Seeing Guatemala & Mexico together
By combining Guatemala and Mexico you can stay longer, get to know both better and learn to travel like a Maya.
“Mrs Basilia walks 3km into the mountains to collect clay from one very specific place in the hills,” says Luis Felipe Guerra, operations manager at our Guatemala and Mexico holiday experts Intrepid Travel. “She brings it back to a grinding stone – one that you might use to make tortillas – but she uses it on the clay.”
Luis is telling the story of one very particular place: Santa Apolonia in Guatemala, a village 2,200m above sea level in Chimaltenango department, where massive pots for making tamales, and comales, used to cook tortillas, are created with a method that’s completely unique to the area.
“She grinds some of the clay into a powder and ferments some in a pot of water. A few days later, she mixes the two together. With her hand, she makes a hole in the centre and puts it in the ground. And then she will dance around the clay.
“The action of the potter’s wheel is her hands and body dancing around the chunk of clay, and with her fingers she stretches the clay and makes the most perfect pot. It is a labour that is very intense and takes hours of work, but when she finishes it is a perfect piece of ceramic.”
“Mrs Basilia walks 3km into the mountains to collect clay from one very specific place in the hills,” says Luis Felipe Guerra, operations manager at our Guatemala and Mexico holiday experts Intrepid Travel. “She brings it back to a grinding stone – one that you might use to make tortillas – but she uses it on the clay.”
Luis is telling the story of one very particular place: Santa Apolonia in Guatemala, a village 2,200m above sea level in Chimaltenango department, where massive pots for making tamales, and comales, used to cook tortillas, are created with a method that’s completely unique to the area.
“She grinds some of the clay into a powder and ferments some in a pot of water. A few days later, she mixes the two together. With her hand, she makes a hole in the centre and puts it in the ground. And then she will dance around the clay.
“The action of the potter’s wheel is her hands and body dancing around the chunk of clay, and with her fingers she stretches the clay and makes the most perfect pot. It is a labour that is very intense and takes hours of work, but when she finishes it is a perfect piece of ceramic.”
A unique technique
When the influential Expedition Magazine (the official members' magazine of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia) ran a story about the laborious pot-making process in 1972, there were numerous women in the village making ceramics this special way. Now, you can only go and see Mrs Basilia.“There is no sign on the door,” says Luis. “You have to know her house to know where she is.”
On one visit, Luis tried to make a pot himself. It did not go well. “It was bad. Bad, bad, bad.” He accidentally stepped on his creation – not once, but twice – and crushed it.
Others have had more success: “People in the village see this group come in the house – and they want to get involved. A tradition that was almost lost is now reviving. Mrs Basilia’s daughters are doing it, her daughter-in-law too, and more people in the community. That’s what we want to do: not let things die but keep things alive.”
Keeping communities thriving
We are honouring that past and honouring what they do.![]()
The culture of many villages in Guatemala is similarly unique. “It’s so particular,” says Luis. “If you go from one village to another, there’s a whole new code of dressing. It’s as if they are wearing uniforms.”
It fills a tour with incredibly local, hyper-specific experiences. One day, slapping a wet clay pot into shape; another day, visiting San Juan La Laguna, a fishing community on the shore of Lake Atitlan. The community has banned land sales to outsiders, preserving the traditions of the Indigenous Tz’utujil Maya population. Women here learn the art of backstrap weaving (a traditional weaving technique commonly used in the area) from as young as eight years old.
“You have a chance to discover the beauty of the weavings of Guatemala,” says Luis. “How a simple seed can be transformed into a colouring material, how cotton is made into thread, how thread is intertwined. It’s a mathematical operation – how it is imagined and transformed into a design.”
In the 1950s, black bass were released into Lake Atitlan to encourage more fishing tourism, but the non-native fish quickly ate everything else in the lake. This, and fertiliser run-off from agriculture, meant that fishing stocks in the lake dwindled, threatening the livelihoods in San Juan La Laguna. The community has rallied.
“It was one of the first communities around Guatemala that organised themselves,” says Luis. “They started to see the potential of tourism.”
There is a weaving cooperative and the town banned single-use plastic in 2016 – one of the first in Guatemala to do so. Now there are tourism homestays rotated around 20 families, so that each family can continue their other occupations (many are now farmers).
“Through supporting them we are supporting the permanency of that tradition in that culture and we are honouring that past and honouring what they do,” says Luis. “And you’re spending the day with the family and learning what they do for a living. Learning what it means to be a Maya in Guatemala.”
