Guatemala Blog
About this blog
Al Argueta loves Guatemala, and travels there often. This blog will update information found in his books, and also be a forum to answer reader questions about all things Guatemala.
Recent Posts
- Dresden Codex May Yield Location of Maya Treasure
- A Room with a View
- Weekend en Guatemala
- Reflections on the 1996 Peace Accords
- New Flights to Guatemala City
- Alta Verapaz Under State of Siege
- A Very Important Message Regarding ATMs
- Antigua Guatemala Tones Down New Year's Celebration
- Pollo Campero Takes on Disney World
- Widespread Disgust at Murder of Anthropologist
- More Good Press for Guatemala
- Eight Found Guilty in Slaying of Salvadoran Diplomats
- Lake Atitlán to Host Film Festival
- Galerias La Pradera Gets a Facelift
- Former INGUAT Director Accused of Stealing $3.5 Million
Is Guatemala's Lake Atitlan dying?
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Guatemalans and foreign residents have been appalled by news reports pointing to an invasion of cianobacteria that recently made an appearance as a cloudy green gulag on the lake's surface. One Guatemalan friend with a lakeside house likened the news to the sadness of a dying relative or friend.
For years, environmental organizations have been blowing the whistle on rising pollution levels in Lake Atitlan's waters. Particularly disturbing is the flow of untreated sewage into the lake from several communities on its shores. A sewage treatment plant was destroyed a few years ago in the aftermath of hurricane Stan but was never rebuilt.
In recent days, environmental groups, local residents and authorities have met to try and come up with solutions to the problem and the Guatemalan government has announced multi-million dollar actions to help save Lake Atitlan. International scientists are studying this new phenomenon in an attempt to verify toxicity levels and implement solutions.
Lake Amatitlan, near Guatemala City, suffered a similar fate in the past but pollution levels there have been curtailed in recent years.
On a positive note, this latest development might be the much-needed wake-up call to get Guatemalans to make the conservation of Lake Atitlan an urgent matter.
For a closer look, please check out this youtube video. Several organizations have opened facebook pages seeking to recruit people to this cause.
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I understand them
Posted by Rain on December 23, 2010 at 3:12 am
Of course, the Guatemalans got very sad. It was not just a lake. Look how beautiful it is: http://www.tubesfan.com/watch/lago-atitlan-guatemala . I think that people are very sorry because they have lost a source of food. It must be very terrible to see how nearly everything died in the lake. I hope that this will be like an alarm bell and some real actions will be taken to reduce toxic elements in the environment.
Atitlan
Posted by John Heaton on December 3, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Like many things in Guatemala, lake Atitlan has been left unattended and is the latest victim of a growing and endemic disrespect. Obviously, there is much more to preserving a lake than trumpeting to anyone that will listen that, lake Atitlan is the most beautiful lake in the world, like INGUAT ( Guatemalan Tourism Board). The same institution that spent a reported $60 000 to lobby the lake's inclusion as one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Understandably, It did not make it. That $60k might have been better spent to nurture the veracity of Aldeous Huxley's once upon a time resounding quote.
Strangely, or not so strangely, whatever is authentic and beautiful in Guatemala is ultimately destroyed, don't ask me why, thats just the way it is. A love affair with Guatemala is a painful adventure - sooner or later, the beauty that has seduced no end, just shrivels up or is made to dissapear. Lakes, rivers, vernacular architecture, traditions, the invaluable cultural and natural mosaic that this country was once made of has suffered the painful consequences of un-love and disrespect. Who is to blame? Quite a collection of characters. Certainly many foreign and local NGO's, those that have lobbied their conservation agenda's as if there was no tomorrow and whose incapacity has betrayed the trust of their benefactors and the world at large. Then we have Governmental conservation agencies who do not seem to understand their mission beyond the status of their name cards, and so on. A story that would be fit for a book rather than for a short comment. Who is next to bite the dust? It looks like the Mirador Basin could be a strong candidate, if not declared as a wilderness area asap.
Sure, we can all have a good time in Guatemala on an individual basis, but, big picture, it is a country that has failed to love and nurture its goose with the golden eggs and now it is suffering the ills of its disrespect.
To all those who over the years have fallen in love and have been profoundly moved by lake Atitlan, My heartfelt condoleances. Allow me to include myself in that group for having been spellbound by its magic in 1978, a crystal clear memory i will never fail to nurture. UTZ!
Lago Atitlán
Posted by Wayne Bernhardson on November 10, 2009 at 9:11 am
Both Tikal and Lago Atitlán appear in the National Geographic Traveler "Places Rated" entry that I covered for southern South America in this blog. Tikal falls into the "Places in the Balance" category because of crime, rainforest destruction, and overdevelopment. Lago Atitlán, meanwhile, figures among "Places with Troubles" as a perfect example of "how poverty pollutes," and development at Panajachel is "haphazard at best, a disaster at worst."
Lake Atitlan
Posted by Guatemaladreams on November 4, 2009 at 10:11 am
There is a very current factual website about the condition of the lake and covering recent news about the lake.
http://www.lakeatitlanhealth.com
lake powell bullfrog
Posted by aftab2 on July 7, 2010 at 12:07 am
The villages on the lake are startlingly different from each other, ranging from San Marcos, famous for its yoga and mediation retreats, to San Pedro, notorious for parties that carry on to all hours with huge large numbers of dread locked fire spinners and bongo drummers acting unusually abnormal.
Forwarded this to some
Posted by cheran123 on March 29, 2010 at 4:03 am
Forwarded this to some friends, appreciate your advice
Thanks
Posted by Al Argueta on November 9, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Great link!