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Monday, November 30, 2009

How Guatemala's Most Beautiful Lake Turned Ugly

How Guatemala's Most Beautiful Lake Turned Ugly

People stand in Atitlan Lake, Guatemala
People stand in Atitlan Lake, Guatemala

In his 1934 travel book Beyond the Mexique Bay, Aldous Huxley compared Guatemala's Lake Atitlan to Italy's Lake Como. The Italian body of water, he wrote, "touches the limit of the permissibly picturesque." Atitlan, however, "is Como with the additional embellishment of several immense volcanoes. It is really too much of a good thing." Guatemalans have interpreted this declaration by the author of Brave New World to mean that Lake Atitlan is the most beautiful lake in the world — which is the billing on most of the tourist brochures, despite Huxley's ambivalent phrasing.

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