Tourism Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a magical place. If you’re into the Maya, the mountains, the markets or a million other things, you’re bound to be captivated. People come and they stay. Or they leave and return. There's almost too much going on here, and even the shortest trip takes you completely different places, with new challenges and surprises.

Students of Spanish flock to Antigua, a gorgeous town nestled between three volcanoes, while those travelers seeking more off-the-beaten-track destinations might head to lesser known places like Lago de Izabal or Nebaj, a Maya village hidden in a remote fold of the Cuchumatanes mountains. And sooner or later, just about everyone ends up in the Highlands – Lago de Atitlán being an irresistable drawcard...

Mapa de Guatemala

Catedral metropolitana Ciudad de Guatemala

Guatemala City

Guatemala’s capital city, the largest urban agglomeration in Central America, spreads across a flattened mountain range run through by deep ravines. Let’s just say that there are more beautiful places on earth.

Depending on who you talk to, Guate (as it’s known) is either big, dirty, dangerous and utterly forgettable or big, dirty, dangerous and fascinating. Either way, there’s no doubt that there’s an energy here unlike that found in the rest of Guatemala, and the extremes that categorize the whole country are in plain view.

It’s a place where dilapidated buses belch fumes next to Beamers and Hummers, where skyscrapers drop shadows on shantytowns and immigrants from the countryside and the rest of Central America eke out a meager existence, barely noticed by the country’s elite.

This is the real cultural capital of Guatemala – the writers, the thinkers, the artists mostly live and work here. All the best museum pieces go to the capital, and while nearly every city dweller dreams of getting away to Antigua or Monterrico for the weekend, this is where they spend most of their time, a fact reflected in the growing sophistication of the restaurant and bar scene.

Many travelers skip the city altogether, preferring to make Antigua their base. Still, you may want, or need, to get acquainted with the capital because this is the hub of the country, where all transportation lines meet and all services are available.

Antigua, Guatemala, desde el Cerro de la Cruz

Lago de Izabal

Guatemala’s largest lake, to the north of the Carr al Atlántico, is just starting to register on travelers’ radar screens. Most visitors checking out the lake stay at Río Dulce town, by the long, tall bridge where Hwy 13, heading north to Flores and Tikal, crosses the Río Dulce emptying out of the east end of the lake. Downstream, the beautiful river broadens into a lake called El Golfete before meeting the Caribbean at Lívingston. River trips are a highlight of a visit to eastern Guatemala. If you’re looking for lakeside ambience minus the Río Dulce congestion and pace, head to Denny’s Beach at Mariscos or, closer, El Castillo de San Felipe, about 3km west of the bridge. The neat town of El Estor near the west end of the lake gives access to the Bocas del Polochic river delta, where there is lots of wildlife. There are many undiscovered spots in this area waiting to be explored, so don’t limit yourself.

Antigua

In all the long, earnest discussions about where to get off the beaten track in Guatemala, you can be sure the name Antigua won't come up. This is fantasyland – what the country would look like if the Scandinavians came in and took over for a couple of years. It’s a place where power lines run underground, building codes are adhered to, rubbish is collected, traffic diverted and stray dogs ‘disappear’ mysteriously in the middle of the night.

But you’d be a fool to miss it. Antigua’s setting is gorgeous, nestled between three volcanoes: Agua (3766m), Fuego (3763m) and Acatenango (3976m), and its streetscapes – with sprays of bougainvillea bursting from crumbling ruins, and pastel facades under terracotta roofs – offer photo opportunities at every turn. The language school scene is thriving, the hostels offer colonial-chic accommodations and the dining is some of the best in the country.

The most exciting time to visit Antigua is during Holy Week – especially Good Friday. It takes planning (reserve hotels at least four months in advance), as this is the busiest week of the year. Other busy times are June through August and November to April.

Antigua is cold after sunset, especially between September and March, so bring warm clothes, a sleeping bag or a blanket. Antigua residents are known by the nickname panza verde (green belly), as they are said to eat lots of avocados, which grow abundantly here.

Municipalidad de Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Chichicastenango

Surrounded by valleys, with mountains serrating the horizons, Chichicastenango can seem isolated in time and space from the rest of Guatemala. When its narrow cobbled streets and red-tiled roofs are enveloped in mist, as they often are, it can seem magical. The crowds of crafts vendors and tour groups who flock in for the huge Thursday and Sunday markets give the place a much worldlier, commercial atmosphere, but Chichi remains beautiful and interesting, with lots of shamanistic and ceremonial overtones. Masheños (citizens of Chichicastenango) are famous for their adherence to pre-Christian religious beliefs and ceremonies. If you have a choice of days, come for the Sunday market rather than the Thursday one, as the cofradías (Mayan religious brotherhoods) often hold processions in and around the church of Santo Tomás on Sunday.

Chichi has two religious and governmental establishments. On the one hand, the Catholic Church and the Republic of Guatemala appoint priests and town officials; on the other, the indigenous people elect their own religious and civil officers to manage local matters, with a separate council and mayor, and a court that decides cases involving only local indigenous people.

Once called Chaviar, Chichi was an important Kaqchiquel trading town long before the Spanish conquest. In the 15th century the Kaqchiquel and the K’iche’ (based at K’umarcaaj near present-day Santa Cruz del Quiché, 20km north) went to war. The Kaqchiquel abandoned Chaviar and moved their headquarters to the more defensible Iximché. When the Spanish conquered K’umarcaaj in 1524, many of its residents fled to Chaviar, which they renamed Chugüilá (Above the Nettles) and Tziguan Tinamit (Surrounded by Canyons). These are the names still used by the K’iche’ Maya, although everyone else calls the place Chichicastenango, a name given by the Spaniards’ Mexican allies.

Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa

Another 71km eastward from Mazatenango is Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, an important stop for anyone interested in archaeology. In the fields and fincas (plantations) near the town stand great stone heads carved with grotesque faces and fine relief scenes, the product of the enigmatic Pipil culture that flourished here from about AD 500 to 700. In your explorations you may get to see a Guatemalan sugarcane finca in full operation.

The town, though benign enough, is unexciting. The local people around here are descended from the Pipil, an ancient culture that had linguistic and cultural links with the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico. In early Classic times, the Pipil who lived here grew cacao, the money of the age. They were obsessed with the ball game and with the rites and mysteries of death. Pipil art, unlike the flowery, almost romantic style of the Maya, is cold, grotesque and severe, but still very finely done. When these ‘Mexicans’ settled in this pocket of Guatemala, and where they came from, is not known, though connections with Mexico’s Gulf Coast area, whose culture was also obsessed with the ball game, have been suggested.