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 volcano hike through rainforest to Laguna Chicabal takes about 2 hours. But don't expect any swimming as the lake is sacred; the 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.