Guatemala has had a nasty reputation over the years due to numerous large scale-ish conflicts. There was the civil war in the 60s and 70s, a few major earthquakes, a scorched earth policy by a certain General Montt in the 80’s, the murder of US citizens in the 90’s and finally peace accords in 1996y. Now that may sound a bit freakish, but you need to remember the neighbor to the north had a lot to do with the wars!! Anyway, the above does not typify Guatemala. It is an extremely interesting and beautiful country, dotted with live and dead volcanoes, rivers, little cities, lakes and of course Tikal (see the Tikal spiel for info on this). The people are extremely friendly and helpful, as is usually the case in Central/South America and life goes by unhurried and generally unstressed.

I skipped the Capital and went straight in a little taxi to Antigua. Now most backpackers have heard of this place: It is a very pretty large village nestled in the mountains between some inactive volcanoes, and near an active one. It is a charming place with cobbled streets and is probably THE place to learn Spanish in Central and South America. There are a few reasons for this 1) a huge number of schools, 2) a very clear accent, 3) extremely well organised and 4) cheap, cheap, cheap (teachers as low as 2.50 usd an hr.

I got in at about 5 and found my guesthouse, nice place run by a local lady. I book my first tour for the next morning – a climb up the live volcano called Pacaya. This was an awesome experience; we drove for about an hr and then walked about an hr to the base. The actual area of the volcano is devoid of flora and fauna due to the lava flows and toxic fumes. Tourists have been killed here before when it erupts unexpectedly, however since you are reading this, it obviously didn’t this time.

The lava has formed some great little lava rock formation which you see as you arrive. There is also the very comforting warning sign, telling of possible death and destruction. Anyway, our guide took us across the lava to try and see live lava flow. The dried lava at places was quite bouncy and apparently n places had live hot stuff flowing below. Good! In fact a local had fallen through a week or so ago up to his waist (he survived jaja).

We finally got to see the live lava. It was incredible, oozing out of the rock in a red flamy stream. It make a sort of crackling sound as it does this and the heat that generates off it is amazing. We were lucky for a breeze coming in the other direction, however when it stopped, I was hot hot hot! We got within about 2 metres, and as stated was amazing to see. I love countries like this as in the western world there would be so many restrictions and crap in the way you would only be able to look at it through binos 1 km away.

Another tour I did was to the market town of Chichicastenango (which I will duly call Chichi from now on for obvious reasons!). It is a few hours from Antigua and (again) nested in the mountains, and is host to a hoping market on both Thursdays and Sundays. In addition, for the religious amongst us, it has a ceremony (procession) from the church which seems to include a combination of pre-Christian and Christian beliefs. This occurs from the central church named Inglesia de Santos Tomas.

The locals, elders I suppose, burn incense on the steps, called Chuchkajaues, and offer offerings’ to the gods, namely flowers cigarettes and oddly enough coke. I am extremely glad that the global marketing of coke has now reached the gods!! The church was built in 1540 and the floor is littered (on this day anyway) with candles, offerings and with strange religious effigies (see photos).

The procession was interesting to watch and was interrupted every 10 seconds by primate fireworks, that made a huge boom and made the locals collectively jump (us tourists must be used to big bangs). The procession, complete with dodgy looking priests, made its way around the market.

Now, the market. It was great. The colours in the clothes and rugs in this country are incredible; they really need to be seen to be believed. The people actually wear these as their normal dress and weave them, often times, on the streets. They also sell masks, rugs, sacred or ceremonial robes and ceramics. Intertwined with all the tourists and vendors, you will see men and women, laden down with goods, moving through the market. They could be good to sell or wood; but the people singularly reminded me of human mules.

They have a distant look on their faces and don not look anyone in the eye. This could be due to the incredible loads, their status in the society or both – I really don’t know, but it was sad (in a way – it’s their culture) to see. I tried to get a few photos, and cursed (sorry mum) when the digital cameras I won seem to have their own mind and do some bizarre self focusing thing when I take pictures so I often ‘miss the moment’’. (If anyone knows how to fix this little problem, then let me know).

As well as this they have roving food stalls, stationary food stalls, and lots of fruit and flowers. Then there will be an internet café which, even though they are there and available, the Mayans probably have never used or seen. It is a little strange actually, as we (tourists) seem almost invisible to them. There is no animosity, but no welcome either, with the majority. It is as though we are an alien group and we are usually totally ignored.

That they are quite religious and superstitious is obvious, and is highlighted in the LP warnings, heeding people to take care of who they photo, as tourists have been killed by mobs before when the locals believed that 1) Photos steal their souls and 2) some bizarre thing where the locals believe the westerners had a baby stealing and organ selling organization running!!!!

After the market, it was back to Antigua, where I hung out, visited bars and pretended I could speak Spanish. The bars are quite good actually, however are only open until one due to constant trouble previously (ie muggings of drunken tourists). While the country is generally safe (I think) it is surprising the number of tourists I had met who had been mugged. Now most of these had occurred 1) at night, 2) when they were walking home from a bar in a dodgy-ish area. (Instead of paying a dollar for a moped).

There is an old lady who begs ion the Irish pub, a sweet old thing, and soo tiny, maybe 4 feet, with no teeth. She is there every night. Most people give her something, but if there is a camera around – 5 Quetzals (80c) must be shelled out. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if she was well off (by local standards because of her wicket in the bar).

A fair few foreigners have made little businesses here ranging from bars to cafes to language schools. One thing that always pees me of with the self-righteous backpacker crown is that they are always trying to stock up for, blend in (by dressing like idiots, growing dreadlocks and smoking drugs – get that one) yet have no reservations about working in a bar serving drinks, when it is quite obvious that a local is easily capable of this. In almost all the foreign owned bars they have an almost totally complete backpacker workforce. Scary. One is an exception; I think it’s called the sky café – great set up and nice to have locals serving instead of tourists.

As I have said before, the people here are extremely friendly and helpful, and the country has a lot to see and offer s if u get the chance, get of your but and come here, learn Spanish and head off south after you have seen it all. Seems a lot of people getting caught up in the magic of the place and settling here for a stress free life where you are not bounded by the ridiculous restrictions of the western world – at least Frenchy is unlikely to get busted for stepping of the foot path here by police doing a very important job!! ( i think there are better things to concentrate on!)