LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK INFORMATION
Travel Literature
Ronald Wright's Time among the Maya is a story of travels through the whole Mayan region - Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras - delving into the glorious past and exploited present of the Maya and investigating their obsession with time. Wright visits many of the places you'll visit, and his book is a fascinating read on the road, even though written in the troubled 1980s.
Guatemalan Journey by Stephen Benz is another one to enjoy while you're in Guatemala. It casts an honest and funny modern traveler's eye on the country. So does Anthony Daniels' Sweet Waist of America, also published as South of the Border: Guatemalan Days, where the medic author pinpoints some of the country's quirky contradictions.
In Sacred Monkey River Christopher Shaw explores by canoe the jungle-clad basin of the Rio Usumacinta, a cradle of ancient Mayan civilization along the Mexico-Guatemala border - a great read.
Bird of Life, Bird of Death by Jonathan Evan Maslow, subtitled A Naturalist's Journey Through a Land of Political Turmoil, tells of the author's searches for the resplendent quetzal (the 'bird of life') - which he found to be increasingly endangered, while the zopilote (vulture; the 'bird of death') flourished.
The 19th-century classic Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, by John L Stephens (illustrated by Frederick Catherwood), was the first extensive and serious look at many Mayan archaeological sites. This tome is a laborious but interesting read.
Lonely Planet recommends World Nomads Travel insurance
