Santiago Atitlan sits on an inlet of Lake Atitlan, tucked behind Volcan San Pedro rather than facing the main body of the lake. The view is dominated not by open water but by the volcano's massive cone rising across the narrow inlet. The vast majority of the town's residents are Tz'utujil Maya, still speaking their own language among themselves -- though nearly all now know Spanish as well. This is a different Maya culture and language from the Kaqchikel communities on the lake's northern shore, though the two are closely related. Santiago is the largest indigenous community on Atitlan, and it carries itself with the quiet self-assurance of a place that has been a center of power for a very long time. The Catholic church, whose structure dates to at least 1571, contains three plaques tracing its history. The market street running from the docks to the church offers woven textiles, volcanic jade carvings, and stone pieces claimed to be ancient Tz'utujil artifacts.

Somewhere in Santiago Atitlan, behind an unmarked door in a private house, sits Maximon. He is an effigy -- part traditional Maya deity, part Catholic saint, part conquistador legend -- dressed in clothes and scarves, with offerings of money, cigarettes, and alcohol arranged before him. A local religious brotherhood controls the figure and moves it to a different member's house each year, usually around May, with the most elaborate procession taking place during Semana Santa. Maximon grants wishes, the locals say, but he has his price. Visitors who find him are asked for a small offering -- five quetzales to approach, ten to take photographs. Several towns across Guatemala maintain similar syncretic figures, most notably the cult of San Simon in Zunil, but Santiago's Maximon is the most famous. The search for his current location has become a small ritual in itself -- ask a tuk-tuk driver, and for five quetzales he will take you there.

The Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996, devastated the indigenous communities around Lake Atitlan. The government's scorched-earth policy treated Maya people as presumptive guerrilla sympathizers, and Santiago Atitlan paid a staggering price. Death squads operated openly, and residents were disappeared -- taken from their homes and never seen again. In 1981, soldiers assassinated Stanley Rother, an American Catholic priest who had served the community for over a decade and refused to leave despite death threats. The Vatican has since recognized him as a martyr. The 1990 protest march that ended the army's presence in Santiago cost the lives of local people who walked unarmed toward armed soldiers. A memorial was erected to honor them, though it was later damaged by mudslides from Hurricane Stan in 2005. The town's decision to confront military power nonviolently, and the world's decision to pay attention, became a turning point in Guatemala's long struggle toward peace.

In the forested hills south of Santiago, the resplendent quetzal -- Guatemala's national bird, the creature whose name was given to the country's currency -- nests during the season from January through May. The cloud forests here are among the most reliable places in Guatemala to spot the spectacular bird, whose iridescent green tail feathers can reach three feet in length. Guides lead visitors along unmarked jungle trails to the specific trees where quetzals nest, since finding them independently is nearly impossible even for experienced birders. Outside nesting season the birds are harder to locate but still present -- one guide estimated a fifty-fifty chance in July. The same forests shelter the Azure-rumped Tanager, a striking bird found nowhere on Earth except a handful of cloud forests in Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas. Santiago's night life, meanwhile, runs later than most lakeside towns. Street food appears in the market areas near the main square after dark, and some restaurants do not open until nine in the evening.