Best place to visit in Central America?

What is the best place to visit in Central America? I am not looking for high rise buildings, i get enouph of that here in Beijing, China. Im looking for a country with culture and not much american precence. I want to be able to interact with the locals, i speak fluent Spanish. I also want to meet indegenous people, if possible. Any suggestions?

No high rise buildings? Culture? Indigenous people? I suggest Belize, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Overall i suggest Nicaragua. Nicaragua has many indigenous people living on the Caribbean coast, and although many still speak they're native languages most speak creole which you might pick up quickly with you knowledge of both English and Spanish. Bluefields is the main city on the Caribbean coast and is full of the natives and also mestizos. There are also many Chinese creoles out there that speak Chinese, i'm sure that'll be a nice find for you. They live mostly in Puerto Cabezas, Bluefields and in Managua. The main indigenous group are the Miskitos but there are also many others, couple hundreds living in the Indio-Maiz nature reserve and in the Bosawas rainforest in Northern Nicaragua near Honduras. The Garifuna are wonderful people, i hae a few friends that live in Rama cay in Nicaragua. They are afro-carribean peoples in Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. They have a wonderful type of music called Punta, very sexual type with fast beats. In Nicaragua's Pacific Coast there is also a lot of culture. For example, the colonial city of Granada, which is the oldest in Latin America, Leon, Esteli and also Managua. Managua is the capitol, i live here, and we have a lot of museums dedicated to the pre-colombian artifacts that have been found here. Also, in Nueva Segovia they found fossils that are between 20-30 thousand years old, although i'm not sure they are in a museum to be seen around there. Apart from culture and indigenous people, Nicaragua is also full of nature reserve and flora and fauna. The government website says that Nicaragua has over 78 protected areas and the largest Rainforest after Brazil called Bosawas. Here, we also have the largest lake in Central America, Lake Nicaragua, or Lake Cocibolca like we Nicas call it. In the lake is Ometepe, it is absolutely wonderful! I go there once every month since it gets very hot here is Managua. Ometepe is a volcanic island and there is a museum here that showcases many petroglyphs that have been found on the Island.

you should go to guatemala it's areal nice place if you go to tikal,peten you get aview to the whole jungle and they got some beautyful birds too.

You should try Honduras!!! They have the mayan ruins, but as for indigenous people that would be really hard as they are in remotely hard places to reach.

visit all of central america. it's NOT all high rise buildings. there's LOTS of history, indigenous people, not to mention great food and great hospitality.

Guatemala is an awesome place, i went there some time ago, and it was awesome, look u said u don't want buildings right? okay the city has some but they're little, okay that's not the point, but i went to this place called "Atitlan Lake" i think it's labo atitlan in Spanish, anyway it was beautiful it is a lake and it's beautiful, and there's an antique city, like those from fairy tales, it's called Antigua or something but it's beautiful, they even have horses walking between the cars, it's awesome i loved it, and there's another place called ummm "Tikal" it's almost like chichen itza in Mexico, and it's beautiful, as well, it's a pyramids park, and there's a jungle there i think, oh yeah lol, and I've heard Costa Rica is beautiful as well, but I've never been there, oh i went to El salbador, and it's beautiful but it's small, and they don't have as many places as Guatemala or Costa Rica, and panama is beautiful but it has many buildings which is what u don't want lol, okay take care hope you choose wisely and have fun!!!

Been to most of C.A. and Honduras is my #1 choice, with Belize and Costa Rica tied at a close second. I found the nicest place on the mainland of Honduras was Tela. It's a small city right on the north coast, very local and non-American but very friendly. I'm the same kind of traveler, meaning I enjoy the local scene more than the tourist scene. I found that once the locals realized I was genuinely interested in their culture and town they went out of their way to show me around. They are very proud and humble at the same time I found and appreciated my Canadian styling of butchered spanish just because I was trying, so they tried to help me with it. Hope you find a place you love!