Guatemala lies southeast of Mexico and northwest of the other countries of Central America. Its location on the narrow strip which joins the continental masses of the Americas, as well as its topographic relief, give the country an enormous diversity of climatic regions.
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A journey in Guatemala takes the visitor in a few minutes from the lush vegetation of the warm low lands zone to the cold of the pine forests. Most of the nine million Guatemalans live in the valleys of the mountainous regions, in the center of the country, where the climate is temperate. This is the region of lakes and volcanoes for which Guatemala is known throughout the world.

In this small country of only 70,000 square miles, the ancient Maya civilization had its heyday in the first millennium of our calendar. In 1821, Guatemala and Central America declared their independence from Spain. Since the, many dictatorships have alternated with a few democratic periods. But, starting in 1985, Guatemala began a new process in its history, in search of peace and democracy.

Over half of the population is made up of 22 Maya groups. Although the official language is Spanish, each Maya group and the Garifunas speak their own language.

In Guatemala, freedom of worship is guaranteed in the constitution. The country is mostly Catholic, although there are many Protestant denominations. Mayan rites and worship are preserved, particularly in the rural communities.