Reasons to visit Guatemala
I found this article while surfing the web the other day. It is very interesting and it is also, from my point of view, true. I guess we, as Chapines, never thought about it because we see or we used to see these things everyday. To view Guatemala as it really is, beautiful, we have to have the eyes of the people that visit it for the first time. Our country is rich in traditions, culture, languages, landscapes, weather, etc. Hope that if you find this blog you can read this article and enjoy it.
11 Reasons to Visit Guatemala
When Hurricane Mitch cut a devastating swath across Central America, thousands of people were left homeless and scores of roads and bridges were damaged. Despite not being hit as hard as Nicaragua and Honduras, Guatemala experienced a sharp drop in tourism. It seems that most North Americans have a hard time distinguishing between different countries in Central America and assumed the entire region was devastated by “El Mitch.”
Here are 11 reasons to visit Guatemala, a gem in the heart of Central America:
1. The Locals For true travelers, the real joy of visiting a country is the chance to interact with and get to know the native people. The majority of Guatemalans are indigenous, descendants of the Maya, and have clung tightly to rituals that date back to the first millennium. Yet they’ve also incorporated many Christian practices into their spiritual observance, resulting in a uniquely Guatemalan hybrid.
Most of these people still speak tribal tongues and dress in colorful styles. The vibrant hues and shapes of the land are reflected in huipiles (blouses) and other weavings. Some of the most complex tapestries feature volcanoes and the quetzal, Guatemala’s national bird, known for its brilliant red breast and long green tail feathers.
2. Lake Atitlan About two hours by car (or 3-4 by “chicken bus”) from Guatemala City lies Lake Atitlan, which author Aldous Huxley called the “world’s most beautiful lake.” Flanked by three volcanoes, the lake’s shores are dotted with a dozen indigenous villages, the largest of which, Panajachel, became one of the great hippie hangouts in years past. Today it still offers ultra-cheap lodgings ($5-10 a night) and veggie food. The town is a hub of commerce, where locals come to sell tipica (indigenous crafts), such as shirts, weavings and overalls for infants.
On Panajachel’s west end is the Reserva Natural Nima’ya de Atitlan. The 300-acre reserve, also known as the Butterfly Farm, is home to 70 species of butterflies and about 300 species of moths. Also frolicking in this tropical oasis are a couple of spider monkeys who aren’t shy and often come out to greet visitors.
A trip to Atitlan would not be complete without a boat ride to one of the small towns across the lake. A favorite is Santiago Atitlan, nestled beneath the slopes of Toliman Volcano. Santiago is home to a Judas-like worship figure called Maximon. Locals offer the shadowy wood-and-cloth figure liquor and cigarettes, which he consumes with great abandon. It’s bad luck to visit Maximon without offering something, and stories of horrors befalling those who don’t donate are enough to inspire even non-believers into tossing ol’ Max some small bills.
3. Colonial Antigua More than a mile above sea level, Antigua is a picturesque colonial town with cobblestone streets and the Agua Volcano looming above. Today Antigua is known among budget travelers as an ideal place to study Spanish (see reason #4). Some travelers, though, simply enjoy the quiet-yet cultured-ambiance, while Guatemalans from the capital often come up for the day to linger in outdoor cafes and restaurants. A good first stop for travelers is Dona Luisa’s, a restaurant with an extensive message board frequented by travelers. While in Antigua, a visit to a local coffee plantation makes a nice day trip. Antigua’s coffee is famed throughout the world for its rich, yet not too bitter, flavor, and at local plantations such as Finca Bella Vista (named for its view of Agua Volcano) you can see the beans drying in the sun and watch the coffee being processed.
Accompanied by the tourist police, we drove up to a large cross overlooking town. A few years ago the odds were good that anyone venturing up there, especially after sundown, would be robbed. The Tourist Police is a new institution, available only in Antigua but soon to expand to other cities. The two policemen who accompanied us-whose training included the martial art of aikido-were friendly and easy-going, a far cry from just a few years ago when any contact with police inspired fear.