It fills a tour with incredibly local, hyper-specific experiences. One day, slapping a wet clay pot into shape; another day, visiting San Juan La Laguna, a fishing community on the shore of Lake Atitlan. The community has banned land sales to outsiders, preserving the traditions of the Indigenous Tz’utujil Maya population. Women here learn the art of backstrap weaving (a traditional weaving technique commonly used in the area) from as young as eight years old.
“You have a chance to discover the beauty of the weavings of Guatemala,” says Luis. “How a simple seed can be transformed into a colouring material, how cotton is made into thread, how thread is intertwined. It’s a mathematical operation – how it is imagined and transformed into a design.”
In the 1950s, black bass were released into Lake Atitlan to encourage more fishing tourism, but the non-native fish quickly ate everything else in the lake. This, and fertiliser run-off from agriculture, meant that fishing stocks in the lake dwindled, threatening the livelihoods in San Juan La Laguna. The community has rallied.
“It was one of the first communities around Guatemala that organised themselves,” says Luis. “They started to see the potential of tourism.”
There is a weaving cooperative and the town banned single-use plastic in 2016 – one of the first in Guatemala to do so. Now there are tourism homestays rotated around 20 families, so that each family can continue their other occupations (many are now farmers).
“Through supporting them we are supporting the permanency of that tradition in that culture and we are honouring that past and honouring what they do,” says Luis. “And you’re spending the day with the family and learning what they do for a living. Learning what it means to be a Maya in Guatemala.”
Meet the Maya
The Maya civilisation existed in Mesoamerica from 2000BC, settling in Mexico and building a vast and complex society. They used accurate calendars to organise their farming year and eventually built large cities at Palenque, Calakmul, Chichen Itza and Coba in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala, and Copan in Honduras. Every tradition you see, every Maya you meet, is part of a chain of history from these early settlers.
Luis himself is Maya; 40 percent of Guatemalans consider themselves of Maya heritage. It’s a thread that means he can trace his ancestry both back through history and along through Central America and Mexico the way the weft and warp of a loom stretch out a fabric.
For, whilst every community is different, as Maya they are part of a unified whole. Travelling from Mexico to Guatemala, you follow a story unbroken by the modern borders.
“The Maya loved to travel,” says Luis. “They were all connected. We have found evidence of trade as far north as the USA and as far south as Costa Rica. Like turquoise that can only be sourced in the desert, found in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. And the feathers of scarlet macaws in Mesa Verde, Colorado. That beautiful interaction proves that there’s no barrier between nations.”
Luis himself is Maya; 40 percent of Guatemalans consider themselves of Maya heritage. It’s a thread that means he can trace his ancestry both back through history and along through Central America and Mexico the way the weft and warp of a loom stretch out a fabric.
For, whilst every community is different, as Maya they are part of a unified whole. Travelling from Mexico to Guatemala, you follow a story unbroken by the modern borders.
“The Maya loved to travel,” says Luis. “They were all connected. We have found evidence of trade as far north as the USA and as far south as Costa Rica. Like turquoise that can only be sourced in the desert, found in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. And the feathers of scarlet macaws in Mesa Verde, Colorado. That beautiful interaction proves that there’s no barrier between nations.”
Modern travellers
Maya still like to travel, but their reasons for doing so differ now. Climate change, bringing more storms – including previously unseen hurricanes on the Pacific Coast and less predictable rain – is making agriculture less and less viable. Many are turning to tourism instead.
“In my family, I was the first to become a tour guide, in 1999,” says Luis. “Now at least 10 of my cousins are tour guides – their form of life cannot persist any more due to climate change. Instead of slash-and-burn agriculture, they can preserve nature.”
Tourism – done with care – is providing alternative income and preserving nature and local traditions together. Like the long-standing, long-loved tradition of cochinita pibil (Maya pulled pork) cooked in a pit oven.
“It was the most delicious meal I had in Mexico City,” says Intrepid Product Manager Marlen Rojas, who had the opportunity to try Maya home cooking on a recent trip. “It was really important and touching for me to go into a Maya household and get to know that family – connecting with them and giving them the opportunity to have an income.”
Not all tourism experiences in the region are good. “When I went to Mexico for the first time with my family I went to a really touristy location,” says Marlen. “They were trying to show us the chinampas [artificial islands built for agriculture]. They took us on a boat in the canals. That experience was awful. It was really touristy. You lose the importance and history of the place.”
For travellers who want to see the unique farming phenomenon of the chinampas in a peaceful setting true to its littoral nature, Luis suggests heading to see less well-known examples on the Yucatan Peninsula: “At this moment, we are the only people visiting.”
