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The largest non-volcanic peaks in Central America, the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes rise from a limestone plateau close to the Mexican border and reach their full height of over 3800m above Huehuetenango. This is magnificent mountain scenery, ranging from wild, exposed craggy outcrops to lush, tranquil river valleys. While the upper parts of the slopes are almost barren, scattered with boulders and shrivelled cypress trees, the lower levels, by contrast, are richly fertile and cultivated with corn, coffee and sugar. Between the peaks, in the deep-cut valleys, are hundreds of tiny villages, isolated by the enormity of the landscape. Despite the initial devastation, the arrival of the Spanish had surprisingly little impact in these highlands and the communities here include some of the most traditional in Guatemala. A visit to the mountain villages, either for a market or fiesta (and there are plenty of both), offers one of the best opportunities to see Maya life at close quarters. In the late 1970s and early 1980s this was the scene of bitter fighting between the army and the guerrillas, a wave of violence and terror that sent thousands fleeing across the border to Mexico. Nowadays, though, with the fighting over, things are much calmer. The most accessible of the villages in the vicinity, and the only one yet to receive a steady trickle of tourists, is Todos Santos Cuchumatan , whose horse-race fiesta on November 1 is one of the most interesting and outrageous in Guatemala. To the east a road struggles through the mountains past the interesting village of Aguacatan on its way to Coban in Alta Verapaz.
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