Twelve things I found surprising about Guatemala:1) The thought that the thousands of "chicken buses" crisscrossing the country's roads had once ferried small (and not so small) American kids to school from Minnesota to Miami. These buses have now found a new lease on life in Guatemala, often with a more colourful exterior, but as frequently in the same old yellow colour seen in the movies (and on the streets of every American town) with the words - &q...

About beer in Guatemala. Moza. Cerveza Oscura. Bock Bier. Yup.

Independence Day - on the 15th of September, Guatemala, Mexico (and perhaps a few other countries in Central America) celebrated their independence from Spain. It is a pretty big day for which each school in the area had to enter a marching troupe and band, some choosing to go with a certain theme, others just parading in their school clothes. Well, for us, festivities started the previous evening with a huge party in Reilly's - an Irish pub close to the main s...

This blog deals, rather briefly, with my two weekends at Lake Atitlan and Tikal respectively. They are two of the best attractions (by all accounts) in Guatemala and I thoroughly enjoyed both. By the way, given how blogs work, you may want to scroll down to my 'Executive Summary' blog below, to get a more general sense of how I have been finding things.Thus, first Lake Atitlan - I arrived from South Africa via Madrid on the Friday night local time (after a 27 h...

I have now been in Guatemala for exactly three working weeks and four weekends. For those of you who are already getting somewhat bored by this blog, here is the executive summary: I am having a blast. It has been many a year since my feet have been so profoundly reunited with a pair of flip flops, or my stomach so challenged by local cuisine (perhaps more of this later). Guatemala is green, rugged, old and developing, poor and profound, confused, confusing, m...