#16: Arrival in Guatemala – Guatemala – A Year and a Day …

By: Daniel Wallace

Arrival in Guatemala
Tuesday, 28th October 2003

First, some broad national stereotypes: what is Guatemala like? It is
certainly poorer and a bit grottier than Mexico, but not massively
so – at least what I’ve seen in my first week here. The people are
distinctly different – they seem to lack the pervasive Mexican sense
of propriety and reserve. On my first, terrifying ride on a
Guatemalan bus, I was stowing my bag overhead, when, seemingly from
stationary, the driver unleashed a horrendous right turn, throwing me
from my feet onto the passengers in the next seat. But instead of the
stern Mexican looks of disapproval I was expecting, the young couple
and baby I had landed on smiled cheerily, as if to say, “no harm
done!”

Guatemalans do seem to have a cheery disposition about things
like this – on other buses I thwack a dozen people with my rucksack
on the way out, and when I turn to apologise everyone is smiling at
me sweetly. Guatemalans love to talk, that’s also a noticeable
change. The Mexican idea of a sales pitch is “CINCO PESOS! CINCO
PESOS!” – the Guatemalan idea is a twenty minute spiel, invoking the
health of one’s children and the importance of supporting Latin
American industry.

They are also big practical jokers. In Xela’s town square, children
reflect light into my eyes with a shaving mirror, and laugh harder
when I theatrically shake my fist at them. In a crowded market, a
running boy presses a hot pack of freshly cooked tortillas to an
ancient woman’s arm and runs on. She starts at the pain, recognizes
him and shouts with a smile, “Bitch!” to his skipping back.

It’s very noticeable that the family that runs my hospedaje in San Pedro warms
to me once I came back one evening and tell them a funny story about
trying to buy a sombrero but no one in town had one big enough for my
head. I think that the Mexicans I met in my seven odd weeks in the
country were generally extremely welcoming and friendly people, but
that often it felt like people liked to get to know you before they
get to know you – this is much less the case here.

This small country is wonderfully beautiful. Other countries have
beautiful areas, but in Guatemala, the few areas that aren’t stunning
to the eye seem put there deliberately, as if to give the viewer a
rest from all this natural splendour. A ride in a chicken bus is a
series of mountain vistas (Guatemala is absurdly mountainous), mist
filled forests, green and yellow undulating fields, highland lakes
and lush valleys. All in all I feel extremely glad I have come here.
The most amazing sight I’ve yet seen here is the great Lake Atitlan.
I took a bus to the town of San Pedro, and in the late afternoon we
crossed over the mountains guarding the lake to the sheer road
zigzagging down. The huge lake was blanketed in blue-grey fog, the
far ends obscured, mountains fighting against the clouds in the
distance. It was an incredible sight, epic, like something from the
last scenes of La Morte del’Arthur.

San Pedro – don’t forget the locals

San Pedro is a well known town on Lake Atitlan. Despite what the
guidebooks say, nowadays people are here more for Spanish classes
than getting high. Drugs are certainly still available though – a
venerable American, white hair blasting off in all directions, calls
out to me in the street, “like a big bag of weed, son?” Many, many ex-pats have come here and opened restaurants; the centre of language
student nightlife is the free English language movie in D’Noz’s bar
each night.

The Guatemalan people are extremely friendly and the town
appears well adapted to this hybrid culture. Perhaps too well
adapted: you can have gnocchi for lunch, a reiki massage in the
afternoon, get a Thai curry and then watch the Premiership in an
English owned pub. In one local-run restaurant a poster reminds
tourists to spend at least some of their money in Guatemalan-owned
establishments. I’d recommend one called El Paisaje – turn right at
the Allegre pub and walk on the road heading to the other side of
town. The house speciality looked and tasted uncannily like a Cornish
pasty. The town is very safe (I can verify this having walked along
the quiet tiny paths though vegetable fields in near total darkness),
although the same cannot be said for the nearby volcano. On Saturday,
armed guards, sent by an exasperated language school, shot a would-be
robber in the leg and dragged the bleeding bandit down to the
village.

But volcanoes and the odd food poisoning amongst several
travellers I met there aside, this is a
lovely place, home comforts combined with almost the entire Maya-Tzutujile female population wearing the bright colourful traditional
dress, making the town market street an incredible sight. This dress
is all varied colours and patterns, but essentially made up of a
flowery, buttonless blouse – describing female clothing isn’t a
speciality of mine – with a thick patterned skirt down to the ankles
and a more faded thick cloth apron worn in front. Few men though wear
the distinctive three quarter length white trousers, blue and red
dashes running down the legs. Probably easier to pick up a Guatemala Lonely Planet to see some photos of what I mean.

