Guatemala

Antigua is the base, but Lake Atitlan is the one you will not forget

Guatemala has the largest indigenous population in Central America, with over twenty Mayan languages still spoken and traditional dress worn as everyday clothing rather than costume in much of the highlands. That living continuity is what separates it from neighbours where the pre-Columbian past is mostly archaeological.

Antigua is the traveller hub, a colonial town of cobbled streets and ruined churches surrounded by three volcanoes, one of which erupts often enough that you can hike a neighbouring peak and watch it. Lake Atitlan, a couple of hours away, sits in a volcanic caldera ringed by villages each with its own character, and is where most people end up extending their stay.

Tikal is the other headline: a Mayan city rising out of dense jungle in the Peten, where you climb a temple at dawn above the canopy with howler monkeys making a noise that sounds nothing like a monkey. Guatemala is also cheap, and Antigua is one of the most popular and affordable places in the world to learn Spanish.

Annual events and festivals

• Semana Santa, Antigua (Mar-Apr) — the most elaborate Holy Week in the Americas. Alfombras, coloured sawdust carpets, are made and then walked over by processions.
• Dia de los Santos (1 Nov) — giant kites flown over cemeteries at Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepequez to communicate with the dead.
• Quema del Diablo (7 Dec) — burning of the devil. Households burn rubbish and effigies at 6pm.
• Rabin Ajau, Coban (Jul-Aug) — a national indigenous folklore festival.
• Independence Day (15 Sep) — torch relays and school parades nationwide.
• Fiesta de Santo Tomas, Chichicastenango (Dec) — includes the palo volador, men spinning from a tall pole.
• Dia de Guadalupe (12 Dec) — children dressed in traditional Mayan clothing taken to church.
• Baile de la Conquista (varies) — a masked dance re-enacting the Spanish conquest, performed at village fiestas.
• Chichicastenango market days (Thu and Sun) — not a festival, but one of the largest indigenous markets in the Americas.
• Christmas Eve (24 Dec) — fireworks at midnight across the entire country, all at once.