For travelers who pack their senses and emotions in every trip, we have just pieced together this grand tour around 10 World Heritage Sites of the Central America and the Caribbean as listed by UNESCO.

1 The Citadelle This World's Kingdom

This magnificent compound of palaces and fortresses, that Cuban author Alejo Carpentier picked as his setting of choice for his celebrated novel "This World's Kingdom," is an amazing relic that jumped onto the list of UNESCO's World Heritages a quarter of a century ago.

In 1790, Christophe forged an alliance with the Haitian rebels who were struggling against the French rule and became their leader. His prominence led him to become the President of North Haiti in 1807, though he proclaimed himself the King of North Haiti in 1811 and changed his name to Enrique I. He was strongly drawn to architecture, a reason why he ordered the construction of the Citadelle, the Remiers Fortress and the Sans Souci Palace. This man, who ruled the country with an iron fist, came down with partial palsy of his body in 1820. When new uprisings hit the nation in that same year and he found himself impaired to lead the rebels, Christophe wound up committing suicide.

The Citadelle was a monumental fortress built between 1805 and 1820 on top of the La Ferriere mountain, a 2,870-foot peak. Its walls, that are 13 feet wide and 131 feet tall, take up a total surface of nearly 12,000 square yards. The construction process required a workforce of over 20,000 men. Today, the building stands for the most important architectural and historic monument on that site.

Its height allows visitors to take an exceptional bird's-eye view of Haiti's northern plain and of one of the island's entrance points. By and large, it's a token of how military fortresses were actually like in that century. Though the 1842 earthquake played significant havoc with the facilities, many of the Citadelle's magnificent halls have undergone a number of restorations since then.

The Sans Souci Palace was built in the heat of the civil war, following Haiti's independence and the demise of President Dessalines. During the construction process, designers tried to replicate the beauty and grandeur of France's Versailles Palace.

Its humongous structure occupied almost 20 acres at the time and its facilities provided shelter for the court of King Henri Christophe, made up of four princesses, eight dukes, 22 counts and 37 barons, all of them landowners in the northern part of the country where it was common to find noblemen and black slaves.

That explains why the architectural compound has been named Haiti's National Historic Park. The hard work and sweat behind their emergence, coupled with their traditions, served to put them on the UNESCO's World Heritage List.

2 Old Havana Walls and Towers

Perhaps no other city in the New World has been more coveted throughout history than Havana. That explains the beltway of fortifications that still stand tall in the former village of San Cristobal. When Havana endured the attacks of French pirates in 1537 and 1538, the Spanish king's envoy Hernando de Soto ordered the building of La Fuerza Fort, a fortress that succumbed to the scourge of Jacques de Sores who eventually burned it down to the ground in 1555. Rebuilt between 1558 and 1577, the Castle of the Royal Force is by large Cuba's oldest fort.

Constructed with solid Cuban quarry stones and featuring buttresses on its four corners, Governor Juan Vitrian de Viamonte added a circular watchtower crowned by a cute weathercock-like bronze statuette known locally as La Giraldilla, currently the symbol of the city and the trademarked token of the Havana Club rum.

For a mighty long time, La Fuerza served as warehouse for the treasures of The Fleet, a group of vessels that twice a year used to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to ferry the wealth of the New World to the Spanish monarchs.

That was the reason that prompted the building of San Salvador de la Punta in 1598, and the Castle of the Three Kings of Morro -both constructed under the watchful eye of military engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, the man designated by King Felipe II to fortify Cuba and other Caribbean properties.

For over a century, the fortresses shooed pirates, corsairs and would-be invaders away from San Cristobal of Havana. The city became completely walled between 1671 and 1740, including gateways that used to be shut down by a huge chain that stretched across the bay entrance.

Everything went fine until June 1762 when the British -amidst the war between England and Spain- hemmed in Havana with an eye-popping fleet of 26 gunboats and 13 frigates armed with 2,000 cannons, plus 15 freighters that added up a grand total of 25,000 crew members. Following harsh combats, the Britons defeated the 12-month-long resistance of Cuban fighters and eventually dominated Havana for a full year, until Spain agreed to trade Florida for Cuba.

