Explore the history of ancient Mayan civilizations during this exciting vacation to Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. Start your trip in Guatemala City, Guatemala for an overnight before departing for the colorful Indian market and Church of Santo Tomás at Chichicastenango. Continue to Lake Atitlán, known for its beauty and many colorful Mayan towns and villages along the shores. Here, enjoy a cruise across this impressive 900-foot-deep lake formed after a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. Visit Santiago Atitlán and meet one of Guatemala’s indigenous tribes.Next stop is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Antigua, Guatemala’s capital from 1543 until a devastating earthquake in 1776, when it was moved to Guatemala City. In Antigua, one of the Americas’ oldest and most beautiful cities, enjoy a sightseeing tour and witness the city’s 16th-century Spanish Colonial architecture. See ruins of churches and monasteries—some with hidden underground passages—that were destroyed by the 1776 earthquake. From Antigua, travel to Copán, Honduras, the site of the once major Maya kingdom with the greatest collection of Mayan stone sculptures anywhere in Central America. After Copán, your tour travels to Quiriguá, Guatemala, with the largest stelae in the Mayan world, weighing more than 65 tons. Then, a full-day excursion takes you to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tikal, the largest of the ancient Maya cities with artifacts dating as early as the 7th century BC. Your guide will explain the significance of the major temples and monuments in the park, of which only a fraction have been excavated. Because it sits within the rainforest, it is common to see spider monkeys, howler monkeys, toucans, and parrots. On to San Ignacio, Belize, with a stop at Yaxhá, another significant Mayan excavation consisting of more than 500 structures in the preliminary stages of excavation. From San Ignacio, enjoy an excursion to Caracol, the largest known Mayan archaeological site in Belize and one of the great Mayan city-states of the Classic Period. See the great Caana Pyramid standing 140 feet high and the tallest man-made structure in Belize. Your tour of these ancient Mayan civilizations ends with a farewell dinner in Belize, a perfect conclusion to your magical ancient Mayan Civilizations vacation!
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