Guatemala Summary

Spread across a verdant and mountainous chunk of land, * Guatemala* is endowed with simply staggering natural, historical and cultural interest. Though the giant Maya temples and rainforest cities have been long abandoned, ancient traditions remain very much alive throughout the Guatemalan highlands. Uniquely in Central America, at least half the country’s population is still Native American, and this rural indigenous culture is far stronger than anywhere else in the region. Countering this is a powerful ladino society, characteristically urban and commercial in its outlook. All over the country you’ll come across remnants of Guatemala’s * colonial* past, nowhere more so than in the graceful former capital, Antigua.