Science Meets Storytelling: Shining New Light on the Maya World At this year’s Viaventure Guide Training in the Yucatán, our keynote speaker was Francisco Estrada-Belli, a National Geographic Explorer and leading Maya archaeologist. For our guides, who bring travelers to…
A Dream 40 Years in the Making: Carlos’s Journey to Tikal At the farewell dinner of our Guide Traingin on Akumal’s shores, mariachis played while guides swapped stories from the week. That’s when Carlos Vivar, “Caliche” to his colleagues, learned…
Where Excellence Meets Experience: Guide Training 2025 Over 50 guides from five countries came together in the Yucatán this fall for Viaventure’s annual guide training. They traveled from Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama. These veteran storytellers have spent…
Chamula and Makviló The road from San Cristóbal winds into the Tzotzil Maya town of San Juan Chamula, where people want preserve their traditions. Sunday is market day. The square fills with color and sound. At its heart stands the…
A Morning in Zinacantán Fifteen minutes from San Cristóbal, Zinacantán’s hillsides glow with endless greenhouses, this town is one of Mexico’s top flower producers, supplying markets across the country. Almost all the people here are Tzotzil Maya, and locally they…
Pompones and Pox The Chiapaneco highlands hold traditions as tightly wound as the Pompones that decorate festival clothing. We headed to Tenajapa to meet Feliciano, a master artisan whose work has traveled as far as Japan, though he’s never left…