Guatemala

Visited: December 1996, various business visits from 2010 to 2015, April 2015

Duration of visit: 75 days

Capital city: Ciudad de Guatemala

Population: 16 million (2015)

Estimated reading time: 20 minutes

• Learning Spanish in Antigua de Guatemala for 6 weeks, while living with a local family.
• Climbing active Pacaya Volcano where we were attacked by local bandits.
• Sunrise watching from the top of a pyramid in Tikal surrounded by pristine jungle and listening to the monkeys howling.
• Indigenous weekend markets full of mysterious incense, magic colors and traditions in Chichicastenango.
• Meeting a Canadian couple who started a lifelong trip around the world.
• Trying to do business with local authorities.

Trapped between Mexico, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras, the Caribbean and the Pacific, Guatemala is the largest country in Central America, known primarily for numerous volcanoes, earthquakes, the largest share of indigenous peoples, and devastating civil war (1960-96) – the longest in Latin American history. Land of the Eternal Spring or Place of many trees, in Quauhtlemallan, as it was called in the Nahuatl language, offers perfect climate to visit it all year round.

Beside visiting the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, my main goal in 1996 was to improve my knowledge of Spanish language to a level where I would be able to communicate fluently with locals during the rest of my trip through Central and South America.

Guatemala was part of my American Big Tour in 1996-97, which started in New York City and ended in Buenos Aires 15 months later. I crossed the Guatemalan border overland from Mexico.

After years of internal conflicts and 36 years long civil war between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups, the general insecurity was improving and the foreign visitors started to return in bigger numbers.

Due to genocide committed against the indigenous Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights violations against civilians, the general atmosphere was not ideal. The constant violence in the form of fighting and war was replaced by small insurgents’ groups, which used armed robbery as a regular way to extort citizens and foreigners. A lot of weapons in hands of civilians always brings risks to stability and calm to the residents. I was very cautious when travelling around. Especially at night, I avoided being out on the streets.

The capital city of Ciudad de Guatemala, nicknamed simply Guate, with more than 2 million inhabitants, is the largest urban center in Central America. Despite its size, it does not represent a place where a traveler would stay for a long time. The current site of the capital was chosen for its supposed protection from earthquakes. Unfortunately, devastating earthquakes in 1917-18 and 1976 challenged this decision and demanded complete reconstruction of the city.

I dedicated only one day to explore the capital of Guatemala. There is not much to see really in Guate: some average museums, the Central Market, a small central square and Plaza de la Constitución with Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, which used to be the most important building in Guatemala, serving as the headquarters of the president of Guatemala. The general atmosphere didn’t really catch my attention. The most interesting activity was observing old and dilapidated buses flowing into the central bus terminal from all over the country.

At the time of my visit, there was a strike by city transport companies, so Guate transport department tried to fill up the lack of regular buses with any vehicle on wheels and powered by engine that could transport people or cargo. You can imagine the improvisation and turnout!

In general, I consider bus drivers in Guatemala to be real artists; with the steering wheel they do all sorts of pranks to get their buses aligned straight. Entering a curve, they have to use all the strengths and ingenuity to exit on the right side of the road and continue driving safely.

When I was staying in the old capital Antigua de Guatemala for six weeks, I had to do a few day trips to Guate for paperwork at foreign embassies in order to get visas, for shopping or to see a movie in a cinema. I always carried only a copy of my passport and the minimum amount of money needed for a daily trip. All documents, credit cards and cash were safer in my room in Antigua.

During one of those weekend trips a very interesting situation happened. After enjoying a movie on a comfortable sofa seat on an early session at 3:00pm, I walked to the main bus terminal in Guate. It was only 5:00pm, but there were no buses that would take me back to Antigua on that day.

I only had 5.00 US$ in local quetzals in my pocket and nobody would accept them in exchange for an exclusive ride back to Antigua. I started to look for accommodation to spend the night in the capital and very soon found a place with conditions so basic that you could hardly call it a guesthouse. It costed me only 4.00 US$, so I had a dollar available for a basic meal on the street.

