Although Guatemala is recovering from the psychic wounds of military dictatorships and guerrilla warfare, it possesses a gritty determination to keep the glorious of Mayan culture flying. And what a wealth of masts it has to nail them to. lts volcanoes can seem the highest and most active, its Mayan ruins the most ruinous, its colonial cities the most historic, its jungles the most enigmatic and impenetrable, its coral reefs the most beautiful, and its flora and fauna some of the unusual in the world.

November through to May (the dry season)

Joining a Spanish-language school in Antigua Spending a day in a hammock on laze Santa Cruz la Laguna Hiking to the highest point in Central America (Tajumulco Volcano), camping overnight and watching the sun rise Engaging in a spot of bartering at the Sunday Chichicastenango markets Spending a day at the Mayan ruins at Tikal

Read hombres De Maiz, by Miguel Angle Asturias, the Nobel Prize-winning author and long-time exile who combines Mayan mysticism and social consciousness to deliver an indictment of dictatorial rule

Listen to Guatemala: Celebrated Marimbas, highlighting the principal instrument of traditional Guatemelan music. PacoPerez’s ‘Lana de Xelaju’ is the best-known composition for marimbas

Watch What Sebastian Dreamt. Part documentary, part narrative, this rare Guatemalan film offers the rainforests as primary suspect in a murder/ mystery thriller

Eat tortilla, a thin round patty of corn dough cooked on a griddle; frijoles, black beans; tapado, a Caribbean casserole of seafood, plantains, coconut milk and vegetables

Drink coffee, hot chocolate, fresh fruit and vegetable juices

Basta que basta (enough is enough)

Old Mayan gods and ruins; colourful masks; cheerfully painted buses; the quetzal; brooding volcanoes; rainforests; corn fields; brilliantly coloured textiles; Mayan trouble dolls; tongue-challenging place names; highly wrought iron crucifixes

The quality of jewellery; the national passion for football (soccer); the cold in the Highlands; cheap mobile phone calls

(But) the most striking feature Guatemala is its people… You’ll rarely get a brusque reception from any Guatemalan, and with their infectiously amicable and helpful demeanour, it’s the Guatemalans themselves who, more than anything, really make traveling in Guatemala special