Reflections on Guatemala

I had the opportunity to spend 15 days touring around Guatemala in February with my friend Arianne.

It was an outdoor cornucopia.  We experienced forests and jungles, lakes and rivers, volcanoes and canyons.  We got to reach out and put our walking sticks into lava and watch them catch fire, swam through a cave holding a candle, and spent an afternoon basking in a series of crystal blue pools.

Of course, there was culture to experience too -- wonderful indigenous markets, live music, and the mixing of Catholicism and Mayan religious practices were the most notable.

The food was a mixed bag.  We had some excellent, interesting meals.  But my number one advice to future travelers to Guatemala is not to order a cheese sandwich, unless you're okay with two pieces of toast surrounding a Kraft singles slice with a reddish substance that tasted vaguely of ketchup.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing was that Guatemala desperately needs a new approach to solid waste - their current approach generally is throw it away by the side of the road, in the gully, or wherever.   You'd be walking through a lovely little village and then there was this huge pile of trash thrown right by the road.  I don't know how to say reduce, reuse, recycle in Spanish, but it's a mantra they need to learn if they want to keep their country from being spoiled.

I know they also face other big environmental challenges - deforestation, overuse of pesticides, and contamination of water were the most obvious, but I steered clear of learning much about them.

After all, it was my vacation . . .  Here's an online slide show.