The proprietor of Los Encuentros, Richard, is an interesting man, very pleasant to interact with; and the place he has made here, having begun with the purchase of a large old house, is a perfectly secure, relatively quiet, thoroughly comfortable place to stay. The only noise came from the occasionally barking dogs, and where in Central America will you be free from those?

Though Los Encuentros is perhaps a little far from the primary pitch of shops and restaurants, it takes only fifteen minutes to walk; and the plentiful tuk-tuks have a very low, set fee for travel within the town/village, which is just 5 Quetzales, as I recall; or is it 10? Hardly anything, considering. Less than a buck. We were actually grateful to be a little ways away from the main commercial district.

Our room had a TV (not that we could find anything worth watching on it--no English language news, for example); a good-sized fridge; a comfortable bed; attractive, rustic furniture; and a nice bathroom. Had we chosen to, we could have sat out on our little porch, where there were a couple of chairs and a table with a candle.

Richard has a hot-tub of sorts, fed by a natural supply of thermal waters, changed every other day and perfectly clean and pleasant on the day that we decided to have our evening's rum, lime and limca there. Very nice!

I confess that the garden between the area of outlying rooms and the main building for me has no charm: it is filled by raised, heavily-constructed stone planting areas for indigenous plants and other things of intellectual interest, perhaps, though not much to look at. This is a minor thing and did not at all detract from our pleasure in our stay.

Getting potable water is always a concern, and you should know that Richard and his long-time helpers keep you well supplied with bottled drinking water (there's a five-gallon jug, for your exclusive use, on the porch of your room, if you have one laid out like ours).

Good luck to Richard and Los Encuentros!

P.S. The Circus Bar & Restaurant has live music every night, at least during the high season. This is really pleasant.
P.P.S. Make the effort to get to Santiago de Atitlan, across the lake, on market day. It is wonderful to see so many people, even the men, in native attire, and the market itself is as lively as can be.