Tours in 2012

The Mayan Traveler (tel. 888/843-6292 or 713/299-5665, www.themayantraveler.com [1]) is a tour company with trips throughout the Mundo Maya, including a six-night Archaeology Tour plus Tikal featuring lectures on the Maya calendar and the possibility of a new cycle. Guests visit Lamanai [2], Xunantunich [3], Caracol [4], Cahal Pech [5], and Tikal [6], where they will spend the night. The morning is free to wander the city in the jungle.

Chocolate Tours

Cotton Tree Lodge (tel. 501/621-8776) offers special weeklong chocolate packages and produces its own small-batch chocolate bars and cacao juice. They are very creative and partner with Sustainable Harvest International (tel. 501/722-2010, U.S. tel. 207/669-8254, www.sustainableharvest.org [7]), a nonprofit organization working to alleviate poverty and deforestation throughout Central America. In 2012, Cotton Tree Lodge will offer a chocolate package around Valentine’s Day in February, then again for the Cacao Fest in May.

There are many chocolate tours based out of Punta Gorda [8] all year long, but hard-core chocolate lovers will want to plan their trip around Cacao Fest (www.toledochocolate.com [9]), held over the Commonwealth Day holiday weekend in late May, and celebrating all things chocolate—from chocolate kisses to cacao martinis.