It's hard to believe I'm back home, shivering under a pile of blankets, and cursing the Chicago weather because I can't wear my Chaco sandals outside anymore. Gone are the early morning gallos, loud music, polluted air, lingering smells of street food and friendly faces of Guatemala--only to be replaced with the efficiency, fresh air, clean water, abundant amount of...well...everything... at Costco, friendly faces and the gas prices that are nearing $4 a gallon (which is a lot to Americans for those of you reading from Europe) that seem to characterize life in the United States.
My two (very very brief) months were characterized by some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever laid eyes on, exhilarating travels on as many different modes of transportation as possible, sometimes shady but always delicious food, and some of the most amazing encounters with people from all around the world--but especially from Central America. If you are thinking about taking a trip to Central America, I have this to say: GO!
While I can only speak for Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico, my experiences in these two countries was unbelievably eye opening and something that I wish more people (especially Americans) would experience. I have found there to be many cultural differences and hurdles that one will come across while traveling in this region, but no matter what hardships you find yourself facing, I firmly believe the experience is worth it. For anyone looking to travel on the cheap in Guatemala/Chiapas, here are some recommendations and observations I have found.
1) Don't read the United States State Department website before going. Per capita, Guatemala is the fourth most violent country in the world (behind El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica in intentional homicide rate). Being apart of the bottleneck that squeezes drug trafficking from South America up to the United States, Guatemala and Chiapas harbor drug lords and cartels that take advantage of police, military, and government officials who are all fairly easy to bribe. Violence exists throughout the country--especially in Guatemala City and people get killed all over the country everyday (actually disturbingly, A LOT of people get killed), but it's my impression that most of these people are killed for having some sort of relation to the drug wars that are happening.
The State Department site will freak you out and make you not want to step foot inside the country, and while there is violence, I saw none of it during my trip (other than in Prensa Libre). By trying to stay smart about how I handled myself, I wasn't robbed once in Central America (well other than my debit card number being seized while in Antigua, but no one took any money from the account). Maybe I was just lucky, but I found that following the advice of not being drunk, alone, carrying a lot of money while at night (or any combination of those factors) worked well in my favor during this trip. The country, people and their culture have so much to offer, I feel that you shouldn't miss out on what this country has to offer. Just be smart.
2) Don't limit yourself to activities or methods of transportation where only foreigners will be present. Just because you are rich (actually or relatively) doesn't mean that you are better than anyone else, and I think it's a hell of a time taking a ride on a Chicken Bus and eating street food. I've heard a lot of people on the road be weary of them because of the danger of them on the road and the possibility of getting robbed, but honestly, I felt more scared weaving in and out of traffic on a micro than I ever did on a Chicken bus. Whenever I was on a micro and we had to stop to get gas, the driver never turned off the engine while fueling up. I mean, that's safe...right?
Also, like I said, I never got robbed on a chicken bus. Just be safe about where you put your money and know that scammers are out there looking to take advantage of you. Try your best to prevent falling victim to some tactics.
Besides who doesn't want a chicken pecking at their ankles for three hours?
Also, maybe like with not getting robbed, I managed to make it out of Central America without getting sick once (ok, there was like half a day but I think I was just hung over). I ate street food maybe 50% of the time that I was down there and turned out okay. This doesn't always happen with everyone, I know, but taking a week to get into the swing of things by NOT eating street food seemed to work very well in prepping my stomach. Or maybe it was the Deep Dish pizza (Lou Malnati's sausage, anyone?) and chicken wings that I devoured before leaving that helped line my stomach with an impermeable grease that did the trick...
3) Don't bring a miniature keyboard and think that you are going to make music on the road. You wont.
4) Don't assume that if you buy a coffee for 8Q and hand the cashier a 10Q bill that they will have change. They probably wont. In Guatemala and Chiapas, **almost** no one had change. You have no idea how unbelievably hilarious and frustrating this was. I once had to wait 20 minutes for a coffee shop to find some cambrio in Chiapas because they didn't have five pesos change to give to me. This problem happened everywhere.
5) Pressure cookers might be the greatest invention ever. Dried beans to fully cooked in 20 minutes? Life. Changing.
6) Apparently, Guatemalan and Mexican eggs don't need to be refrigerated... I mean hens don't come with Kenmore appliances, right?
7) Listomania:
Best Food: Breakfast lady in Xela. In the Southeast corner of the Parque Central there is usually a few people setting up shop and selling food at all hours of the day. The lady that is closest to the stairs heading down to the market in the morning has the most delicious beans/rice/omelet (or steak or chicken or chorizo) ever. The thing that makes this place the best, however, is her homemade picante. Holy Shit.
