ON CLOUD 9

High up in the cloud forests of Guatemala lives the breathtakingly beautiful national bird

- BELLA FALK

THE SNEEZE BEGAN AS A TICKLE IN MY RIGHT nostril. It was almost imperceptible, like a mosquito landing lightly on my arm, ready to strike. Or a lone butterfly flapping its wings, producing a breeze that would unfurl into a tornado; a tidal wave of latent energy that demanded to be unleashed.

Some people can suppress their sneezes delicately into a tissue. But not me. Mine are foghorn blasts that rattle windows and burst eardrums. Which wouldn't normally have been a problem, except that I was standing in the quiet Guatemalan jungle, and Alfredo Tol Gonzalez, my guide, thought he'd just heard a quetzal. Any noise would scare it away.

I'd staggered out of bed at dawn and hauled my camera gear up the side of a volcano for one reason only: to try to photograph the elusive resplendent quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala and one of six species of quetzal that live in the cloud forests of Central America. This iconic bird, with its iridescent green head and wings, spiky green crest, blood-red breast, and flamboyant twin tail plumes, is like the avian version of a carnival dancer. No visit to Guatemala is complete without seeing one in the flesh.

As I travelled around the country, I saw them everywhere. Quetzals woven into scarves and painted on walls. Varnished wooden quetzal toys, quetzal t-shirts, beaded quetzal keyrings. There's a quetzal on the national flag and on all the banknotes: the currency of Guatemala is called the quetzal. Even Guatemala's second largest city is called Quetzaltenango: the 'place of the quetzal bird'.

But its vivid plumage is not the only reason why the quetzal is Guatemala's favourite bird. It has also been profoundly intertwined with the country's history and religion for more than 1,500 years.