However, King Carlos III, spooked by the idea of losing the island again, ordered a full-fledged reconstruction of the fortifications. In addition, three new forts were built: the Atares, El Principe and San Carlos de la Cabaña forts -the latter is penciled in as the largest fortress ever built in the New World.

Only a handful of changes occurred in the forts, except the Castle of Morro that received three new batteries and lighthouse back in 1845.

Also atop the Taganana Hill, nearly on the farthest tip of the San Lazaro Cove -a commonplace landing site for pirates- the Battery of Santa Clara was mounted. Some of its Ordoñez Cannons -at the time the largest artillery guns in the world- still stand out there.

3 Tikal The First Heritage Site

Just the sole condition of being the first archeological site that UNESCO listed as World Heritage back in 1979 -and harbinger in the tabbing of mixed heritage areas (ecological and archeological)- make the Tikal ruins, right in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, the cherished yet tangible dream of thousands of travelers from around the world.

The point is this is one of the greatest treasures world archeology can actually brag about, a place that for over half a century was the sacred city, built in the middle of the jungle by the Mayans, built by the men of corn, the creators of a civilization that reached pinnacles in culture, architecture, urban development and astronomy.

And the visible ruins of Tikal bear out that much. The city was believed to have some 23 square miles, though only 6 have been charted or mapped. Despite that, over 3,000 structures can be toured, including palaces, shrines, ceremonial platforms, ballgame courts, plazas, terraces, residential mansions, roads and steam baths.

The "hidden place where the gods talk" -the was name given by Sylvanus Morley in 1863- is part of the Tikal National Park, perched on the jungle-laden northern department of El Peten, he largest and least populated all across Guatemala.

Tikal stands some 310 miles away from the nation's capital, and just 34 miles from Flores, the nearest city. From there and all year round, hundreds of visitors leave at daybreak to meet one of the most eye-popping archeological marvels on the face of the earth that, as a matter of fact, is located within the boundaries of the Mayan Biosphere Reserve that covers nearly 20,000 square miles of deep tropical forest.

A giant ceiba -the sacred tree among the Mayans- welcomes visitors right at the entrance of the huge National Park. A ballpark estimate of the park can only be gauged by climbing to the highest point of Shrine IV -a.k.a. the Two-Headed Snake Temple- that stands 213 feet high, by far Tikal's tallest building.

From that height, the view is breathtaking, Not only due to the unfathomable size of the archeological site, but also because of the splendorous flora and wildlife that gives visitors the possibility of enjoying a multitude of harmonic sounds coming from the surrounding environment.

All buildings are astounding, like the Grand Plaza -the former heart of the city- the Grand Pyramid Plaza or the Lost World, the Square of the Seven Temples, the Central Acropolis, and the palaces of Windows, Bats, Stormy Sky, Discomfort, the Grooves, and the Five Stories.

Another must-see in Tikal is the visit to the Sylvanus Morley Museum, harboring artifacts from the death chambers of the Lords of Tikal, a ceramic collection, samples of carved bones, jade and bone sculptures that speak volumes of the Mayan culture, one that as UNESCO experts put it, have lived out their times in the great ceremonial centers. 4 Copán The Mayan Paris

The Mayan ruins of Copan in the western region, just 8.6 miles from the Guatemalan border, are by far the nation's most interesting and luring place. These ruins, embracing a total surface of 9.2 square miles, are the best evidence of the existence and grandeur of one of America's major pre-Hispanic civilizations: the Mayans. The Copan Ruins were listed as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1980. Among archeologists and historians, this splendid location of the Honduran territory has been labeled as "the country of the Mayan culture," rubbing elbows with Paris as the cultural capital of Europe.

It's the southernmost of all ruins of the Mayan civilization. The multiple engravings that gave it its name lay bare that the construction dates back to the 8th century. It's one of those monumental staircases that lead up to the long gone upper temple. The staircase is laid out in a 90-step, 32-foot-wide single flight. Each and every step has over 2,500 hieroglyphics carved in them. Today, only the first 16 steps remain in their original position. Many in the upper part broke loose, so scholars haven't been able to unravel the hieroglyphics due to unmatched dates. The Hieroglyphic Staircase used to stand next to the plaza, in a prominent place. It's the longest-running engraving preserved in today's world about the former mighty civilization, featuring 1,250 blocks that speak volumes of a king's life and his people. The Hieroglyphic Staircase is probably Copan's best-known monument.

