Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is on 1,562 m / 5125 ft above sea level. The last stretch of the road to the lake is extremely steep. We descended over 1000 m/ 3280 ft in just 30 minutes. Continuous driving downhill in first gear was not enough to slow our Jeep down. I had to press the brake pedal all the time. As usual in this situation, the main concern was not to overheat the brakes. Overheated brakes mean no brakes. We did not want to try this option on that steep road.
