As Guatemala slowly recovers from one of the most repressive periods in its history, tourism is becoming an important and growing part of its economy.
by Jim Cooperman
We have chosen November as our month to travel, in part to escape the pre-skiing and post-gardening blahsand to make up for all those years that we did not travel while we were busy raising a family and working on environmental causes.
We make an effort to use some of our travel time to learn more about the rest of the world.
This year we chose to go to Guatemala to visit friends who live there and to see some Mayan ruins, before returning to Costa Rica to explore some parks we missed during our last trip there two years ago.
Guatemala is not a country for the faint of heart. In order to travel there, one must be willing to tolerate the stark contrast between the wealthy few and the poverty of many as well as the sadness of a people still recovering from a brutal war. Travelers also have to endure the diesel smoke, the pollution, the crowds and the ever-present dangers in the city and in the country. Most tourists avoid Guatemala City and usually head to the town of Antigua as soon as they get off the plane. Because we arrived so late in the evening, we chose to spend the night in the heart of the city at a very old, and once grand hotel.
The next morning we walked down a very narrow street crowded with vendors to visit one of the few sites to see in the city, the palace. It stands somewhat worn and forlorn next to a large, colourless plaza where the locals appeared dejected. Inside, the place stands mostly empty as government moved out some time ago. The once grand stained glass windows are now being restored after most were destroyed during the war. We joined up with a small group being led by an English-speaking tour guide who brought us into the now-covered inside courtyard where the daily “changing of the rose of peace” was underway. A heavily armed honour guard removed yesterday’s rose and replaced it with a new one, in a ceremony that has occurred daily since the country’s peace treaty was signed in 1996.
We left the city later that morning to go to Antigua, the ancient colonial Spanish town that is now a popular tourist destination. When a major earthquake nearly levelled what was then the capital in the mid-1700’s, the government moved to Guatemala City. Some of the churches still lay in ruins from this earthquake, but most of the town has been re-built and its cobblestone streets wind past ancient stone walls that now house gift shops, Spanish schools, restaurants, travel agencies, hotels and even a McDonalds and Burger King! After one night here we headed to the Volcano rimmed Lake Atitlan to experience the Mayan culture and visit our friends.
We ended up hanging out in the tourist town of Panajachel for four days while we waited for our friends to arrive from Canada in their truck. One day was spent at the famous craft market in the mountain town of Chichicastenango, and another day hiking in a small nature reserve near the lake.
Since most of Guatemala has had human settlement for thousands of years, most of the nature reserves, like the one we visited, are restoration areas where nature is quickly reclaiming former plantations or fields. From the displays at the reserve, we learned about the enormous mistake that has negatively impacted the lake’s ecology. Non-native fish were introduced to the lake in the early 1960’s; these bass and tilapia quickly consumed all the smaller fish resulting in the local extinction of the native fish and nearly 20 species of birds, including some rare populations of grebes.
Once our friends arrived home to their lakeside cottage near the town of Santiago, we spent six glorious days enjoying the beauty of the area and meeting some Mayan villagers and local expatriates. On our first evening there, we walked into town to participate in a traditionalist’s celebration for Maximon, the patron saint of Mayan sorcerers. We were ushered into a small room where a marimba band was playing loud music. After downing some obligatory shots of cane liquor, we danced with a few Mayan ladies as the room filled with smoke from the incense burning in front of the small statue of Maximon. We left as more people were arriving and the chanting began. The ceremony would go on all night, but for us the smoke was unbearable.
Santiago was one of the worst hit areas during the civil war that raged in Guatemala in the 1980s. Over 3,000 people were killed in this village, most of them community leaders. It was the scene of massacres where the army shot many of the townspeople and even the local priest (Father Stanley “Aplas” Rother) was shot dead because he supported the local people. Yet the people here actually fought back and eventually drove the army away with pitchforks and machetes. A few of the soldiers were even jailed for the shootings. Despite the poverty and the sadness that underlies this community suffering through a “post-holocaust” phase, it is still a vibrant artistic community filled with tourist shops selling colourful complex weavings, intricate carvings and magnificent paintings.