Best Experience: Acatenango and Campur (tie)
If you are thinking about climbing a volcano in Antigua and want to work your ass off to do it, climb Acatenango. I have done quite a few amazing hikes over the past few years but nothing has been as amazing as reaching the summit of that volcano and looking down over a sea of clouds and an erupting Vulcán Fuego. To read about this experience and see pictures, read my entry Type II Fun.
Also, my the experience of really seeing and getting the feeling for indigenous life (and experiencing the culture shock that went along with it) in Campur was unbelievable. This little village changed something in me and helped put my life and priorities on a more refined track. Fantastically eye-opening.
Best Hostel: Los Amigos, Flores
Packed with cheap booze, good food, and awesome people, this place was more than a blast. If you plan on visiting Tikal, bribe the security guard and sleep in the park overnight. If you can't do that, stay at Los Amigos.
Best Party: Xela
Something about the combination of places like King and Queen, Pool and Beer, La Rhumba, and La Parranda made Xela the best time for nightlife. Maybe it was due to the electrification of Jamil or maybe the town was actually awesome (probably a combo of both) but loud music, the occasional live show, salsa dancing, and cheap bottles of rum made living in this town one of the most fantastic experiences of the trip.
Again, my trip was beyond fantastic and I urge all of you to go and explore your country and the world. One of the most amazing things that I experienced while abroad is the abundant amount of opportunity that we all have to make both small and large differences in the lives of others and ourselves. Being a region where things do not come at an expensive price, Latin America is an unbelievable place to get your feet wet in the world of traveling, and as my first experience abroad as an adult, I can say it's a pretty great place to start your travels. Coming from the developed world provided me with so many opportunities in Latin America (some of which I jumped on, many others I didn't have the time for) that it is unbelievable that we (at least in the US) aren't that conscious of them and don't take advantage of them.
Early on in my travels in Guatemala, I came across an article that talked about how only 30% of Americans have a passport and of trips that required a passport, 50% of them were to Canada or Mexico. Of the remaining trips, I wonder what is the percentage that is travel to Europe? How about the developing world?
Whether we like it or not, the United States has one of the most unbelievable impacts on the world. Wherever I went, the sounds of American music blasted from speakers and the symbols of American consumerism were abundant--even in villages of revolutionaries who were established in order to fight against these symbols. In Campur, an indigenous Mayan village, where paved roads were nonexistent and televisions, I'm sure very very very very very few and far between, my friend Hannah was called "Hannah Montana"--and not by choice.
But while our cultural influences stretch far and wide, I can't help but think that we can benefit greatly from more travel to unconventional places. By getting out there we can not only help fix a heavily stereotyped image of the American populous abroad by acting curious and courteous abroad but we can also really see both our nation's and our own individual impacts throughout this world. The more I saw and learned about Guatemala, the more I realized how much of an impact we had on the causes and potential solutions to many of the country's problems. I think it would do our country good to see the impact of some of the things that we throw away, and to take the time to learn about how the democratic elections that we chose to support and not support in the past have had an impact on many present day struggles.
I feel it's important for my country to learn as much about the world and realize that while we are an important aspect to the way this world runs in the 21st Century, we are not the center of things amazing, holy, and glorious on this planet. While we live in a great country and have many amazing goods and services available to us, I can't help but the idea of living within a global community trumps any sentiments for nationalism. It's important for us to realize the connections that exist throughout this globe and how we can make decisions that result in positive impacts on those connections. We should be using whatever resources we have available to us to help build up the world--not tear it down. We should be using these resources to help make sustainable, positive change throughout the globe and not wasting it away on bombs in the middle east, the lives of celebrities and status updates on Facebook (and trust me, I'm not angel when it comes to constructive time on the internet). There are a lot of amazing people working in a lot of amazing organizations that are working on trying to figure out the right thing to do, and many of these organizations are understaffed, underfunded, and unorganized. With an increase in travel, I truly believe that this country can develop an empathetic eye toward the plights of individuals both close and far from our homes and begin to take the right steps in finding solutions to many of our problems.
This trip has done a lot to open my eyes to much of the world, and with the knowledge that I have gained, I have realized how little I actually know about the realities of the world. The things that I have shared on this blog are only sparks of ideas that I'm only beginning to work out and will hopefully spend the rest of my life figuring out and passing on to others, as others have done to me. If you're still reading, I thank you for putting up with my ideas and ramblings...
1) Don't read the United States State Department website before going. Per capita, Guatemala is the fourth most violent country in the world (behind El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica in intentional homicide rate). Being apart of the bottleneck that squeezes drug trafficking from South America up to the United States, Guatemala and Chiapas harbor drug lords and cartels that take advantage of police, military, and government officials who are all fairly easy to bribe. Violence exists throughout the country--especially in Guatemala City and people get killed all over the country everyday (actually disturbingly, A LOT of people get killed), but it's my impression that most of these people are killed for having some sort of relation to the drug wars that are happening.
