Panajachel is located on Lake Atitlan, a volcanic crater lake. It is a spectacular area and Pana used to be known for the view and the chilled out atmosphere. Travelling hippies settled there during times of political stress. Now that the situation has died down somewhat, and retro-hippy is all the rage, Pana is a booming Gringo-land of wannabe hippies, traveling artisans, and local craftspeople. If you own an import business, this is where you get your Guatemalan stock. Street vendors sell individual items, whereas shops mostly only deal in bulk.

I went to Panajachel a day earlier than Peter and Jort, because I really loved it when we had our school outing, and they hated it. For them, it is simply a place you have to go through to get to San Pedro.

I got lucky and met the artisan crowd as soon as I arrived. That night I had a great time playing pool and dancing with these travelling artists, some of whom had been in Pana for years and years.

The next day when Peter and Jort showed up, I was sad to leave my new friends but happy to be back with the guys and on our way to a new 'home'.

The rest of this page is basically just going to be a rant about travellers vs. backpackers vs. tourists, and why I actually LIKE being a backpacker. Its a rant that could fit anywhere on my site or anywhere in the world. Not necessarily in my Central America pages specifically. But, it embodies the spirit of Panajachel, and so here it is.

Rant

Many people I've met traveling want to be known as travelers. Not tourists, and recently, not backpackers. (see Sorting out Semantics to the right where I give my definitions)

What I've come to realize is that, along with seeing some amazing countryside and experiencing local culture and meeting local people, one of the things I cherish about traveling is meeting other travelers.

I can travel to Mexico, and learn all about Dutch culture... how great! While wandering the temples in Cambodia, the Thai rice-fields, or snorkelling the Red Sea, I can learn about the English, Germans, French, Australians, Brazilians, Israelis, etc (you get the picture)

The way I see it is, you will never be a local. I lived in Sumatera for 4 months, learned the language and shopped at the same shop every day and was still the foreigner. The guy living in the next village for 6 years is still the foreigner and still has to fight about taxi prices. I don't care how worldly and adaptable you are, you cannot go LOCAL!

I enjoy integrating as best I can, eating the local food, learning bits of the language, trying my best to understand the lifestyles. I also love the diversity that can be found in my fellow travellers/backpackers. Having a foreign community brings other travelers and much needed money to an area. I think that if it is done responsibly (ie: without putting a MacDonals in the town square) it can be a good thing.

Sorting out Semantics

Tourist: those people who are away for 2-3 weeks, usually travel on busses, and want to stay in a Western-standard room, with hot water baths. The less contact with local people the better, unless they are bringing cocktails at the poolside. These are the people who propegate the myth that foreigners are dumb and rich.

Backpacker: usually young people 18-30yrs. travelling on a year off between uni/school and settling down. Normally found in gangs at places called hostels. Backpackers can be subcategorised into:
a) Drunk & disorderly: kids first time away from home; would rather be at Ibiza but might run into their parents there.
b) Druggies: on the world drug tour, hell-bent on testing out everything going
c) Tripping Hippies: (or Krusties or Ferrals) travelling peace-loving, nudity promoting, chilled-out, free-love, soapless types, who annoy the hell out of Druggies, Drunks and especially Travellers. Usually found around fires on beaches, manning artisan booths, dancing, juggling, and singing in the streets. These can be further split into A) 'real' hippy who actually does this for a living; and B) tourist hippy... the latter being those who will go home and get jobs as lawyers (and the like) when their trip is over and boast to their friends that they didn't wash their hair for 2 weeks.

Traveller: people who are really "roughing it". They don't want any contact with other foreigners, and when they do they make sure it is known that they are not backpackers or tourists. They tend to try to stay with locals, and eat only from street vendors. They learn the local language and refuse to speak english with other travellers. You notice them sitting in corners alone, or on the outskirts of backpacker conversations, pretending not to be interested and giving off disapproving vibes. They have an incredible talent for smirking loudly whenever anyone makes an observation about the local culture.

Facing my own music (where do I fit?):
Hm. Is there a faery section? This is not all black & white of course... personally, I'd put myself somewhere in the Backpacker:hippy:real/Traveller area but self-perception can be off sometimes can't it?