Perched in the highlands amid pine-oak forest, Iximché was the capital of the highland Maya kingdom of the Kaqchikel (ca-chee-KELL) from 1470 until its abandonment in 1524 (guess who arrived that year). It was called Guatemala by the Spanish, from the Nahuatl Quauhtemallan meaning "forested land." Since the Spanish founded their first capital at Iximché, they took the name of the city used by their Nahuatl-speaking Mexican allies and applied it to the new Spanish city and, by extension, to the kingdom. This is how the country got its name.
While Iximché is certainly a lesser known site than the previously mentioned Tikal and Copán (just across Guatemala's eastern border in Honduras), it held enough ancient mystique to keep us there for over two hours, wandering amid the crumbling ruins of pyramid-temples, plazas and ball courts...imagining "what was" and contemplating "what if..." This is why travel is so enriching. Places like Iximché - and Guatemala in general - give you a true sense of history and the passage of time.
The smell of incense and the faint sound of drumming drew us to the back of the site where a couple dozen local people had gathered for what appeared to be a sacred ceremony. Men smoked and women knelt and offered up fruit. We didn't quite "get it," but it did prove what we'd heard time and time again while in the highlands - that the ancient Maya culture, though ravaged through time, is still very much alive in 2013.