The Mayan culture is also very alive here especially amongst the women who mostly all wear traditional dress and speak the local Tzutuhil dialect. But cultural change is coming all too quickly here as young people play computer games, consume junk food and watch westernized TV. And this community, like many others in Central America, is overrun with Evangelistic churches, camps and missions. We heard from some Canadian health care workers during one of our many boat trips, that an increase in AIDS and teenage pregnancies is due in part to evangelistic pressures to reject all forms of birth control. And when we left the country, we were amazed to see so many adopted (or perhaps purchased?) Mayan babies heading back to the USA with their new parents.
Many of the expatriates that live in and near Santiago are also part of this artistic scene. A number of them have created art and craft based businesses that employ the local people. One lady has established a very successful weaving cooperative that produces high-end fashion products for shops around the world. Another woman produces intricate bead work also for exclusive stores, while another photographer and painter couple team up to produce coloured black and white photo prints that are sold in shops throughout the country. Their homes, overlooking the volcano- rimmed lake, are also very creative spaces built mostly from stone and timbers by local Mayan craftsmen.
Environmental problems seem minor when compared with all the social problems that prevail in this country where indigenous people are still suffering under the weight of massive oppression. Yet, pollution is a major issue and adds to the health problems created by a lack of sanitation. The volcanic soil here is still rich and produces abundant crops but the farmers are now addicted to the use of pesticides. Everywhere we walked, we saw young men spraying herbicides, without protection, on tomatoes, beans and squash. These chemicals end up in the lake and, along with sewage and laundry soap, make the water unsafe for drinking. The lake itself has dropped over 15 feet in the last two decades, in part due to lack of rainfall caused perhaps by climate change. There are minimal efforts for recycling, which means millions of plastic containers (including the many water bottles) go into the waste stream. Canadian mining companies, including subsidiaries of INCO, have also contributed and continue to contribute to the environmental degradation of the countryside as well as the violence against the local people (see www.incowatch.ca/ report/10072003-4). There are also now serious complaints about Glamis Gold’s Marlin Project in the southwest of the country for its probable environmental and social impacts (see www.miningwatch.ca/newsletter).
One of the highlights of our stay in Santiago was the hike we took with the amateur archaeologist son of two of the expatriates, into “Cutinamat,” which was once the ceremonial centre for the region’s Tzutuhil people. We learned how these people migrated from Mexico around 900 BC and developed a strong civilization that was centred near what is now Santiago and was based on the wealth of the ca cao bean. The Tzutuhil were one of the last Mayan groups to be conquered by the Spaniards in 1538. When the friars arrived in 1538, the great stone temples and pyramids in places like Cutinamat were destroyed and much of the usable stone was used to build the local churches and colonial buildings. We hiked up through the cornfields and garden plots that now cover the ruins and saw a few carved stones and the remains of some temple stairs. What little was left of this once great Mayan city-state after the Spaniards destroyed the buildings has been since taken for sale to collectors. Nonetheless, there are pottery shards still found everywhere in the soil and whenever a hole is dug, most often bones and other relics are found.
Even though we have now been home nearly a month, we still often think back about our travels to Central America. The most enduring memories are not flower filled views but the memories of the always friendly and gracious Mayan people who in some ways actually seem happier than their overfed northern neighbours. We look forward to hearing from our friends in Guatemala to find out how all the people we met are faring. As Guatemala slowly recovers from one of the most repressive periods in its history, tourism is becoming an important and growing part of its economy. Hopefully this article will help entice some readers to travel to this culturally rich country.
[Next issue: The ruins of Tikal and the rich biodiversity of peaceful Costa Rica]
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Further Reading: Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala by Daniel Wilkinson, Scandals in the House of Birds: Shamans and Priests on Lake Atitlan by Nathaniel Tarn, and Martin Prechtel, Secrets of the Talking Jaguar and Long Life, Honey in the Heart by Martin Prechtel.