4. Spanish Language Schools Guatemala is one of the world’s best-and cheapest-places to study Spanish. Most people study in Antigua, but a growing number are studying in Quezaltenango (also known by the indigenous name Xela) in the western highlands. There are no classes at these schools-instruction is individual, with each student assigned to a maestra (teacher). Students choose the number of weeks they want to study. Four to six weeks is typically enough to get a working knowledge, especially for those who learned the basics in high school.
Best of all, these courses are incredibly cheap-$100 to $200 per week includes all instruction and room and board with a local family. Though some opt to arrange their own accommodations, living with a family can be much more rewarding. Each student gets their own room and basic meals (the staples are beans, rice, eggs and chicken) six days a week.
5. Tikal and the Peten Jungle With its skyscraping temples and intricately carved stelae, Tikal is a wonder of architecture, a spiritual and engineering achievement. Tikal was the region’s leading Mayan city from about 400-900 AD, a thriving metropolis with thousands of residents who transformed the jungle to suit their needs.
At its heart is the Grand Plaza, with two temples rising about 140 feet on the east and west ends. During the equinoxes, the sun rises directly over one temple and sets over the other. The Mayans once used the courtyard for fiercely contested ball games. The winners’ prize? Sacrificial execution.
Until this year it was possible to hike around Tikal at all hours, but in January the government restricted access to 7 am-6 pm. This is a shame, because watching a sunrise or sunset from atop a temple is one of Tikal’s great pleasures. The howler monkeys roar to greet the dawn, and colorful parrots and toucans fly at eye level in the murky light. Tikal’s hotel operators vow to protest the new rule.
A word to the wise: if you don’t take pills to prevent malaria, use a strong insect repellent on exposed skin and clothes. I thought I was safe in long pants but was bitten repeatedly through my jeans. It’s safer during the day; the malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite only at dusk, dawn and night.
6. Local markets I’ll visit a market over a museum any day. Guatemala’s markets burst with a rainbow of vibrant colors, as weavings, masks, vegetables and livestock are bought and sold. The markets typically open at dawn, though most tourists don’t begin shopping until after breakfast. Most towns have one or two market days, which are listed in most guidebooks. Markets have different specialties. For example, San Francisco El Alto (in the western highlands) is a hub for chickens, pigs and other livestock, while Chichicastenango is a mecca for tourists (though locals trade briskly with each other as well). Of course, part of the fun is bargaining, though with items so cheap and poverty so rampant, I find it hard to push for the lowest price.
7. Cheap living It’s no accident that budget travelers have migrated to Guatemala for decades. Outside of Guatemala City it’s not hard to find a decent place to sleep for US$10 or less a night, and food is inexpensive for those who eat with the locals. Local buses in Guatemala City cost about one quetzal (US$0.15) and bus trips to Antigua or Panajachel are only US$2-3. While the express buses are more luxurious and faster, don’t miss the chance to take the old, colorfully painted “chicken buses.” The driver’s assistant grabs your pack, hoists it up to the roof and assures you it will be there at your destination. (So far mine always has been, which is more than I can say for Delta.) Sure you might be packed five to a bench seat in an old schoolbus, but you’ll laugh and squeeze and learn more about how people live in two hours than other tourists learn in a week of tooling around in a rented car. I was once sitting next to a woman I thought might be pregnant until a chicken poked its head out from her cleavage (thus the chicken bus moniker?).
