The volcano, at more than 12,000ft, is a cinematic backdrop to my breakfast. I’m drinking rich, earthy coffee, grown on cone-shaped Agua at Villa Bokeh, a new Relais & Châteaux hotel in the green outskirts of Antigua- a city in Guatemala, not the better-known Caribbean island.
The white hacienda-style building with a terrace, enveloped by six acres of gardens blooming with magnolias, guavas, cypresses and date palms and overlooking a lagoon, is just a few minutes’ drive from the small city.
I first came to Guatemala 25 years ago as a backpacker. Luxury hotels and Guatemala weren’t stablemates then but over the past ten years stylish places to stay have emerged in Antigua, and around the country’s sublime crater lake, Atitlan, whose shore is home to indigenous Maya villages.
Guatemala is overshadowed by its near neighbour Costa Rica, but it shouldn’t be. While it doesn’t have a direct flight from the UK, it is (in my opinion) more beautiful with a greater number of active volcanoes and ancient jungle ruins, and a vibrant indigenous culture with very deep roots.
Bordered by Mexico, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras, it’s twice the size of Costa Rica and a touch bigger than Iceland. More than 30 volcanoes, three of them recently active, rise along an east-west highland spine – in Latin America, they are the third most active after those in Ecuador and Mexico. The highlands – el Altiplano – are full of indigenous towns, festivals and traditional markets. Northeast of the capital, Guatemala City, are the 300m-long turquoise pools of Semuc Champey, cloud forests harbouring the national bird – the long-tailed emerald green quetzal – and the scattered ruins of the ancient Maya civilisation. The Maya built cities of stone, and towering pyramid temples to their rulers who were lauded in life and in death. On stelae and wooden lintels they carved in exquisite detail their battle stories, lives and legends. Today, these jungle ruins are home to jaguars, howler monkeys and keel-billed toucans. At the Unesco-protected Maya site of Tikal, there are more and more jaguar sightings.