Next morning, I walked back to the bus station without any money in my pocket, searching for a bus to take me back home to Antigua. My Spanish was suddenly perfect when explaining my problems to the driver and asking him to give me a free lift on his bus. “No hay problema amigo”, he let me in without insisting on payment.

It was probably one of most uncomfortable feelings ever, as I made my way through the bus to find an empty seat, looking at poor farmers and street vendors who were all paying for a ride despite their limited resources. In contrast, the wealthy gringo was riding for free.

Back in Antigua, I took my everyday Spanish lessons and then ran to the bus station, where I found the bus driver and paid him back for the free ride that he had offered me early in the morning. I felt such a relief by paying him, even though it was just a small amount of money. There are good people willing to help everywhere, you just need to find them!

Many travelers visit Guatemala with the intention of learning Spanish. Antigua and Quetzaltenango are certainly two of the best places to learn the world’s second-most spoken native language. I opted for Antigua de Guatemala with over 40 language schools and as a bonus plenty of opportunities for delightful weekend trips. I was studying Spanish 4 to 5 hours a day for 6 weeks and living with a local family.

Family members of my host were speaking no other languages, so my immersion in the language was complete. Learning system one on one with a native teacher ensured extremely fast progress, especially if the teacher doesn’t speak English.

After 6 to 8 weeks of diligent learning, the student is usually able to communicate more or less fluently in Spanish. It was also very inexpensive, considering that accommodation, food and 5 lessons daily were included, at only 100.00 US$ per week. If you desire to learn Spanish, this is definitely one of the best ways to do it.

Every traveler who visits Guatemala will sooner or later visit Tikal, one of the best-preserved ruins of pre-Columbian civilizations in Mesoamerica. The history of Tikal began in the years 700 BC, when Mayas settled down in that area.

Over the next 1,600 years, a city with 100,000 inhabitants, numerous pyramids, ritual shrines and influential rulers grew in the middle of the jungle.

Around year 900 AC, Tikal, like many other Mayan cities, sadly ended its existence, and in the following centuries it was covered by a mysterious rainforest. It was revived only at the end of 20^th century, when discovered by American-English archaeologists and restored to its original form, while leaving surrounding nature almost untouched.

I first saw a picture of Tikal pyramid Templo del Gran Jaguar in a National Geographic magazine, when my father showed it to me, while I was still in high school. It was just a small hill, covered with scattered stones and tree trunks surrounded by impassable primary rainforest. Another photo was showing the current situation, where the pyramid is perfectly renovated.

Several years later, as I sat atop the pyramid Templo del Gran Jaguar, I found a deep satisfaction in the achievement of my aspirations.

The tallest pyramid in Tikal and in the whole Mesoamerica is Templo IV, which rises 64 meters above the ground. The only completely restored buildings are Templo I (Templo de Gran Jaguar) and Templo II. They form the central square and represent the splendor of Tikal at its best. The other pyramids are restored only in the upper parts, which rise above dense tropical forest.

Even though for accommodation Tikal area has been orientated to more upscale visitors, I managed to hire a tent and camp just outside of the archeological zone. I entered the archeological park early in the morning, when it was still dark, and climbed to the top of Temple IV for the sunrise.

This is definitely the highlight of Tikal’s experience; observing sunrise or sunset from the top of one of the pyramids. Monkeys screaming, birds singing, mysterious sunrise above mystic rainforest and the view as far as the eye can see from the top of Templo IV is a unique experience.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the horrifying sounds from the other side of the jungle, thinking that jaguars or other similar beasts were roaring. Later, one of the official guides explained to me that this noise is actually monkey howling and boasting.

Bottom-line, the combination between archaeological remains of Mayan civilization and stunning nature is what really fascinated me in Tikal.

I continued my trip towards a small village called Uaxactun, 24 km north from Tikal. It was a real adventure driving there; two hours in an old school bus on a muddy dirt road took forever. The road conditions got worse to the point that all male passenger needed to get off the bus and push it hard until it moved back on track.