It is also wonderfully cheap. Guatemalan quetzales are about 14 to
the pound – my room was 12 quetzales a night, and a thick vodka and
coke is 8. The town is also safe in ways one wouldn’t really have to
consider in a country other than Guatemala. I get talking to an
Englishman who has been running a pub in town for a year. He says
how, during the period of some of the worst atrocities of recent
decades committed by the military on the Guatemalan people, San Pedro
was the second town in the country to expel the military, and
soldiers are rarely seen here to this day. He smiles, “and there’s
only one road into here, so if things do get really bad the town
could always blow the road up to stop the government getting
in.” He wasn’t entirely serious, but that kind of sums something up
about Guatemala – lovely people, a tranquil lakeside town, but they
keep some dynamite handy in case their government tries to massacre
them (again). More on this later, but next, a dramatic interlude.

Run Daniel, Run!

So on my first night in town, I’m standing in an English run “dessert
restaurant”, El Igloo, with a beer in my hand chatting to the owners
and their Dutch friends. Suddenly my head is swimming, blood draining
to my feet and the urge to sit down is overpowering. Am I ill, or has
my drink been drugged? The latter sounds ridiculous, but I can’t
tell, and I feel terrible. I decide either way, I should get out, and
pay and start back to town. I walk as far as I can, but soon need to
sit down. I fall to some steps of another restaurant, then summon
some more strength and walk on. My vision is almost gone, the dark
dirt path is a fuzzy haze of grey, and I’m conscious I’m no longer
able to walk in a straight line. Then, after I’ve dragged myself
forward for what seems a vast distance, my legs simply give way and I
collapse heavily to the ground. It must have been dramatic to watch.
Lying on my back in the dirt, people pass me without looking. I start
to feel much better now I’m horizontal, which strongly suggests it
wasn’t a drugging – a bull-like constitution is not one of my
superpowers. I regain my feet, and realised that I managed less than
20 paces away from Igloo. I walk back, they in great concern give me
water and sit me down. I get a nearby spaghetti, and resolve if I
feel bad tomorrow I will visit a doctor. But the next morning I feel
fine, if a little tired, and by the afternoon I feel well enough to
hire a kayak and explore the lake. What it was, I don’t know – food,
the altitude, dehydration? Hopefully not a new hobby.

History

Guatemala is a lovely, amazing country to travel in, and I can say
that having only been here a week and explored only a small part of
the place. But Guatemala has problems, serious problems, problems
that put other countries’ into perspective. A ruined train network or
a president with the intellectual capacity of a finger puppet seem
merely embarrassing when compared to a military that not too long ago
was carrying out a scorched earth policy against its own people – or
that one of the main presidential candidates in the coming elections
has killed, it’s thought, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans during
his previous dictatorship. I’m conscious that I know very little
factual information about Guatemalan history, beyond what is in my
guidebook or what people tell me, and the Economist’s website is too
expensive to read up on the subject, but it seems impossible to write
about travelling in Guatemala without being aware of something of
this small country’s horrific history.

The elections on the 9th of November apparently threaten to oust the
genocidal monopolists that have been running the country’s recent
history. An art gallery owner from Guatemala City simplified the
situation for me, saying either the opposition party that is leading
the polls will win, and then the establishment may refuse to
surrender power, or the establishment candidate will win, invariably
by fraud, so the people will fight the result. Rumors abound – the
government may seek an excuse to halt the election and declare a
state of emergency, that the ex-dictator candidate has access to two
million dead people’s votes, many of which are from people he killed,
so if there is a high turnout there may be more votes cast than
Guatemalans, or that nothing will happen and it’s just wise to stay
off the roads on the election weekend itself.

My plan is to go somewhere small and study Spanish for the next few
weeks, traveling once the worst tensions are expected to be over. But
of course no one knows what will happen. Am I apprehensive, yes
certainly. Guatemala and some other Central American countries are
probably the places I am most scared of in my planned trip around the
world – although every traveller I spoke to who has been here has
said nothing but positive things. At the moment not worried enough to
want to leave the country – so far few of the horror stories people
were predicting months ago have happened. I’ve canvassed a lot of
people, and no one has advised leaving. The foreign office’s website
says:

“Visitors to Guatemala should be on their guard as violent crime is common throughout the country. In particular, avoid travelling at night or visiting remote places unaccompanied.

Political demonstrations in advance of the November Presidential elections can take place without warning and can be violent. You should exercise great caution when in Guatemala, especially in the capital, Guatemala City, and avoid demonstrations.

However, the vast majority of visits to Guatemala remain trouble-free.”

Consensus seems to be that tourists aren’t especially in danger. I
feel like if I hang out far away from Guatemala City I should be
fine.

Off to the mountain town of Todosantos tomorrow, to study Spanish and
the traditional Mam way of life for a few weeks. Going to take a
break from writing and checking my emails for a while, will write on
my time in Antigua and how the elections go later. Speak to you again
soon.

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