Guatemala between lakes and volcanoes

 Guatemala between lakes and volcanoes and the Mayan remains. Imposing remains of the extraordinary metropolis of antiquity, breathtaking landscapes and unspoiled nature. Guatemala is a country rich in natural and cultural wonders, with little known but truly breathtaking landscapes. A country full of contradictions, but also very rich in a spontaneous and almost contagious joie de vivre, which involves any tourist.

Guatemala borders Mexico to the north and Belize to the south, Honduras and El Salvador, it faces the Pacific Ocean but has a remarkable and enchanting outlet to the Caribbean Sea. It has nearly 13 million inhabitants, most of them crowded into the capital, Guatemala City.

Maya an extraordinary civilization

One of the extraordinary features of Guatemala are the traces of the ancient Maya civilization: at the time when Rome was a republic that was establishing itself in Italy and in the Mediterranean, the city of Maya el Mirador had over one hundred thousand inhabitants: its spectacular traces, such as the El Tigre pyramid, 60 meters high, are half-buried by the forest.

Guatemala The magnificent Tikal

More accessible to tourists are the spectacular ruins of Tikal. Unesco World Heritage Site, it is less ancient than El Mirador and reached its heyday in the darkest period of our Middle Ages, between the 18th and 19th centuries after Christ. The monuments were conceived according to the cosmic symbolism that impregnated the life of the inhabitants of ancient Guatemala. A world parallel to ours, so different and all to be discovered and admired, which disappeared before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, due to natural causes and barbarian invasions.

Guatemala The beauty of Antigua

But Guatemala is not limited to pre-Columbian history and also preserves interesting monuments, churches, and convents built during the Spanish domination in its most important cities. The most characteristic city of Guatemala is Antigua, full of taverns and restaurants, which retains all the charm of the oldest colonial cities. Colorful and full of life on Good Friday its streets are literally covered with flowers with a religious procession in which hundreds of men and women drag large - and heavy - votive carts on their shoulders.

Guatemala A spectacular nature

The nature of Guatemala is spectacular: to visit the natural pools of Semuc Champey, lakes of crystalline water interspersed with magnificent waterfalls: it is a popular destination also for bathing that allows extremely relaxing baths immersed in a natural setting made of the sounds of the forest and from its thousand colors. Another unmissable destination is Lake Atitlan, which according to the writer Aldous Huxley perhaps even surpassed our Lake Como in beauty. A characteristic of Guatemala is the presence of over thirty volcanoes, of which four are active. The highest exceeds four thousand meters and is the Tajumulco in the southwest, a few kilometers from Mexico.