Antigua

Superbly sited in a sweeping highland valley between the cones of Agua, Acatenango and Fuego volcanoes is one of Central America's most enchanting colonial cities: ANTIGUA. In its day, Antigua was one of the great cities of the Spanish Empire, ranking alongside Lima and Mexico City and serving as the administrative center for all of Central America and Mexican Chiapas, and the magnificent colonial churches, monasteries and mansions built during this era have ensured the city's continuing prosperity as one of Guatemala's premier tourist attractions.

Antigua was actually the third capital of Guatemala. The Spanish settled first at the site of Iximché in July 1524, and then at a site a few kilometres from Antigua, now called Ciudad Vieja, but when this was devastated by a massive mudslide from Volcán Agua in 1541, the capital was moved to Antigua. Antigua grew slowly but steadily as religious orders established themselves one by one, competing in the construction of schools, churches, monasteries and hospitals, all largely built by the sweat and blood of conscripted Maya labourers.

The city reached its peak in the middle of the eighteenth century, after the 1717 earthquake prompted an unprecedented building boom, and the population rose to around fifty thousand. By this stage Antigua was a genuinely impressive place, with a university, a printing press and a newspaper. But, as is so often the case in Guatemala, earthquakes brought all of this to an abrupt end. For the best part of a year the city was shaken by tremors, with the final blows delivered by two severe shocks on September 7 and December 13, 1773. The damage was so bad that the decision was made to abandon the city in favor of the modern capital. Fortunately, despite endless official decrees, many refused to leave and Antigua was never completely deserted.

Since then, the city has been gradually repopulated, particularly in the last hundred years or so, and as Guatemala City has become increasingly congested, many of the conservative middle classes have moved to Antigua. They've been joined by a large number of resident and visiting foreigners, attracted by the relaxed and sophisticated atmosphere, lively cultural life, the benign climate and largely traffic-free cobbled streets.

Efforts have been made to preserve Antigua's grand architectural legacy, especially after it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 – local conservation laws protect the streets from overhanging signs, and house extensions are severely restricted. Though many colonial buildings lie in splendidly atmospheric ruin or else are steadily decaying, many more have been impeccably restored and sympathetically converted into hotels or restaurants.

Thanks to its relaxed atmosphere, Antigua is a favored hangout for jaded travelers to refuel and recharge. The bar scene is always lively and there's an extraordinarily cosmopolitan choice of restaurants. If you can make it here for Semana Santa (Easter week) you'll witness the most extravagant and impressive processions in all Latin America. Another attraction are the city's language schools, some of the best and cheapest in all Latin America, drawing students from around the globe. Expats from Europe, North and South America and even Asia contribute to the town's cosmopolitan air, mingling with the Guatemalans who come here at weekends to eat, drink and enjoy themselves. The downside of this settled, comfortable affluence is perhaps a loss of vitality – this civilized, isolated world can seem almost a little too smug and comfortable. After a few days of sipping cappuccinos and munching cake, it's easy to forget that you're in Central America at all.

Tikal

Located in El Peten , Tikal is the most impressive and magnificent Mayan ruin in Central America.  Believed to have been one of the most powerful cities in the ancient Mayan world, Tikal was inhabited between roughly 800 B.C. and 900 A.D., and was home to 100,000 people at its height.  Today, a wildlife preserve covering 220 square miles of lush rainforest surrounds the ruins, and visitors commonly see monkeys and several species of tropical birds that inhabit the trees around the ancient city.  The ruins are 66 kilometers from Flores on paved roads.  It is recommended that you take at least 2 days to see the ruins.

The city and surrounding areas are believed to have spanned an area of 23 square miles.  The temples are mainly constructed out of limestone, which was very important for construction because it also provided lime for stucco and plaster.  Pyramids represent the sacred mountains where it was believed that maize came from.  The temples used to be covered in rich color patterns and some temples were even painted completely red.  The east plaza was the main plaza in the Classic era, although today the Great Plaza is the center of the site.  Seventy stelae, originally painted red, have been located around this ruin.  These stelae, each of which once had an altar beside it, commemorate the rulers of Tikal, and their faces can still be seen today carved on one side of the large stone monuments.  The nearby Temple of the Giant Jaguar is a 100-foot high pyramid concealing the tomb of Ahau Cacau, the divine ruler of Tikal.  Other noteworthy temples and plazas: the Temple of the Masks, Temple of the Jaguar Priest, the North Acropolis, and to the south of the great plaza complex, the Central Acropolis.  Here there are 42 palaces, all excellent examples of Mayan architecture.  

The Great Plaza, the East Plaza, and the Plaza of the Seven Temples all have ball courts.  In the Plaza of the Lost World, pyramid 5C-54 is one of the oldest pyramids with a core which is believed to have been built around 500 B.C.  Southeast of Group G is a causeway that leads to the Temple of the Inscriptions, completed around 750 A.D.

An official expedition to Tikal was not made until 1848, although the locals probably knew about the site for years.  It was declared  a national park and countless other archaeological studies have been carried out.  

Chichicastenango

The road for Chichicastenango and the department of El Quiché leaves the Carretera Interamericana at the Los Encuentros junction, thirty kilometers past the Iximché turnoff. Heading north from Los Encuentros, the highway drops down through dense, aromatic pine forests, plunging into a deep ravine before bottoming out by a tributary of the Río Motagua.

Continuing upwards around endless switchbacks, the road eventually reaches CHICHICASTENANGO, Guatemala's "mecca del turismo". If it's market day, you may get embroiled in one of the country's very few traffic jams – a rare event outside the capital – as traders, tourists and locals all struggle to reach the town center. In this compact and traditional town of cobbled streets, adobe houses and red-tiled roofs, the calm of day-to-day life is shattered on a twice-weekly basis by the Sunday and Thursday markets – Sunday is the busiest. The market attracts myriad tourists and commercial traders, as well as Maya weavers from throughout the central highlands.

The market is by no means all that sets Chichicastenango apart, however. For the local Maya population it's an important center of culture and religion. The area was inhabited by the Kaqchikel long before the arrival of the Spanish, and over the years Maya culture and folk Catholicism have been treated with a rare degree of respect – although inevitably this blessing has been mixed with waves of arbitrary persecution and exploitation. Today, the town has an incredible collection of Maya artefacts, parallel indígena and ladino governments, and a church that makes no effort to disguise its acceptance of unconventional pagan worship. Traditional weaving is also adhered to here and the women wear superb, heavily embroidered huipiles. The men's costume of short trousers and jackets of black wool embroidered with silk is highly distinguished, although it's very expensive to make and these days most men opt for Western dress. However, for the town's fiesta (December 14–21) and on Sundays, a handful of cofradres (elders of the religious hierarchy) still wear traditional clothing and carry spectacular silver processional crosses and incense burners.