Guatemala Guide
The Verapaces
While essentially a continuation of Guatemala's western highlands, the mountains of Alta (Upper) and Baja (Lower) Verapaz have always been set apart in a number of ways: certainly, the flat-bottomed Salamá valley and the mist-soaked hills around Cobán are physically unlike any of the country's other mountainous areas. Baja Verapaz, the more southerly of these two departments, is sparsely populated, a mixture of deep valleys and parched hills with patches of cloudforest coating the highest altitudes. Just two roads cross the department – one connects the fiesta towns of Salamá, Rabinal and Cubulco, the other runs from the Carretera al Atlántico up to Cobán.
Alta Verapaz, the wettest and greenest of Guatemala's highlands, occupies the land to the north. Locals say it rains for thirteen months a year here, alternating between straightforward downpours and the misty drizzle they call the chipi-chipi. Deforestation is a serious issue in parts, but most of the area's alpine terrain remains almost permanently moist and vivid with greenery, with almost limitless ecotourism opportunities. The pleasant town of Cobán is the departmental capital, and from here roads head north into Petén, west to El Quiché, and east to Lago de Izabal.
Highlights
1 Quetzal Search for Guatemala's spectacularly plumed national bird in the cloudforests of the Verapaces.
2 Semuc Champey Bathe in these sublime turquoise pools at the foot of a plunging river valley.