Guatemala is rich in natural beauty and travel opportunities, it’s a country that offers so much to those willing to step off the beaten track for a little while.

Antigua Guatemala is often regarded as the travellers hub, a crumbling, picture-perfect central american town ringed by volcanoes. From here you can take a hike up Volcano Pacaya, take a bus to the bustling market of Chichicastenango, or simply sip some coffee in a street-side cafe and watch the world go by.

Lake Atitlan (or Lago de Atitlán) is another frequent stop on any visitors itinerary. A volcano-rimmed lake with plenty of backpacker hostels and Mayan villages that dot the shores.

Flores in Guatemala’s wild north is a tourist friendly island in the middle of Lake Petén Itzá. From here you can take a bus ride to one of best preserved Mayan ruins in the world, Tikal. Howler monkeys and dense jungle make walking around the ruins an adventure in itself.

Semuc Champey, Lanquin (near Coban, Alta Verapaz), is a cascade of turquoise limestone pools created by the river plunging below ground for a stretch before rushing back out through a spectacular waterfall. Definately worth making the trip to Lanquin for as well as the beautiful lodges that have sprung up from the captivating hilly landscape.

Guatemala is a great place to learn Spanish. The prices are low, and Guatemalan Spanish is considered pleasing. Antigua has the highest number of Spanish schools and is also the most popular place for tourists. But if studying Spanish is your main concern, you might be better off elsewhere, because you can actually go around in Antigua for a whole day without hearing anything but English.

Because of this, many language students head towards Quetzaltenango in the Western Highlands, where a wide range of language schools also offer Spanish language courses (some quite inexpensive). Another alternative is San Pedro la Laguna, seated by Lake Atitlan.

Destinations

Cities

• Guatemala City — Capital and largest city with many amenities
• Antigua Guatemala — Colonial Spanish capital of Central America, a World Heritage site, and the most popular among tourists
• Flores — Island city capital of Petén, good starting point to access Mayan ruins of Tikal
• Melchor de Mencos — Border city which is the main crossing point to Belize
• Panajachel — Gateway to Lake Atitlán, a beautiful and busy tourist area
• Puerto Barrios — Caribbean seaport with speedboats to and from Belize
• Puerto San José — Pacific seaport
• Quetzaltenango — Second largest city, in the western highlands. Commonly called “Xela”
• Sayaxché — River gateway in Petén
• Coban — City with a rich culture and a great launching point to travel to Semuc Champay

Other Destinations

• Lake Atitlán — Beautiful lake region in the mountains surrounded by many picturesque villages and volcanoes, which is becoming more and more touristic
• Monterrico — The beach closest to Guatemala City and Antigua, volcanic sand

Maya Ruins

• El Mirador — massive early Maya site, perhaps the cradle of Maya civilization. Still being uncovered and studied; less developed for visitors than the other largest Maya sites
• Tikal — long considered the largest of Maya ruins (although the ongoing investigations of El Mirador may challenge this claim), this huge and impressive ancient Maya site is probably worth the trip to Guatemala by itself. Stay in the park or in nearby Flores the night before in order to organise a early morning trip to Tikal, to see the sun rise over the ruins. Tours are easily organised from the surrounding areas
• Aguateca — some of the best-preserved Mayan ruins in Guatemala where you are more likely to encounter archaeologists at work than tourists with cameras
• El Peru (Waká) — a three day trek/boat trip from Flores and identified as the source of many looted Maya artifacts
• Iximché — ruins in the Central Highlands, an easy day trip from Guatemala City or Antigua
• Nakúm — an impressive Classic Maya site
• Yaxhá — ruins with more than 500 structures, between Flores and Melchor de Mencos

Ecotourism

Cuatro Balam

Cuatro Balam is an initiative by the government of Guatemala to dramatically increase tourism in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, focusing on the region’s numerous archeological sites.

The Reserve is a protected area of 21,602 km² in Guatemala’s northernmost Petén Department. The Reserve contains national parks and wildlife preserves, and “multiple use” zones where limited human settlement and activity are permitted.

The Cuatro Balam plan is being promoted as a means of conserving Guatemala’s biodiversity and archaeological heritage, while fostering regional economic development. The Guatemalan government says the plan will cover about 22,500 km², an area slightly larger than the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

The plan is touted as the largest archaeological tourism project in Latin America. Archaeological sites in the Reserve include Tikal, Guatemala’s most famous Maya city, which attracts 120,000 to 180,000 visitors per year, and El Mirador, a lesser-known but larger Maya city dating from the preclassic period.

El Mirador is located in the remote, dense jungle about 7 km south of the Mexican border. A government press release lists Tikal, El Mirador, Piedras Negras, and Uaxactún as the Maya sites that will anchor tourism development. Tens of other sites are also being excavated in the region.

B’alam is a word for “jaguar” in many Mayan languages, and cuatro is Spanish for “four”; hence the intended meaning, “four jaguars.” “Cuatro Balam” also refers to the four main figures of the K’iche’ Maya sacred text Popol Vuh, linked to the four cardinal directions.

The project was officially presented to the press and the public by Guatemala’s president Alvaro Colom on July 16, 2008 preceded by months of speculation and discussion. At the presentation, a video was shown depicting aspirations for the first fifteen years of the project, which include attracting 12 million visitors to the region. At El Mirador specifically, Colom says he hopes to increase the annual number of tourists to 40,000.

According to President Colom and Eugenio Gabriel, whom Colom has put in charge of the project, the Reserve will be divided into three zones: an archeological park in the north, a tourism hub in the center, and an agricultural zone in the south, intended to prevent further northward migration by Guatemalan farmers and ranchers.

Key features of the plan include a small train that will carry tourists to and from archaeological sites at a speed of 16 kilometers per hour and a new university that will promote the study of the region’s biodiversity and genetic material, as well as Maya studies.

President Colom did not specify exactly how the project will be financed, but said it will require investment from both the public and private sector. At the announcement of the project, Colom said that some of plan objectives could be achieved within just two years, while others would take up to fifteen to realize.

In his announcement of Cuatro Balam, Colom also said that for the project to succeed, the region would have to be protected from invasive farmers and rancher and drug traffickers, who are concentrated in the western part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

The plan will be a subject of discussion in the “mesas multisectoriales” or multisectoral roundtables, an ongoing series of talks between government officials, NGOs and community groups to discuss economic development and environmental conservation around El Mirador.