The colorful, Maya San Francisco de Asis Festival in Guatemala is held over a period of days in early October.
Guatemala
Impressions of crazy love amid a surreal past - MesoAmerican ruins of the Maya and others.
On my birthday, I go to the village of Santiago Atitlan to pay homage to Maximon - a Maya god that smokes + drinks.
The hike thru rainforest to the volcanic crater lake of Laguna Chicabal takes about 2 hours. But don't expect to swim as it's the sacred center of the Mam Maya cosmos.
A gigantic, stone face is half-buried at the ancient Pipil site of El Baul. Today, it's lost amid sugarcane plantations.