It's divided in two major squares: eastern and western. The eastern square is home to Shrine II, built by Copan's last king Yax-Pac, as his everlasting masterpiece. The location also harbors Shrine 16, plus a similar temple that was found right under it almost in perfect preservation conditions. And there's the Rosalila, a unique jewel for the world, that serves as a window to the past for a glance at how Copan looked like in its golden years.

The graves lie just a few miles from the Archeological Park. It used to be a residential area for Copan's well-heeled families during the last Mayan kingdom. It mirrors the high-class lifestyle that dominated the Mayan world before its collapse. The graves were nothing but the residences, and the name stems from the ancient Mayan tradition of burying the dead in the same houses they once dwelt in.

Make no mistakes about it; visiting the Copan Mayan Ruins gives every tourist a chance to shake hands with an emblematic and unforgettable civilization of the Americas.

5 Joya de Ceren The Buried City

An exciting adventure is waiting for tourists in El Salvador, Central America's smallest country. The Joya de Ceren, a community standing nearly 22 miles west of the nation's capital, is penciled in as the most revealing archeological finding of recent years in the entire Mayan Route, not because its structures are as large as those in Honduras' Copan, but rather because it shows the daily going of the Mayan people with amazing freshness.

Houses, roads, vases, kitchen utensils, creels, even original seeds, can be watched and touched by visitors in this astonishing pre-Hispanic community, the only one of the whole Mayan world that has remained unspoiled to date. And that's owed to the eruption of a powerful volcano some 1,400 years ago.

Joya de Ceren was the only Mayan farming community that, like Italy's Pompey, was buried under the piping-hot ashes of Loma Caldera, a volcano located less than a mile from the former settlement. Even though the eruption barely hit just 2 square miles, it did bury the whole village under 14 layers of ash that fell in waves all over town at temperatures between 212 and 932 degrees Fahrenheit. However, they left their utensils, earthenware pots, grains and houses behind. Thanks to the coat of volcanic lava, those items remain virtually intact. Thus, tourists getting to Joya de Ceren can have firsthand information on how the humble Mayans, that small Mesoamerican people, used to live their lives.

Known as the American Pompey, Joya de Ceren is one of the most gripping archeological sites on the face of the earth and a must-see for international tourism. That's precisely the reason why it's called Joya (Jewel in Spanish) attached to Ceren, the name of the estate where U.S. anthropology professor Payson D. Sheets of the University of Colorado conducted major research since 1976. Based on its scientific and cultural importance, Joya de Ceren was listed as World Heritage by the United Nations Scientific, Cultural and Education Organization (UNESCO) back in 1993.

6 Coconut Island An Excellent Getaway

"Just in the raw," as travel promotional campaigns claim, is a good start for an incredible and fantastic visit to Coconut Island, a faraway place in Costa Rica of barely 10 square miles located in the Pacific Ocean, over 330 miles from Cabo Blanco.

Reaching out to the National Park is the very first challenge trippers face off. On a quiet sea, the ferry ride from solid ground to that offshore enclave could take somewhere between 30 and 36 hours.

But once you get there, nature itself rewards your boldness in a big way. This jaw-dropping location, with an exceptional biodiversity of its own, gives derring-do trekkers a chance to scour a ragged and rough relieve jam-packed with rivers, crags, waterfalls, underwater caves and outcrops of up to 600 feet high, let alone the possibility of diving in an open sea of crystal-clear turquoise waters.

For many, the best time of the year to embark on an escapade to Coconut Island is between the months of January and March -the least rainy season in a location whose yearly rainfall average peaks approximately 275 inches.

Also in this span of time, conditions for the practice of scuba diving are peerless. In broad daylight on a sunny day, visibility could reach 100 feet. If the day is partly cloudy, it shrinks to 50 or 70 feet deep.

There are usually changing undercurrents hefty enough to drag people away, and immersions must be done in groups of no more than 10 people each, always guided by a certified master diver.

