from $3,995* per person	9 Days	Year-round
Luxury accommodations		Exertion level: 4
Operator: Geographic Expeditions		18 people max

Guatemala is an often overlooked country, rich with tremendous scenery, Mayan glories, colonial grandeur, and cheery, heart-involving folks. As our Brady Binstadt says, “These are some of my favorite places in all of the Americas for a full-on cultural experience.”

We begin in Antigua, as lovely a town as any of us will likely ever see, then head, via the colorful local Mayan market at Chichicastenango, to volcano-encircled Lake Atitlán, where we boat about in good fettle. Then we explore the resonant ruins at Iximche, El Ceibal and the even more impressive remains of the Mayan capital of Tikal. We further delve into the nature, history and architecture of the region while guests at an intimate ecolodge at Ni’tun. During the heyday of the Mayan empire, in the eighth century of the Current Era, the five towering temples of Tikal, poking through a jungle canopy, signaled the—alas, evanescent—ascendancy of the Mayans. Civilizations come and go, a truism for which we get a taste when we return home via Guatemala City, built on Mayan ruins by the Spanish, who in turn were supplanted by the mixed glories of the Current Era. For those who enjoy being pampered, inquire about our access to private homes, charter flights, helicopters, and other niceties.