The archaeological remains in Uaxactun are very modest compared to Tikal, so only a few foreigners visit the area. Village houses nearby have neither electricity nor water supply; 650 inhabitants live in basic cabañas – houses made of bamboo, covered with palm leaves. Nowhere in Central America so far have I experienced such a friendly reception as in Uaxactun. People invited me to their humble homes, showed me around how they live, cook and sleep.

Most men work in rubber industry which is a very important part of the local economy. For a week or two, they head to the jungle and mountains, where they work long hours for a Japanese company extracting raw material for rubber from the trunks of trees in a white liquid form. Women stay home, raise children, cook and wash clothes; families with nine or ten children are not uncommon.

In other regions of Guatemala, it was often necessary for me to pay in order to photograph people. In contrast, in Uaxactun, I was surrounded by children who enthusiastically implored me to take their pictures.

Their joy was notably increased when I shared fruits or a ball with them.

The town of Nebaj is located in the middle of the highlands, 80 kms away from Santa Cruz del Quiché. Basically, I set out on this journey just for the sake of riding the bus, which offers spectacular views to the surrounding landscape. The narrow road goes mostly on the edge of the precipice. When we arrived at the highest point, a view of the valley with its many canyons opened up in front of us.

In Nebaj, I was invited to dinner by an indigenous Mayan family. Together with a companion, I had a very friendly reception at Doña Juana’s house. They served us with a traditional plate called boxball, atole de elote drink, and tortillas. Boxbol is a simple vegan dish: corn meal wrapped inside a soft squash leaf and rolled up to be steamed. A tasty tomato sauce with toasted squash seeds is smothered on top. Atole is a traditional hot corn-based beverage of Mesoamerican origin.

We talked about lifestyle and ancient habits of modern Mayas at the end of 20^th century all evening. Children first learn to speak the indigenous language quiche, later at school they study Spanish. Many elderly indigenous people don’t know any words in Spanish.

I got a surprising answer to my question about incidents and confrontment with guerrillas during the long-lasting Civil War. They never had a problem with the rebels, while they were complaining a lot about treatment received by the state military. Nebaj was severely affected by the bloody internal armed conflict of the Guatemalan Civil War; brutal military tactic of massacring Maya civilians to maintain a reign of terror was applied all around the department El Quiché.

When I told the family members that I was writing articles about travelling experience in magazines and newspapers, the older lady literally requested from me to take photos of her.

It is very uncommon that Mayas would be posing for a photo to tourists, but I was privileged even with a request to take a picture of the small child.

Two hours’ drive from Guatemala City, toward the southwestern highlands a massive volcanic crater is filled with water. Lago de Atitlán – a medium-sized lake, surrounded by three volcanoes, is interesting from several perspectives.

Panajachel is the largest city on its coast, completely subservient to wealthy tourists from US and Europe; packed with tourist agencies, souvenir stalls and restaurants. On the other side of the lake there are two small villages living a simple life as decades ago: San Pedro and Santiago de Atitlán.

My favorite place was Santiago de Atitlán. I visited it on Sunday, when the activities at the local market are especially colorful. Women walk around in typical brightly colored dresses with hand-embroidered patterns. They carry the goods that they have either bought or intend to sell in large baskets on their heads. Men are also dressed in traditional clothing: white shorts with red vertical stripes to the knees, large decorative belts and a machete in hand. These days it is very uncommon to spot men in traditional clothes.

All locals are very kind to visitors; they were greeting me at every step, helping with directions or explaining about the daily life. It is fascinating that among themselves they still communicate in the original indigenous language.

The next day, I climbed to the top of the Volcán San Pedro at 3,000 meters above sea level. I decided to do this ascent on my own, without a guide, and save some quetzals. At first, I had a lot of troubles finding the right path; if it weren’t for friendly locals and two boys who accompanied me on this section of the route, I would have probably never have reached the top. Disappointment at the top: misty clouds above the lake rose up to the crater and took away all visibility.

