the first hotels on the lake and
according to legend, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Ingrid Bergman, and other
intellectuals, artists, painters and writers enjoyed the house at its best. Today the
house serves as the Cultural Center and is lovingly restored and one of two
historic buildings "patrimonio culturales" (the central Church of Saint Francis of
Assisi being the other) in Panajachel. Casa Cakchiquel features a Museum &
Gallery space that is presenting Guatemala's first and unique historical photo
museum with over 3000 photo images between 1860 - 1970 and Guatemala's
most important photographers like Emilio and Roberto Eichenberger, Alberto G.
Valdeavellano, Adolfo Biener, G. Hurter, Joaquín Muñoz, Lionel Stein, Pablo
Sittler, el indio, Lito B. Zadik & Co. and others.

Casa Cakchiquel is the home of Radio 5, FM99.1 the local Radio Station in the
Atitlan Basin.

Panajachel is also home to one of the oldest art galleries in Central America, La
Galeria directly down the street to Rancho Grande.

International organizations[edit]
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Panajachel is home to many international non-profit organizations, such as

Porch de Salomon, Mercado Global, Maya Traditions Foundation, Mayan
Families, Thirteen Threads (Oxjalul B'atz'), Friendship Bridge, and Sharing the
Dream.

Gallery[edit]


Calle Santander, the principal tourist through-way

View of Lake Atitlan and the volcanoes



Boats docked in Lake Atitlan

Panajachel on the shore of Lake Atitlan.

Street in Panajachel
 

Panajachel church (interior view)

Climate[edit]
Panajachel has tropical climate (Köppen: Aw).

hideClimate data for Panajachel

Ja Fe M Ap M Ju Au Se Oc No De Ye
Month Jul
n b ar r ay n g p t v c ar

25. 25. 26. 26. 25. 23. 24. 24. 24. 24. 25. 25. 25.
Mean daily
6 6 6 1 9 7 8 9 3 6 2 4 2
maximum °C
(78 (78 (79 (79 (78 (74 (76 (76 (75 (76 (77 (77 (77
(°F)
.1) .1) .9) .0) .6) .7) .6) .8) .7) .3) .4) .7) .4)

18. 18. 19. 19. 20. 19. 19. 19. 19. 19. 19. 18. 19.
Daily mean °C 9 8 7 8 1 1 6 5 1 3 1 7 3
(°F) (66 (65 (67 (67 (68 (66 (67 (67 (66 (66 (66 (65 (66
.0) .8) .5) .6) .2) .4) .3) .1) .4) .7) .4) .7) .8)
 12. 12. 12. 13. 14. 14. 14. 14. 14. 14. 13. 12. 13.
Mean daily
3 0 9 6 3 6 4 1 0 0 0 1 4
minimum °C
(54 (53 (55 (56 (57 (58 (57 (57 (57 (57 (55 (53 (56
(°F)
.1) .6) .2) .5) .7) .3) .9) .4) .2) .2) .4) .8) .2)

13 35 17 18 32 18 1,4
Average preci 2 15 15 48 38 11
7 5 4 5 8 2 90
pitation mm (0. (0. (0. (1. (1. (0.
(5. (14 (6. (7. (12 (7. (58
(inches) 1) 6) 6) 9) 5) 4)
4) .0) 9) 3) .9) 2) .8)

Source: Climate-Data.org[12]
Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología de
Guatemala[13]

Geographic location[edit]
It is located at 6 km south of Sololá and 146 km west of Guatemala City.[14]

show
Places adjacent to Panajachel

See also[edit]
 Guatemala portal

 Geography portal
 Feast of Saint Francis
 La Aurora International Airport
 List of places in Guatemala

Notes and references[edit]

References[edit]
1. ^ "Alcaldes electos en el departamento de Sololá". Municipalidades de
Guatemala (in Spanish). Guatemala. 7 September 2015. Archived from the
original on October 12, 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
2. ^ (Insituto Nacional de Estadística de Guatemala)
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c García Añoveros 1989, p. 891
4. ^ Jump up to:a b García Añoveros 1989, p. 896
5. ^ García Añoveros 1989, p. 897
6. ^ Cortés y Larraz 2001, p. 409-412.
7. ^ Maudslay & Maudslay, p. 59a.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c Maudslay & Maudslay 1899, p. 59
9. ^ Maudslay & Maudslay 1899, pp. 57–59.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Maudslay & Maudslay 1899, p. 57
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Maudslay & Maudslay 1899, p. 58
12. ^ "Climate: Panajachel". Climate-Data.org. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
13. ^ Departamento de Investigación y servicios meteorológicos. "Isotermas
de temperatura mínima absoluta anual" (in Spanish). Archived from the
original on May 17, 2012.; "Isotermas de temperatura máxima absoluta anual".
Archived from the original on May 24, 2012.; "Isotermas de temperatura máxima
promedio anual". Archived from the original on May 15, 2012.; "Isotermas de
temperature mínima promedio annual". Archived from the original on May 29,
2012.; "Sumatoria de días con lluvia promedio anual". Instituto Nacional de
Sismología, Vulcanología, Metereología e Hidrología (in Spanish). Guatemala.
Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
 14. ^ Jump up to:a b c SEGEPLAN. "Municipios del departamento de
Sololá". SEGEPLAN (in Spanish). Guatemala. Archived from the original on July
7, 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.

Bibliography[edit]
 Cortés y Larraz, Pedro (2001) [1770]. García, Jesús María; Blasco, Julio Martín
(eds.). Descripción Geográfico-Moral de la Diócesis de Goathemala. Corpus
Hispanorum de Pace. Segunda Serie (in Spanish). Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 9788400080013. ISSN 0589-8056.
 García Añoveros, Jesús (1989). "Las misiones franciscanas de la Mosquitia
nicaragüense" (PDF). Actas del III Congreso Internacional sobre los franciscanos en
el nuevo mundo (Siglo XVII) (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain: DEIMOS; Universidad
Internacional de Andalucía.
 Maudslay, Alfred Percival; Maudslay, Anne Cary (1899). A glimpse at
Guatemala, and some notes on the ancient monuments of Central America (PDF).
London, UK: John Murray.

External links