In addition, scuba diving can be practiced day or night, and you may rest assured that marine flora and life in this environment is really diverse. As it usually happens, you may dive into Silverado, Manuelita Island, Roca Sucia, Dos Amigos, Alcyone or Wafer Bay, each and every one of them with allures of their own.

Today, except for authorized scholars, no one is allowed to stay overnight in that territory stripped of lodging facilities or stores to buy or cook foodstuffs. There are only showers and toilet seats there, and absolutely nobody is allowed to harass the marine or ground wildlife, or to take away samples of the lush local flora.

That's how the dazzling natural environment of the place outscored the bounty hunters. Today, those arriving in Coconut Island only get there to feast eyes on the unspoiled splendor of a remote land teeming with magnificent scenery, a location in which, as Costa Rican residents love to say, "life is pure."

7 Belize Blue Coffer for Corals

Belize is the planet's paradise for scuba divers and also one of the centerpieces of the Mayan civilization. Located in Central America, this small country of barely 8,880 square miles, abuts Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Its coasts, that used to be home to the great colonial empires coming from Spain and England, now harbor one of the most sought-after treasures for scuba divers from around the world who flock to this mythical piece of Eden for a closer look at the Caribbean's most breathtaking sea bottoms.

Belize's natural environment is mostly maritime. In addition to boasting the world's second-largest coral barrier -roughly 187 miles long- the Central American nation is dotted with offshore atolls. No wonder Belize has consistently stricken the attention of the world's most celebrated scuba divers, marine biologists and anglers. The watching of the Caribbean flora and wildlife, coupled with the practice of nautical activities and water sports, are no doubt the best ways to know the wealth of a country that goes hand in hand with the sea.

The Blue Hole has panned out to be a token of marine Belize, and that's owed to French scientist Jacques Ives Cousteau. In one of his documentaries shot in 1970, the well-known oceanographer put this huge hole on the map. With nearly a thousand feet wide and 442 feet deep, the atoll takes the middle ground of the Lighthouse Reef, almost 50 miles east of Belize City's downtown area. Some 10,000 years ago, the Blue Hole was nothing but a cavern until the upper side caved in and the land wound up losing ground to the sea. Now the Blue Hole is a hot spot for scuba diving buffs, alongside the Shark Ray Alley.

Perched on the reef's middle ground and within the boundaries of the Hol Chan marine reserve, the Alley's great attraction is the chance to stare at swimming reef sharks as divers feed them with their own hands. Scuba diving is a pleasure sometimes packed with surprises like this one mentioned above, especially if done in reef-hemmed waters that have been labeled one of the Seven Underwater Wonders of the World and in which visibility is as good as nearly 100 feet deep. 8 Cartagena The City of Stone

Today, over four centuries since French corsair Francis Drake attacked the then fledgling Cartagena de Indias in 1586, the entire city and its intact walls appear to be ready to quench any invasion attempt.

Born as a walled city following the ransacking assailment of the notorious French corsair, Cartagena de Indias now stands as one of Colombia's major travel destinations, let alone one of the most fascinating burgs of the Americas with a history that put it on the list of UNESCO's World Heritage sites in 1984.

As the capital of the department of Bolivar and with nearly one million inhabitants, Cartagena was one of the busiest seaports during the Spanish colonial rule. No wonder the British tried to take it by storm on March 1741 when English Admiral Edward Vernon launched a siege with 186 gunboats with 23,600 troops aboard -the largest fleet ever pieced together till then, only surpassed by the landing of allied forces in Normandy during World War II.

Since the times of Francis Drake, however, the city was ready to fight back any attack, based on a complex fortification system that split the burg into five boroughs: Santa Catalina, featuring the cathedral and countless Andalusian-style palaces; Santo Toribio, home to merchants and members of the petty bourgeoisie; La Merced, harboring the permanent battalion; San Sebastian with its humble one-story houses, and the Getsemani poor quarters, home of artisans and dock workers.

Even today, travelers may saunter these places, feast eyes on the fortification system, the city walls, and take a look at such major colonial buildings as the House of the Royal Prize Marquis and the Customs Offices.

