#16: Arrival in Guatemala - Guatemala - A Year and a Day ...

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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.

Questions? If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Central America Insiders page.

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