2) Don't limit yourself to activities or methods of transportation where only foreigners will be present. Just because you are rich (actually or relatively) doesn't mean that you are better than anyone else, and I think it's a hell of a time taking a ride on a Chicken Bus and eating street food. I've heard a lot of people on the road be weary of them because of the danger of them on the road and the possibility of getting robbed, but honestly, I felt more scared weaving in and out of traffic on a micro than I ever did on a Chicken bus. Whenever I was on a micro and we had to stop to get gas, the driver never turned off the engine while fueling up. I mean, that's safe...right?
Also, like I said, I never got robbed on a chicken bus. Just be safe about where you put your money and know that scammers are out there looking to take advantage of you. Try your best to prevent falling victim to some tactics.
Besides who doesn't want a chicken pecking at their ankles for three hours?
Also, maybe like with not getting robbed, I managed to make it out of Central America without getting sick once (ok, there was like half a day but I think I was just hung over). I ate street food maybe 50% of the time that I was down there and turned out okay. This doesn't always happen with everyone, I know, but taking a week to get into the swing of things by NOT eating street food seemed to work very well in prepping my stomach. Or maybe it was the Deep Dish pizza (Lou Malnati's sausage, anyone?) and chicken wings that I devoured before leaving that helped line my stomach with an impermeable grease that did the trick...
3) Don't bring a miniature keyboard and think that you are going to make music on the road. You wont.
4) Don't assume that if you buy a coffee for 8Q and hand the cashier a 10Q bill that they will have change. They probably wont. In Guatemala and Chiapas, **almost** no one had change. You have no idea how unbelievably hilarious and frustrating this was. I once had to wait 20 minutes for a coffee shop to find some cambrio in Chiapas because they didn't have five pesos change to give to me. This problem happened everywhere.
5) Pressure cookers might be the greatest invention ever. Dried beans to fully cooked in 20 minutes? Life. Changing.
6) Apparently, Guatemalan and Mexican eggs don't need to be refrigerated... I mean hens don't come with Kenmore appliances, right?
7) Listomania:
Best Food: Breakfast lady in Xela. In the Southeast corner of the Parque Central there is usually a few people setting up shop and selling food at all hours of the day. The lady that is closest to the stairs heading down to the market in the morning has the most delicious beans/rice/omelet (or steak or chicken or chorizo) ever. The thing that makes this place the best, however, is her homemade picante. Holy Shit.
Best Experience: Acatenango and Campur (tie)
If you are thinking about climbing a volcano in Antigua and want to work your ass off to do it, climb Acatenango. I have done quite a few amazing hikes over the past few years but nothing has been as amazing as reaching the summit of that volcano and looking down over a sea of clouds and an erupting Vulcán Fuego. To read about this experience and see pictures, read my entry Type II Fun.Also, my the experience of really seeing and getting the feeling for indigenous life (and experiencing the culture shock that went along with it) in Campur was unbelievable. This little village changed something in me and helped put my life and priorities on a more refined track. Fantastically eye-opening.
Best Hostel: Los Amigos, Flores
Packed with cheap booze, good food, and awesome people, this place was more than a blast. If you plan on visiting Tikal, bribe the security guard and sleep in the park overnight. If you can't do that, stay at Los Amigos.
Best Party: Xela
Again, my trip was beyond fantastic and I urge all of you to go and explore your country and the world. One of the most amazing things that I experienced while abroad is the abundant amount of opportunity that we all have to make both small and large differences in the lives of others and ourselves. Being a region where things do not come at an expensive price, Latin America is an unbelievable place to get your feet wet in the world of traveling, and as my first experience abroad as an adult, I can say it's a pretty great place to start your travels. Coming from the developed world provided me with so many opportunities in Latin America (some of which I jumped on, many others I didn't have the time for) that it is unbelievable that we (at least in the US) aren't that conscious of them and don't take advantage of them.
Whether we like it or not, the United States has one of the most unbelievable impacts on the world. Wherever I went, the sounds of American music blasted from speakers and the symbols of American consumerism were abundant--even in villages of revolutionaries who were established in order to fight against these symbols. In Campur, an indigenous Mayan village, where paved roads were nonexistent and televisions, I'm sure very very very very very few and far between, my friend Hannah was called "Hannah Montana"--and not by choice.
This trip has done a lot to open my eyes to much of the world, and with the knowledge that I have gained, I have realized how little I actually know about the realities of the world. The things that I have shared on this blog are only sparks of ideas that I'm only beginning to work out and will hopefully spend the rest of my life figuring out and passing on to others, as others have done to me. If you're still reading, I thank you for putting up with my ideas and ramblings...
I'm not entire sure about the future of this blog. I may update it this summer with some dispatches and photos from hikes around Yosemite National Park, and I will most likely update it when I embark on my next adventure abroad.
Speaking of which... any suggestions?
-Brien