I started to descend into the valley on the other side of the mountain. I made a mistake when planning the route and, due to low visibility, I finished on the wrong side of the lake. It would be too far to walk around.

I had no choice but to convince a local guy to give me a lift to the area of Santiago in a basic, unstable canoe. He kindly invited me into his pirogue and with slow, powerful strokes brought me safely to the other side of the lake. Another unforgettable lifetime experience with happy ending.

Chichicastenango (Chichi) transforms into the liveliest town of Guatemala every Thursday and Sunday. Residents of the surrounding villages, especially indigenas, expose goods for sales on improvised stands of the central market, many local believers gather to practice various rituals for happiness, health and a better life in the future. Crowds of (international) visitors equipped with cameras constantly press the triggers.

Handicrafts, food, flowers, pottery, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, traditional incense, grindstones, pigs and chickens, machetes, textiles, souvenirs and more.

Chichicastenango is a perfect location to observe colorful costumes from different surrounding villages, listen to a mixture of different Indian languages, participate in traditional indigenous ceremonies or purchase all kind of exotic vegetables.

Chichicastenango market is not only the most important in Guatemala, but also the largest traditional market of its kind in the whole Central America.

In the vicinity of the city, I visited a thousand-year-old stone, called Pascual Abaj. Pascual Abaj is a pre-Columbian Maya idol, who survived the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, but it was badly damaged in the 1950s by members of Catholic Action. The Mayan god shaped like a stone idol is located on a stone altar on the top of the Turk’aj hill. Ancestral Mayan ceremonies with offerings that can range from candles to burning incense are still performed today, attracting pilgrims from the whole region.

The last archeological zone that I visited in Guatemala was in the village Quiriguá. The ceremonial architecture at Quiriguá is quite modest, but the site’s importance lies in its wealth of sculptures, including the tallest monumental stone sculpture ever erected in the Americas. They are best known as stelas – large stone pillars in which various images are carved on all four sides.

Usually, on the front and back side, images of important rulers are displayed, while on the sides, with the help of hieroglyphs, their biography or the entire history of the city during their reign is described.

Stelas in Quiriguá are the highest in Mesoamerica. The mightiest Stela E rises 8 meters above the ground, while additional 3 meters are buried underground as the foundations.

It weighs almost 60 tons. In terms of beauty, only those in Copan (Honduras) can compete with stelas in Quiriguá.

The archeological zone of Quiriguá is located in the middle of a huge banana plantation. It is a must to explore a banana packaging plant in Guatemala, one of the world’s leading banana producers.

I walked through the plantation to observe the growing, cutting and transporting system. A bunch of bananas may contain approximately 60 bananas. During growth, they are wrapped in a plastic bag to protect them from pests. They are picked up green and solid to ripe during transportation to the end markets all around the world.

In order to transport bananas from trees to the packaging plant, a cable system network is installed between the lines of plants. Banana bunches, hanging from hooks, are guided by motor traction along strong wires all the way to the packaging section. These wires can be kilometers long, before the bunches reach the final destination.

In the packing department the procedure is as follows: men with special machetes cut the bunches into several smaller bunches; after being washed, rotted pieces are removed; each banana must be manually labeled, covered in plastic and packed in standard sized carton boxes that are loaded directly on trucks or shipping containers.

Most banana plantations in Central America are owned by American multinational companies and exported to North American or European countries.

Bananas available at local markets are mostly from local producers that don’t use pesticides. They have completely different flavor, color, size and are much more tasteful than industrial produced bananas brought overseas.

One of the unforgettable moments that will stay in my memory forever is definitely ascent to the most visited volcano in Guatemala – Pacaya. Pacaya Volcano is currently the most active volcano in the country, which is home to 37 official volcanoes, three of them being in constant activity: Pacaya, Fuego and Santiaguito. The last major lava eruption was on 11^th November 1996 – less than 2 months before my visit.

