Laguna Chicabal is a Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

n lake

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

 sacred to the Mam

Mam people

The Mam are a Native American people in the western highlands of Guatemala and in south-western Mexico.Most Mam live in Guatemala, in the departments of Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Quetzaltenango...

 Mayan people. The lake is located in the municipal boundary of the town of San Martín Sacatepéquez

San Martín Sacatepéquez

San Martín Sacatepéquez is one of 24 municipalities in the department of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. San Martín Sacatepéquez has a surface area of 100 km2. The center of the town is situated at 2,450 meters above sea level...

 in the department

Departments of Guatemala

||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...

 of Quetzaltenango

Quetzaltenango (department)

Quetzaltenango is a department in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. The inhabitants include Spanish-speaking Ladinos and the K'iche' and Mam Maya groups, both with their own Maya language...

. A crater lake

Crater lake

A crater lake is a lake that forms in a volcanic crater or caldera, such as a maar; less commonly and with lower association to the term a lake may form in an impact crater caused by a meteorite. Sometimes lakes which form inside calderas are called caldera lakes, but often this distinction is not...

, Laguna Chicabal was formed in the crater of Volcán Chicabal at an elevation of 2,712 meters (8,879 feet). The terrain surrounding the lake is a cloud forest

Cloud forest

A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...

.

Laguna Chicabal is billed as the center of the Mam-Maya "cosmovision

Maya religion

The traditional Maya religion of western Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico is a southeastern variant of Mesoamerican religion. As is the case with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism...

", and Mayan traditionalists still use the several altar

Altar

An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

s on the lake shore. Restrictions are placed on visiting the lake during the early part of May so that Mam people can celebrate their traditional ceremonies without disturbance. Because of its spiritual importance, swimming is prohibited in Laguna Chicabal.