Guatemala - multiple visits
I made many trips to Guatemala as this was the headquarters base of the company`s Central American operation and most of the expat technical specialists were located there. Generally this meant staying in the Camino Real (Spanish for Royal Road) Hotel in the capital Guatemala City which was about 15 minutes taxi ride from the airport. Back then communications were much less developed than the current day. For example to phone home involved booking an international call by land line through the hotel switchboard (mobile phones didn`t exist!) and then sitting in your room waiting for about 2 hours until they got through. On one occasion when I did get through I could hear shouting and gunshots coming apparently from home but in reality Gill was watching the SAS storm the Iran London Embassy live on TV. One morning I went into the office after working at a factory site down near the Pacific coast (staying in the American Fruit Company bungalow at the princely sum of $5 per night including evening meal) to find the office deserted. When they all returned it turned out that they had been at the funeral of one of the tream who had been decapitated by running into poles projecting out of the back of a badly loaded broken down truck. Because of the heat/humidity local law required the funeral within 24 hours. Another thing that happened there was I went to my one and only Burns Night celebration! How bizarre is that. The country is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire of course and suffers from both volcanoes and earthquakes on a regular basis. There are eight major volcanos and about 20 in total all situated between Guatemala City and the Pacific coast in a line. Earthquakes are frequent and occasionally life-threatening (as are some of the eruptions). Sitting in the office waiting for someone one day I felt the fairly flimsy outer wall banging against my back so I got up and went out into the corridor only to discover that no-one was banging the wall, this was `just` another earthquake. Waking in the night and feeling nauseus was usually a sign of a small quake.
Weekends when work was over were very pleasant. Usually one would travel out of the city and to one of the other nearby towns like Chichicastenango, Atitlan or Antigua. The latter is a very pleasant Spanish Colonial town with shady squares full of flowering trees and old buildings worth time armed with a camera. There are nice artesian craft stalls selling brightly coloured woven fabrics and clothing reflecting the local traditional patterns. Atitlan is both a small lakeside town and the name of the associated lake (which provides weekend escapes and water sports). There is also an Atitlan volcano to remind you where you are. Very different from Antigua but equally worth a weekend visit. And then there is Chichicastenango. Wow, just wow!!! The weekend market and religious processions are quite amazing and a must-see. So much colour, fireworks and pizzazz. So much `stuff` to buy if you want souvenirs, tourist tat or whatever. Leather belts are superb. I`m still using/wearing several Guatemala leather belts that I brought back nearly 40 years ago. Handwoven scarves, tableclothes (we have one again still in service after 40 years!), terracotta Mayan style pottery, coffee beans and silver jewellery (local jade stones in particular) amongst other things. One of our favourites back then were trousers made from empty flour sacks which still had all the trade marks and suchlike on them. Or the other classic alternative weekend trip was up to the northern highlands to see the sights of the former Mayan civilisation such as at Tikal. Again - plenty of pictures of Tikal and the Mayan relics in the picture gallery below.
Oh and a good choice of locally grown nuts like pecans, cashews and macadamia nuts. Check our my picture of cashew nuts below if you have never seen them growing - you will then understand why they are more expensive than many other nuts as you only get one per fruit. Guatemala has both Atlantic (well Caribbean) and Pacific coastlines as a great deal of tropical rainforest. So plenty of ecotourism potential. Masses of every sort of wildife from birds to mammals and butterflies and lizards/iguanas. Spider moneys and most important of all the Quetzal - a spectacular bird of paradise that is the stmbol of the country and appears on the currency. Sadly loss of habitat means that it is now becoming endangered. Other species of interest are toucans, Sea turtle nesting sites, armadillos, vampire bats. ocelots and capuchin monkeys. The principal cash crops are coffee beans, sugar cane, bananas, and cotton, followed by hemp, essential oils, and cacao. Coffee is grown on highland plantations; most of the bananas are produced along the Atlantic coastal plain. agricultural exports have greatly increased in recent years; such products include: lychee, rambutan, melon, papaya, mango, pineapple, broccoli, okra, snow peas, celery, cauliflower, asparagus, garlic, spices and of course nuts. Maize, beans and squash are grown traditionally by the Mayans mostly in the northern highlands. Forests are an important resource for Guatemala, providing chicle (gum) and timber.
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.