The Perfect Getaway

Dos Mundos

On the hot and humid Pacific coast of Guatemala, at the end of the palm-fringed road lies the beach town of Monterico. Blink and you'll miss it, as the signs are far and few between. Best accessed via shuttle from Antigua or Guatemala City, it is a semi-remote tropical paradise. The best of the few hotels is Dos Mundos: 12 bungalows with intricately woven thatch roofs, air conditioning, and a bar at the mail pool that serves up superb pina coladas.

Dos Mundos is one of two very good hotels, with the other up at Lake Atitlan and it may

The Perfect Getaway

Dos Mundos

On the hot and humid Pacific coast of Guatemala, at the end of the palm-fringed road lies the beach town of Monterico. Blink and you'll miss it, as the signs are far and few between. Best accessed via shuttle from Antigua or Guatemala City, it is a semi-remote tropical paradise. The best of the few hotels is Dos Mundos: 12 bungalows with intricately woven thatch roofs, air conditioning, and a bar at the mail pool that serves up superb pina coladas.

Dos Mundos is one of two very good hotels, with the other up at Lake Atitlan and it may

The Perfect Getaway

Dos Mundos

On the hot and humid Pacific coast of Guatemala, at the end of the palm-fringed road lies the beach town of Monterico. Blink and you'll miss it, as the signs are far and few between. Best accessed via shuttle from Antigua or Guatemala City, it is a semi-remote tropical paradise. The best of the few hotels is Dos Mundos: 12 bungalows with intricately woven thatch roofs, air conditioning, and a bar at the mail pool that serves up superb pina coladas.

Dos Mundos is one of two very good hotels, with the other up at Lake Atitlan and it may

The Perfect Getaway

Dos Mundos

On the hot and humid Pacific coast of Guatemala, at the end of the palm-fringed road lies the beach town of Monterico. Blink and you'll miss it, as the signs are far and few between. Best accessed via shuttle from Antigua or Guatemala City, it is a semi-remote tropical paradise. The best of the few hotels is Dos Mundos: 12 bungalows with intricately woven thatch roofs, air conditioning, and a bar at the mail pool that serves up superb pina coladas.

Dos Mundos is one of two very good hotels, with the other up at Lake Atitlan and it may

The Perfect Getaway

Dos Mundos

On the hot and humid Pacific coast of Guatemala, at the end of the palm-fringed road lies the beach town of Monterico. Blink and you'll miss it, as the signs are far and few between. Best accessed via shuttle from Antigua or Guatemala City, it is a semi-remote tropical paradise. The best of the few hotels is Dos Mundos: 12 bungalows with intricately woven thatch roofs, air conditioning, and a bar at the mail pool that serves up superb pina coladas.

Dos Mundos is one of two very good hotels, with the other up at Lake Atitlan and it may

The Lady and the Ocelot

Roatan's loss is Antigua's gain...Elle Patille, famed covergirl (Playboy et al) has said goodbye to Hondura's famed island and the West End community. She's considered sidelining her modeling career and going back to her first love, animal care(and a few birds)...lucky beasts. She hails from Toronto and has graced many a magazine, either on the cover or in the pictorials. After several years of traveling the world, doing photo shoots hither, thither and yon, the pace and the grueling work of being photogenic have convinced her to go back to her first love, taking care of castaway pets, assorted animals

A Mystery in the Museum

In the finest museum of Guatemala, the Popol Vuh, there are many rooms of priceless Mayan artifacts. There's pottery, ceramics and intricately carved obsidian knives. There are stone statues of mushroom deities, sacred frogs and chocolate serving vessels.The most unusual and inexplicable item is in Room 1, located immediately past the entrance.

Mounted on a five foot high white pedestal, and set behind clear plexiglass is something that doesn't fit. Measuring some four inches high and about seven inches long is a quartz replica of a human skull. It was catalogued as being part of a large collection donated in the 1970's by a prominent Guatemalan family, the

The General's Getaway Car

In a small country like Guatemala, i.e, the size of Tennessee, you wouldn't expect to find a lot of classic cars. Given the country's history of oligarchies, caudillos and dictators, they had to have a few Packards, Buicks and the occasional Cadillac. There'd be the official functions and the outings at the race track or the polo club and you'd need a car with running boards for the bodyguards to stand on, as you're headed for the nearest border. A few weeks ago there was a collection of some of the countries select, fifty of the fairest and the finest:

ICOM Red List of Latin-American Cultural Objects at Risk

ICOM is the international organisation of museums and museum professionals which is committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. In Latin America, looting of archaeological sites and thefts from museums and religious edifices are inflicting irreparable damage on the heritage of the continent and of mankind as a whole. Objects are being wantonly removed from their historical context to satisfy the growing international demand for antiquities.

Faced with an emergency situation, the international community of heritage professionals has drawn up a Red List of Latin-American

Mysterious Mayan ceremonial head found at Tak´alik Ab´aj

Guatemala.Discovery of an extraordinary offering of a jadeite mosaic miniature ceremonial head underscores the importance and political power at the beginning of Early Classic of the ancient Maya city Tak'alik Ab'aj

Tak'alik Ab'aj is an ancient pre-Hispanic city situated in El Asintal, Department of Retalhuleu at the pacific piedmont of Guatemala. This important long distance trade and cosmopolitan cultural center is transcendent because of its long history which endured 1700 years (800 B.C. - 900 A.D). At its beginnings Tak'alik Ab'aj interacted and participated with the Olmec culture, and at its surmise, was one of the protagonists in the development of the early Maya culture. This particularity in addition to the extraordinary production of sculpture programs during these two important cultural periods, make Tak'alik Ab'aj unique in the history of Mesoamerica.

Previous excavations conducted in the center of Structure 6 - one of the most important ceremonial buildings of the main architectonic complex called Central Group at Tak'alik Ab'aj - revealed a series of precious offerings. These offerings were deposited in a sequence of episodes into the earthen construction fill of one of the last versions of this building during the first part of Early Classic (150-300 B.C. - Phase Alejos).

These offerings consisted of ceramic vessels, the most beautiful of these vessels is decorated with a stepped fret design; a small