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| View from La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
La Iguana Perdida offers accommodations for just about any tourist budget, from $6 per night for a bed in a dorm, to $47-61 for a luxury suite (depending on number of people in the suite). I chose the private room with shared bath at about $10.
I'm unsure how to categorize La Iguana Perdida. It has sleeping rooms, yes, with tastes for the hostel crowd and the private cabin crowd. Plus a restaurant and a bar. And auxiliary businesses such as scuba diving, language lessons, local artisanal instruction, tours, and spa services. Maybe I'll call it a resort.
La Iguana Perdida (LIP from now on) offers pleasant spaces where you can just be.
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| View from La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
There are hammocks in a covered patio where you can just sway and look out at the lake.
Or close your eyes. Or look at the ceiling.
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| Pleasantly doing nothing at La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
There is a comfortable library or low-conversation space in a room off the restaurant/bar.
There are chairs with cushions that line a stone pathway, with a line of flowering shrubs between you and the lake, where you can sit and drink your coffee or tea, and just watch the lake, the comings and goings of launches and people, the movement of clouds across the volcanoes.
There are tables and chairs in the restaurant proper and in the covered veranda that invite community chat or board games or dining.
There's an open patio with a firepit and chairs just outside the restaurant/bar.
LIP seems to attract readers, based on my observations of fellow guests during my stay.
There is no wifi. However it is possible to use one of the wired resort computers, in a room designed for this, for a small fee.
The LIP staff are friendly and helpful. I received prompt and useful replies to my email queries before I booked my room and before I arrived at the resort.
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| View from La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
The original owner of the resort - way back before anyone would call it a resort - is now an elder gent, and he lives on the premises full time, I believe. You can often find him in the evenings sitting on one of the chairs on the open patio that has the fire pit.
In my experience, the food offered by the restaurant was pretty, but not particularly memorable. It did have a satisfactory boxed red table wine. The coffee was unobjectionable.
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| A lunch at La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
The hot in the "hot showers" was unreliable during my stay, and there was a bit of a trick to turn them on and find the sweet spot for hot.
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| A shower at La Iguana Perdida, Santa Cruz, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. April 2016. |
The lack of wifi and the disloyal hot showers weren't all that bothersome. What hurt me to the quick was that there was no access to coffee before 8 a.m. Ouch. It would have been helpful to have a little electric kettle with me.
Overall, LIP is a good place to go to be easy in the world for awhile while pleasantly avoiding doing much.
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