Due to numerous attacks on tourists, climbing the volcano is much safer if you are accompanied by guides and security guards within an organized group. On the way up to the top, our group of twenty people was protected by two private security guards who were armed with guns.

After two and a half hours of hiking through a variety of terrain we reached the top of the volcano. If the first part through the forest was easy and plain, ascending on the soft terrain of the crater was slippery and difficult, also because of the high altitude up to 2,552 meters above sea level.

Standing at the top, I was not very happy to observe the low activity of the volcano, as not many of the promised lava movements were seen within the crater. Smoke, steam, heat and black-yellow surface of the crater gave me only a rough idea of ​​what was going on when the lava had actually erupted recently.

After a fantastic sunset, it was slowly getting dark; time to descend to the valley. We ran down the crater, soft remnants of lava rocks and sand sliding underfoot and filling our shoes; we were having fun like little kids.

At the foot of the crater a surprise waited for us: in the twilight, right next to the path, we spotted two human corpses which later turned out to be the result of a shooting between robbers and security guards of another group, that was walking behind us. We were at the top of the volcano enjoying the sunset during the time of shooting, so we didn’t hear or see anything.

We were all in shock and suddenly the security guard started to panic. Our position was critical. A descent from the bottom of the crater to the parking was ahead of us.

We didn’t know what happened with other bandits.

Were there more of them? Were they waiting in the forest for us? Did they escape?

Continuing the descent into the valley was a real nightmare, the path dragged on indefinitely, guides forced us to walk in dark and speechless. I was more scared of the unbalanced security guard, who was supposedly protecting us, carrying a gun in his hand most of the time.

Reporters, photographers and police officers were already waiting for us, when we reached the bus, after traumatic two hours walk. Finally, we were safe, still upset by the violent events and nervous after descending in the dark. We drove back to Antigua, where we arrived at 1:00am.

I was convinced that tourist agencies would stop organizing excursions to Pacaya Volcano for a while. How wrong I was! The next day I noticed another group of adventurous tourists taking a tour to the top of the volcano as if nothing special had happened the night before.

Business is business! Life goes on!

Local guides, scouts and bus drivers need to eat and earn money.

Between 2010 and 2015 I visited Guatemala City on various occasions to explore business opportunities as a representative of a security documents manufacturer. I usually moved around fancy Zones 9 and 10, where luxurious homes of Guatemala’s wealthiest residents are located, as well as the city’s most expensive hotels, bars and shops.

I had a chance to meet some top politicians with powerful connections and ambitious to get involved in mayor infrastructure or security projects that would bring them additional income into the personal budget. Connection among politics and business opportunities in Guatemala is in the same format as in any Latin American country.

However, in a certain period the country was under so much pressure from the international community that almost all key political figures, including the president, were imprisoned. I lost all my contacts who were either prosecuted, emigrated abroad or changed their field of business activity.

Staying in prestige hotels, eating in exquisite restaurants, meeting top political leaders, protected by security guards and driving around in armored cars, connected me with another group of Guatemalan society.

I didn’t enjoy it that much, nevertheless it is a good experience to understand the extremes of both sides of the societies.

For me, Guatemala is not only one of the Central American countries, but it has a special place as one of the favorite places on the whole continent. I was blessed to spend so much time there, that I really managed to visit, live, do business and explore the whole country from various angles.

Sometimes this extreme adventure manifested as riding a local bus, sleeping in a guesthouse without running water, being mounted on the back of a truck or pick-up truck on a dirt road over a precipice.

You have to be ready for everything: from friendly invitation to a delicious dinner, to a pickpocket searching for survival or real attack by professional robbers.

I was fascinated by many Mayan descendants in traditional vivid clothing, unforgettable bus rides squeezed into miniature benches, while being entertained by rhythmical music from incredibly loud speakers. Remarkable, though dangerous ascent to Volcano Pacaya, exploring ancient ruins at archeological sites of Tikal, Quiriguá or Uaxactun, studying Spanish and living with a local family in Antigua de Guatemala are my best memories.