At the age of three, Al Argueta first traveled to Guatemala with his father and was utterly captivated by the country’s landscape and its Mayan inhabitants. He would later live in Guatemala for two years, allowing him to formally learn Spanish and to experience Guatemala’s culture firsthand. During summers in high school and college, Al often took a month off to travel to Guatemala, exploring its jungles, ruins, and villages.

In college, Al majored in Journalism and Latin American Studies, managing to squeeze in two study-abroad programs—one in Manchester and one in Maastricht—and traveled through much of Europe. After college, he interned with Costa Rica’s Tico Times, getting his first exposure to travel writing and photography, in addition to covering then-President Bill Clinton’s visit to Guatemala. Al worked briefly for a newspaper in the Virgin Islands before moving on to photography school in Hawaii. He also taught English to college students in Thailand for a time, continuing to satiate the travel bug that bit him years back.

Al now lives in Austin, Texas, where he’s managed to stay put for an unprecedented six years. In addition to writing, he does freelance travel photography for clients that have included National Geographic Adventure, Caribbean Travel & Life, Condé Nast Traveler, Outside’s GO, and Continental. In addition to Moon Guatemala, Al is also the author of Moon Living Abroad in Guatemala and Texas Yesterday & Today.

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"Author Al Argueta has done his homework for [Moon Guatemala]. His knowledge of the country and Guatemalan culture are in-depth and comprehensive. His fascination with the country and his interest in Guatemalan culture are evident throughout the book. He does an excellent job presenting Guatemala’s diversity and contradictions to readers. As he writes in the introduction: 'From the chic cafés and high-rise hotels of Guatemala City to the mountain trails and quaint dirt-floor huts of the most remote Mayan village, Guatemala is an enigmatic land of culture and contrasts offering an incomparable palette of pleasures to any visitor.'"