8. Festivals This country knows how to party. The winter solstice festival in Chichicastenango, for example, includes Mayan rituals, incessant firecrackers and the dance of the conquistadors, a procession that marks (and some say mocks) the coming of the white people. This festival is also known for crazed stampedes by human “bulls” (men in boxes covered with exploding fireworks) and the “palo volador” where two men climb a pole, harness themselves to the end of ropes and swing 30-40 feet off the ground. Legend has it that if two suitors are vying for the same woman, her father gets them drunk and spins them on the palo until one contestant loses his lunch; the other wins the girl’s hand. Other festivals include El Dia de los Muertos (Nov. 1) in Santiago Sacatepequez, where locals fly brightly colored kites to commune with the dead, and the Holy Week processions in Antigua. The night before Easter, Antigua’s main streets are decorated with richly illustrated alfombras (floor coverings made of painted sawdust, flowers and pine needles) depicting the ascension of Christ and other religious themes. These carpets exist for only a few hours, until processions of worshippers wearing ceremonial purple gowns carry huge wooden floats (weighing a ton or more and depicting religious figures) through the streets. Like sand mandalas created by Tibetan Buddhists, these carpets are exemplary works of art that symbolize the ephemeral nature of life on Earth.
9. Whitewater rafting and other adventures Though I was a river guide when I first visited Guatemala I had no idea that a professional outfitter, Maya Expeditions, was running commercial trips on rivers such as the Cahabon and Usumacinta. A trip on the Cahabon is a superb way to see parts of the jungle that are virtually inaccessible by road. It’s an ideal intermediate difficulty trip (Class III-IV) and includes three days of rafting, with side trips to gorgeous caves and Mayan ruins.
And because litigation is not a paramount concern, you can jump off 20-foot-high rocks into a river below, climb a nearly vertical temple in Tikal or a volcano near Guatemala City. Just be careful.
10. Volcanoes and hot springs Portals into the Earth’s simmering core, several of Guatemala’s volcanoes are active and often emit wisps of steam. On occasion, they do more than simmer. Just last year Pacaya, not far from the capital, belched so much ash that the airport was closed for a few days. Usually the volcanoes are sedate and offer fine opportunities for climbing, with several peaks in the 4,000-meter range yielding glistening views from their summits. All this thermal activity produces natural hot springs. Near Quezaltenango there’s a place called Fuentes Georginas where, for 10 quetzales ($1.50), you can soak all day in thermal waters that descend from a waterfall into manmade pools. With a stunning jungle backdrop, changing facility and even rooms for those who want to stay overnight, it’s hard to beat.
11. Peace On Dec. 29, 1996, Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu, a moderate with rightist roots, signed a peace accord with the country’s leftist guerillas, ending a brutal 36-year civil war that claimed more than 150,000 lives. The country feels more open and safer than a decade ago, though the calm is punctuated by occasional acts of violence, such as kidnappings or political assassinations. For the tourist, however, traveling around Guatemala feels a lot safer than walking in most major US cities, and the vast majority of people are friendly and helpful. Travelers who stick to areas frequented by tourists and don’t venture off into isolated areas, particularly at night, should find Guatemala tranquil.
Michael Shapiro, trips’ Internet columnist, wrote his first travel story in 1990 on the Spanish language schools of Antigua. He is the author of NetTravel: How Travelers Use the Internet and writes for the San Francisco Examiner, Dallas Morning News and national magazines. His e-mail is shapiro@sonic.net.
FACT BOX GUATEMALA
Climate: The dry season lasts from November-April, with heavy rains typically in late summer and early fall. Temperatures in most major cities are moderate due to the relatively high altitude. The Pacific coast and Peten jungle are hotter and more tropical.
Population: 12 million.
Size: 109,000 sq. km, slightly smaller than Tennessee.
Borders: Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.
Currency: About 7 quetzals=US$1.00 (Feb., 1999).
Top sources of foreign currency: Coffee and tourism.
Telephones: Working pay phones are hard to find. Most towns have Guatel (the national phone company) offices, but calls to other countries are expensive. International operators for AT&T, Sprint and MCI can be called at local rates.
Internet Access: Where there are tourists, there are Net cafes, even in small towns like Flores in the Peten jungle. In tourist towns, including Antigua, Quezaltenango and Panajachel, you’ll have your pick. Even in remote areas, rates are half a quetzal (US$.07) or less per minute.
By: Trips magazine
