This is by far the hardest time I’ve had for writing a post. I don’t
know if my neurons evaporated away during this past week, or if the topic I’m
about to write on is ‘a bit complex’; but, whatever.
Now that we are in Guatemala I thought I should dedicate a post to
describing the place.
I could give you tourist/traveler information such as:
GUATEMALA land of the Mayas, volcanoes, colors, great views and of
course the country of the everlasting spring.
But I figured you can easily find these kinds of information online.
So, instead I will let you know some things from this country, that
someone coming from Europe (or from any other region or country in this planet where things don’t seem to work so
upside down as here) could regard as “interesting”, or “different” or “crazy”
or “not normal”… however you want to put it, it’s your call.
You’ll know you are in Guatemala when:
1. You find yourself in the everlasting spring. It’s
like the 3rd time I write this, I know (“so annoying!”), but this is
actually what foreigners like the most from this country… Not my fault.
So, 1 year/2 seasons (a dry and a rainy season), and usually in the capital the
weather varies from 14oC to 24oC.
2. You see colors. It is a colorful country, from
the public transportation (more concretely, the ones known as “camionetas”) to
the traditional clothing, “huipiles”.
3. People are loud. If you were to compare
Guatemala to a country such as The Netherlands or Germany, no doubt this place would
be synonym of ‘chaos’.
4. You can buy your driver’s license. I know…
funny, but true! I got 90 something and 80 on a theory and practical exams
which I never took. So, if you ever have the chance to get into a car with me,
don’t be so surprised with my ‘kamikaze’ driving style (just kidding, it’s more
like a ‘Schumacher’ driving style… I’m a natural!) ;).
5. You can find/buy cigarettes in pharmacies.
6. Even if you’re 13 years old you won’t have to go
through any trouble for buying (yourself) cigarettes or alcohol.
7. Police equals danger. Rule of thumb! If you are in any trouble you NEVER (EVER) go to the
police. I know that in lots of countries the police is something close to “an
organized force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crime and
enforcing the laws” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/police?s=t).
But not in this country.
8. Everywhere you go, including stores, malls, many residence
areas, hospitals (name whatever you want), will very likely have private
security people standing in front of the doors and very, very well armed.
9. If you are driving and suddenly realize that there’s a gun being point to your head, just because they want to steal your mobile
phone, don’t be so surprised.
10.
You can see
regular citizens with body guards.
11.
Almost
every car is either with polarized windows or some, bullet proof
ones.
12.
In some
cases you have to know when, where, how and with whom.
As there are some neighborhoods such as “El Gallito”, which are considered high
risk areas due to gangs (maybe you've heard about 'Mara 18' or 'Mara Salvatrucha'), drug dealing, etc. Though now a days, there is no such
thing as a safe area, at least, not in this city.
13.
“Impunity”
is this country’s last name.
14.
News are
those such as: Former president accused on money laundering of (at least) 70 million US dollars.
Unfortunately, this list could keep on going and arrive to some things
that are better left 'unwritten', mainly because it’s not the purpose of this blog.
There is a reason why this country is now ranked as third (after Honduras
and Colombia) in being one of the most ‘warlike’, violent countries of the Latin
American region.
[Also a reason why I named my last post “Welcome to the Jungle”… (and you thought I meant a real jungle! No. I wish...)]
What’s my opinion on this whole situation?
I will maybe leave it for the
next post, as I think it’s a lot to take in for one day/one post (…and in this
side of the world it is also time to go sleep).
[I’ll also try to upload some pictures next
time; this post seems kind of 'empty'!]
