Giant kites are flown during this Day of the Dead celebration in Guatemala.

Experiencing Guatemala's sensory-exploding church is a blunt reminder of European influence.

Catch a glimpse of local, native wildlife at this zoo dedicated to conservation and education.

This incredibly diverse research station is one of the largest tropical botanical gardens in the world.

In this breathtaking canyon, crocodiles bask on boulders and glide through the murky waters.

Mesoamerican monoliths and zoomorphic stones covered in royal visages, ancient mythology, and grand celestial events.

This series of waterfalls tumble into a radiantly blue river.

This orchid sanctuary protects countless varieties of the flower, from the huge to the microscopic.

The masses at this church incorporate enough moonshine and animal sacrifice that they are no longer recognizably Catholic.

The displays in this off-the-beaten-path museum highlight the holistic, indigenous methods of healing.

The former house of an anthropologist couple displays Lacandón Maya artifacts in a homey atmosphere.

This fortress in Honduras was built to resist pirates, but its builders had more to fear from the British.

This collection of historical artifacts and tropical wildlife waits just beneath the surface of the water.

After becoming locally extinct, this esteemed avian now flies free in the forests around the ancient ruins.

The enigmatic skull gazes out over the ruins of a once-great Mayan city.

An elaborate Mayan city shrouded in alien conspiracy revealed the tomb of Pacal the Great.

Three small rooms in the jungle house the most elaborate and intact murals of the Mayan world.

A devastated ruin in the south of Belize where British explorers claimed to unearth the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull.

The ruins of an ancient Mayan city, beautifully preserved and only accessible by boat.

A massive underwater sinkhole made famous by Jacques Cousteau.

Sparkling, calcite-covered skeletons of children who may have been sacrificed to appease an angry god.

These roaring primates were considered a divine creature in the cosmology of the Maya.

Deep in the Guatemalan jungle stands an ancient pyramid that once marked the reign of a king.

Monkeys inhabit the lush forest surrounding ancient Mayan ruins once considered sacred.