// GUATEMALA

// GUATEMALA Guatemala was the thirteenth country of my travels, and now that I reflect, it was the seventh that I entered by boat. From southern Belize I took a small speed boat along the coast to the town of Livingston. Belize and Guatemala border one another, but the relations are not great and the jungle dense; so it was easier to simply travel by sea. From Livingston, I journeyed into those jungles, up the Rio Dulce, staying a few nights at a river lodge along the way, where I kayaked lazily along the tributaries and marveled at the wildlife. But I still wasn't prepared for the heartland of Guatemala, for that enigmatic realm beyond the jungles, the one hidden high in the mountains of Central America, home to Mayan cities still speaking their ancient dialects, to ruins as old as Rome, to scenery taken from the pages of fantasy novels. If there are magical places left on Earth, this is surely one of them.