Brief overview of Guatemala
I went to Guatemala with a load of negative parting words and warnings from so many people (those, by the way, who had never been to Central America). Even my Mexican acquaintances happily informed me that they would kill me in Guatemala. "But you can go if you want. "
Absolutely all these parting words turned out to be complete bullshit, friends. In Guatemala, a lot of murders, robberies, arson of cars (and people) are committed, there is active drug trafficking and gangs, of course, live happily ever after. But this reality is far from the reality of travelers.
Guatemala is a very touristic country! There are about as many tourists in Antigua as there are in Times Square. It is very easy to travel in Guatemala, to travel alone, to be a female traveler.
There is approximately one route that passes through all the sights of the country, along which all tourists move. Each starting point of this route is full of hotels, hostels, travel agencies and ATMs. The system of tourist buses-shuttles is developed perfectly! You will be picked up from under the doors of one hotel and delivered to the door of a hotel in another city. Honestly: to travel around Guatemala, you don’t even need to turn on your brains very much. Everything has been planned for you for a long time, just express your desire.
In terms of the most realistic dangers, which are more likely to happen in Guatemala than in some other countries - robbery and bus stop by bandits in order to "collect a toll", this has not happened to any of the travelers I have met. The only real precaution I took was not to walk by myself after dark. In terms of carrying cash and an expensive phone, I felt much safer than in the Dominican Republic, for example.
View of the city of Antigua and Agua volcano
Guatemala is a country with incredibly beautiful nature: jungles, exotic animals, azure rivers and lagoons, mystical lakes, tropical coasts. . . And volcanoes, of course, are her strong point. It's hard to take your eyes off them! But, unfortunately, the cultural and socio-political portrait of Guatemala is far from being as attractive and alluring as its natural landscape. At times, it was rather difficult for me to perceive the beauty and richness of Guatemalan nature against the backdrop of the deplorable living conditions of the majority of its population. A large part of traveling in Guatemala is the experience of finding your own way to use these contradictions.
Much of the population of Guatemala lives below the poverty line. This population is the Mayan peoples. It would seem that these lands belonged to them several centuries ago. But today the Mayans are virtually isolated from education and health care, and 2/3 of them live on less than $2 a day. The reason for this is the Spanish colonial past (and the present: the richest people in Guatemala belong to the same Spanish families that were the colonizers four hundred years ago), 35 years of civil war and ineradicable racism.
History does not know the subjunctive, I know that. But traveling around Guatemala, looking at its present and past in the form of the ruins of ancient city-empires, I once again thought about the history of the conquest of America. And about what this land and the lives of the people inhabiting it would be like if there had never been a conquest. . . After all, the question of what the indigenous population won and what they lost by becoming part of the "civilized world" gapes on the body like an open wound Latin America.
Putting aside serious thoughts, I'm happy to say that Guatemala is a wonderful travel destination. Without hesitation, I advise it to lovers of nature, bright colors and unused, but moderately comfortable travel routes! And I will describe my route and specific travel tips in Guatemala in the near future.