Cartagena -a city that makes two in one, the known travel destination of "Cartagena de Indias" and the outside-the-walls "Cartagena Champetuda"- is home to modern buildings and to most of the population. It's famous around the globe for its monuments and fortresses, its hotels and beaches, its glamorous nightlife and fancy restaurants, home to spry, kindhearted and easygoing people, a melting pot of Hispanics and Africans, a place whose music and culture breathe life into the Caribbean's most bustling city of all.

9 Portobello y San Lorenzo The Gateways to the Pacific

Overlooking the sea and under lurk by stalking pirates since their foundation, the Portobello and San Lorenzo fortifications show the undisputed stamp of Italian architect Juan Bautista Antonelli.

Listed as World Cultural Heritage since 1980, these lovely and majestic fortresses are located in the city of Portobello, nearly 30 miles from Colon, while San Lorenzo is just 7 miles east of that same city, in the Caribbean coast of Panama.

Spanish conquistadors and settlers needed a way of communication between the two oceans that could eventually link Spain with the lands of Peru and Bolivia. The Chagres River served that function since 1503 and became the main gateway of the Americas to the Atlantic Ocean. Sooner rather than later, the mouth of the Chagres River -home to the cities of Colon, Portobello and San Lorenzo- found itself threatened by assailing pirates, corsairs and buccaneers, a situation that prompted the indispensable need of building fortresses for their protection.

The Portobello Bay was discovered by Columbus in 1502 during his fourth and last journey of conquer and colonization. The city was originally called Nombre de Dios, but wicked weather conditions encouraged settlers in 1597 to move out the burg and found Portobello, between Langosta Beach and Maria Chiquita. Christened at the onset as San Felipe de Portobello, in honor of Spanish King Felipe II, today the village preserves part of its colonial architecture that features such major standouts as the ancient fortifications, the third-largest on the Atlantic coast.

The Portobello Bay is dominated by the Iron Castle of San Felipe de Sotomayor and the El Farnesio Fort, on the south side of the bay, where the legendary Francis Drakes is said to be buried.

In addition to several colonial buildings, this fortification compound still shows ancient military machines, as well as trenches that were dug around the bay, all that much contained in the 88,782 acres of what now is the Portobello National Park.

10 Chichen Itza The Giant Calendar

As many as 90 million Web surfers from around the globe took a poll to choose the seven new wonders of the world. As a result, the pollsters informed last July that the Kukulkan Pyramid at the archeological site of Chichen Itza, in the Mexican state of Yucatan, is now rubbing elbows with such magnificent structures as the Great Wall of China, Brazil's Redeeming Christ, Peru's Machu Picchu, India's Taj Mahal, Jordan's Petra City and the Roman Coliseum.

The Kukulkan Pyramid is the symbol of Chichen Itza and also the finest living testimony of the profound astronomical knowledge acquired by the Mayan civilization. Kukulkan is a sun calendar aligned with the Earth's axis. Given its design, twice a year -during the spring and fall equinoxes- a sinuous shadow slithers down the north staircase in search of the snake-headed relieves on the base to eventually form the whole body of the limbless reptile as large as the size of the entire pyramid.

In Mayan cosmology, this much-anticipated moment in which the sunrays draw the snake -or god Kukulkan- means god's descend on earth to bring fertility to the soils. Moreover, this vision combines with another phenomenon… an acoustic one. If a visitor stands in front of the pyramid, his or her body in line with the middle of the staircase, and he or she screams or claps his or her hands, then he or she will hear a sharp shriek. And if someone standing on the upper deck, right on the same spot where the shrine lies, speaks in a normal tone, his or her voice will be heard by those on the ground. The staircase has 365 steps to the top, as many steps as days has the Mayan calendar… and ours!

From the different ballgames registered in Yucatan's Mayan region, the one in Chichen Itza is the most monumental ever found to date. This complex structure is 557 feet long and its acoustics is terrific. Someone standing on a corner next to the walls could speak in a whisper and he or she will be heard on the other side, even in a roofless place like that. Just drop a coin and you'll hear the tingling sound on the other side as well. The walls don't run along, yet if you stand in the middle of the court and clap your hands, you'll hear the echo of that clapping at least nine times in a row.