Guatemala - another peculiarity: This time about the visiting Gringo. A lot of Gringo's come to Guatemala and use the colonial town of Antigua as a home base to do their travels. Armed robbery of buses is a very real thing in Guatemala. A trip, let´s say from Antigua on a shuttle bus to Rio Dulce costs $37.00 US. Many people prefer to do this for safety reasons. They feel that if you pay the extra money you will be rewarded with an additional measur...

  Contrary to popular belief, the Garden of Eden isn't located between the Tigris and Euphrates. It's down in good old Guatemala.And it goes by the name Semuc Champey. This Garden of Eden is a series of terracedwaterfalls that travel a mile or so down the Cahabon River. At the base of each cascade there are these wonderful swimming holes, each with varying size and depth. At one point our guide Pedro tied a rope to a rock and we shinnied down a bleeding...

With two days of Spanish school remaining, I´m capable of conversing at a very basic level. The person I speak with however, must use very short words, in very short sentences. He or/she must also be prepared from time to time for a response that is unrelated to the actual topic of conversation. I´ve entered a learning curve with far too many twists and turns. It´s been fun, but the hair that I haven´t pulled out of my head has turned completely gray. This p...

It seems that if you have a business in Guatemala with any value to it at all you´ll need people with guns to guard it for you. Banks of course, are businesses that have value. Some banks have as many as five guards. Some guards carry big shotguns. Some guards carry small shotguns. Some guards carry machine guns. The other day it took me over 40 minutes to cash $100.00 worth of traveller´s cheques. I was the only customer in the bank. Just me, ten or so bank of...

 We've completed a full nine days in the classroom. Spanish still sounds like Greek, but I'm beginning to read and somewhat understand the ¨written word¨. I can even create sentences and ask people questions. I just don't know what the hell they're saying in response.   We went to the market town of Chichicastenango (Chichi) yesterday. It's about a three hour bus ride from our home base in Quetzaltenango. There's a Catholic church in...