Anthropology Museum Guatemala City

The rulers scratched off the faces of their predecesors when they assumed power.

Jade burial mask.

Lake Atitlan

"Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." --Aldous Huxley

My Maya guide said the water level rose 5 meters after last year's hurricanes. Shorelines were full of flooded forests.

Used with permission. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28356093@N08/5607790477/

It's tempting but rude to take pictures of the Maya ladies. This photographer probably paid her in exchange for the shoot.

Tikal

Mayan ruins in the jungle. Walking along the trails I saw spider monkeys, wild turkeys, frogs, leafcutter ants, crocodiles, howler monkeys, and coatimundis (racoon-like critters.)

The Mayan or false arch. No keystone.

This is what the pyramids look like before excavation/restoration.

Guatemala City

The capital. You have to look hard to see the beauty.

Antigua

Antigua, Guatemala, at the foot of the Volcan de Agua.

Volcan de Fuego put out a cloud of ash one morning.

Coffee is an understory plant; it cannot take full sun. It is planted among shade trees. The trees were being pruned and branches lay all around. Coffee bushes are the smaller, green plants.