Sololá to Panajachel

Six kilometres of switchbacks unspooling from the western highlands down to the shores of Lake Atitlán, a lake ringed by three volcanoes often called the most beautiful on earth.

From the highland market town of Sololá (2,113 m), RN-1 drops in tight hairpins through pine forest and corn terraces, losing about 600 m to Panajachel at the lake edge (1,597 m). The volcanic caldera reveals itself in stages: glimpses of water through pines, then the full panorama held between the cones of Atitlán, Tolimán and San Pedro. Recently resurfaced; busiest on Sundays.