“In my family, I was the first to become a tour guide, in 1999,” says Luis. “Now at least 10 of my cousins are tour guides – their form of life cannot persist any more due to climate change. Instead of slash-and-burn agriculture, they can preserve nature.”
Tourism – done with care – is providing alternative income and preserving nature and local traditions together. Like the long-standing, long-loved tradition of cochinita pibil (Maya pulled pork) cooked in a pit oven.
“It was the most delicious meal I had in Mexico City,” says Intrepid Product Manager Marlen Rojas, who had the opportunity to try Maya home cooking on a recent trip. “It was really important and touching for me to go into a Maya household and get to know that family – connecting with them and giving them the opportunity to have an income.”
Not all tourism experiences in the region are good. “When I went to Mexico for the first time with my family I went to a really touristy location,” says Marlen. “They were trying to show us the chinampas [artificial islands built for agriculture]. They took us on a boat in the canals. That experience was awful. It was really touristy. You lose the importance and history of the place.”
For travellers who want to see the unique farming phenomenon of the chinampas in a peaceful setting true to its littoral nature, Luis suggests heading to see less well-known examples on the Yucatan Peninsula: “At this moment, we are the only people visiting.”
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Travelling with care
You travel, learn and bring what you learn back home.![]()
To travel is often to walk a tightrope between completely ignoring or overexposing communities – grazing against unique experiences without damaging them.
Ashley McGough, regional manager for Intrepid, monitors their trips in the area closely: “We have two leader-led Spanish lessons – so that travellers can communicate and show that we care. And we are constantly monitoring our homestays – are the conditions suitable, is the community happy? Does our stay adequately support the entire community?”
Luis brings tourists to the Yucatan Peninsula chinampas – it might be off the tourist trail, but it’s central to Maya history. “This is the key for understanding the success of culture in the Americas – the chinampas allowed them to improve the quantity and quality of food they grew. In one year, the first nations could provide food for four years. A surplus gives you time to think. And a surplus means you can develop commerce – and commerce is what brings knowledge. You travel, learn and bring what you learn back in.”
That’s this journey as neatly put as the final touch on a perfect pot: it’s all about travelling, learning, and bringing what you learn back home.
Ashley McGough, regional manager for Intrepid, monitors their trips in the area closely: “We have two leader-led Spanish lessons – so that travellers can communicate and show that we care. And we are constantly monitoring our homestays – are the conditions suitable, is the community happy? Does our stay adequately support the entire community?”
Luis brings tourists to the Yucatan Peninsula chinampas – it might be off the tourist trail, but it’s central to Maya history. “This is the key for understanding the success of culture in the Americas – the chinampas allowed them to improve the quantity and quality of food they grew. In one year, the first nations could provide food for four years. A surplus gives you time to think. And a surplus means you can develop commerce – and commerce is what brings knowledge. You travel, learn and bring what you learn back in.”
That’s this journey as neatly put as the final touch on a perfect pot: it’s all about travelling, learning, and bringing what you learn back home.
Practicalities
Overland tours
Travelling to Mexico and Guatemala can be done as part of an overland tour.
If you want to stay longer in the region, a visit can be combined with Belize, and even Honduras, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica – and travel as far south as Panama.
“Really interestingly, we’re seeing a general trend of people maximising time in the regions they visit – flying less often and staying longer,” says Ashley.
If you want to stay longer in the region, a visit can be combined with Belize, and even Honduras, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica – and travel as far south as Panama.
“Really interestingly, we’re seeing a general trend of people maximising time in the regions they visit – flying less often and staying longer,” says Ashley.
Mexico & Guatemala itinerary
Many trips travel from Mexico City to Antigua, Guatemala. From Mexico City, you work your way down south through Mexico’s centre via Oaxaca (pronounced ‘wah-ha-ca’), before making a left onto the Yucatan Peninsula. This way, you get time on the beach, and time at Chichen Itza, the amazing archaeological site that holds the remains of the region’s once great Maya centre.
Crossing into Guatemala, you can enjoy its Caribbean coastline, before heading inland to visit its village communities, ending in the grand city of Antigua.
You could see both countries in just over a week, but a month allows you to enjoy a fantastically thorough tour. You might even be tempted to go on afterwards to see more of Central America.
Crossing into Guatemala, you can enjoy its Caribbean coastline, before heading inland to visit its village communities, ending in the grand city of Antigua.
You could see both countries in just over a week, but a month allows you to enjoy a fantastically thorough tour. You might even be tempted to go on afterwards to see more of Central America.
Border crossings
Every nation has different border crossing formalities, but they are relatively easy if you’re in a small group tour. Your guide will be able to sort out the paperwork, meaning that you don’t need to worry about keeping track yourself.
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