From the emerald, lime and bottle-green patchwork that covers rumpled mountains under a navy sky, to the pink and scarlet worn by its proud indigenous population, Guatemala is without doubt the most colourful of Central American destinations.
The eponymous capital is not the place to linger, but the spectacular temples of Tikal are. These towering monuments to a lost civilization peer out over dense, rainforest, and retain a spiritual mystique often missing at the over-restored sites in neighbouring Mexico.
Rich culture lives on in the market towns of the highlands. Shopping for medicinal roots, flowers and embroidered waistcoats at Chichicastenango is an excuse for discreet people-watching, (photographers aren't appreciated), and well worth the vertiginous bus ride and high risk of being knocked to the ground by coach parties of tourists.
An altogether slower pace of life pervades the leafy colonial plazas and courtyards of Antigua. Once the capital, but ravaged by earthquakes, Antigua's stately Spanish churches and haciendas sit engulfed in bougainvillea beneath live volcanoes. Most people here are teaching or learning Spanish. If that sounds too mentally draining, head south to the black sand beaches of Monterricco on the Pacific coast and find a place to hang your hammock.
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