Guatemala:
If you decide to go to Guatemala, you'll enjoy the scenery and the old buildings, and of course the Mayan culture and ruins. Adventure travellers will have fun climbing the volcanoes. Food, bus travel, and small hotels are all dirt cheap. The food in Guatemala is also exceptionally delicious everywhere! But you'll probably feel too paranoid to ever totally relax, as the threat of violence is real. Never go out anywhere after dark, never hike or walk in the countryside alone, and always take armed bodyguards with you whenever you do wish to explore the beautiful countryside.
You'll find Guatemalans to be polite, but mainly standofffish and reticent--no wonder; more than 200,000 of them were killed in the civil war, and they are more interested in surviving and keeping their families fed than in providing interesting backdrops for tourist cameras.
The ruins of Tikal, in the north of the country, are the most popular tourist destination, but the towns of the south are also interesting. Antigua has a lot of old colonial buildings and cobblestoned streets, Chichicastenango is a laid-back simpatico place where everyone calls you amigo, and Lago Atitlan is gorgeous, with its blue water and perfect volcanoes and small villages along the coast.
In January, 2000, the always-active volcano of Pacaya, just 25 kilometres away from Guatemala City, began erupting in earnest. It spewed lava and ash into the air, sometimes as high as 1,000 metres. More than 700 people, who live in nearby villages, had to evacuate to temporary shelters. Normally, Pacaya is a tourist attraction. You can go on a guided tour up the mountain at sunset, and sit on the rim of the crater in the dark, looking down into the glowing cauldron. The climb up the slippery, lava-rock slopes, is difficult, to say the least.
Since the war between the government and the guerrillas ended, tourists don't have to worry about getting caught in the cross fire. They only have to worry about being raped, robbed and killed. Unfortunately, over the last three years, there have been a few of these types of incidents where tourists have been specifically singled out. As well, the death squads seem to still be operating. In May, 1999, the leader of a left-wing opposition party was assassinated.
Another thing travellers to Guatemala need to be careful about is taking the photos of Mayan children. Their parents are very touchy about this, with some of them assuming that the photographers are childless people about to abduct their children. In May, 2000, a mob of people stoned to death a Japanese tourist who was taking photos of children. This incident happened in Todos Santos Cuchumatan. In 1994, a U.S. tourist was beaten into a coma by a mob who also thought she was going to snatch a child.
In December 2003, a new president was elected, only the second president since the end of the war. Oscar Berger is a conservative businessman, and he beat out his left-wing rival
Books: Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny, by Jean-Marie Simon; A Beauty that Hurts, by W. George Lovell.
Email me at lynnes@interlog.com. I have spent some time in Guatemala, though I never made it to Tikal.
This page last updated December 31, 2003