Guatemala: Day 1

Well, today I arrived in Guatemala, via a 45-minute layover in El Salvador. My friend's uncle met us at the airport, and somehow we managed to load five suitcases, four people, and several carry-ons into a small red Honda hatchback. It's a good thing that Guatemala's vehicle occupancy laws are a little slack.

The house's central courtyard

The streets of Guatemala City were crowded, even in early afternoon, and we zoomed through loops and down promenades, watching whole families in the back of pickups, teenagers walking hand in hand, and scooters shooting in between lanes. When we arrived at our destination, there was no way of knowing it was a house. The door was an old yellow door, large enough to let a car through, on a non-descript street that I would never have taken as residential. A small door opened in the larger door, and we were led past a parked car into the courtyard of the house.

In Guatemala it is quite common to have a central courtyard open to the elements, even a small one, where flowers and trees proliferate. The rest of the house opens off of this center point. The house we were staying in was obviously old, and the cement was very cracked in many places, but it was homey and lived-in. You could tell several generations must have been brought up in the home.

We were given a lunch of homemade Guatemala-style chicken chow mein, pureed red beans, rice, sliced avocado, and tortillas bought fresh and hot just down the street. For dessert we were presented with plantains in mole, which I fell in love with on first bite. More on that later.

Interior of the Posada

When we had finished eating, we had to hurry over to a posada (the closest translation is bed-and-breakfast) that was holding our tickets for our trip to Tikal. My friend had stayed there on a previous trip, and I could see why. The interior was dark, but you could still see the intricate native tapestries and Mayan pottery relics displayed around the walls. The interior courtyard was filled with plants, and even some live tortoises.

The Post Office

As we made our way back, we encountered a lot of traffic, and were told it was because it was the Feast of Christ the King. We were given a quick tour of the town, stopping briefly to look at the National Post Office , where a beautiful arch spans the street overhead. We also stopped at the Parque Central to see the Cathedral of Guatemala City. Inside a mass was just starting, but we still took the time to walk the side paths and view the religious artwork. On the opposing corner stood the grand Palacio Nacional, whose construction was started in 1939. In the Parque Central, vendor stands covered nearly all of the space, and ground fireworks popped every few minutes. The citizens were obviously enjoying their day.

The Cathedral

The Palacio Nacional

We stopped back at our starting place for a simple dinner of beans, tortillas, cheese, and coffee before my friend's aunt and her family came to pick us up. We were destined for Escuintla, but before we could make it out of the city, we stopped at a square with a huge Christmas tree and several Santas. Local teenagers waived us to a parking place in exchange for a few quetzales, and we spent some pleasant time walking around, looking at all the lights and happy children. We crossed over the street to another sideroad, and took our time looking over all the food stalls that had appeared when the sun set. While I knew it would be dangerous to sample, the smells definitely tempted.

Then we began our drive to Escuintla, down steep, highly curved roads with almost no lighting. What is probably a normal trip to a native had me gripping the back of the seat in front of me with white knuckles. Halfway to our destination we could see the bright red lava pouring down the distant volcano called Pacaya that I would be climbing later. It was an eerie red smear in the darkness.

Before we made it to the house, we stopped at the sugarcane processing plant where my friend's aunt's husband works. Even at that time, around 11 at night, the huge trucks filled to the brim with sugarcane were patiently waiting their turn for processing. During the busy season the plant runs 24 hours a day, which means that several shifts of workers are needed. We watched as the trucks rumbled onto large road scales and then lumbered off to the processing area for their cargo to be dumped. The air was humid and heavy with a sweet scent from the processing.

After we arrived in Escuintla, we had a late snack of Guatemalan tamale with gallina, or hen, and I was assured it was different from regular chicken. From what I have been able to find online, a gallina is an older bird, and a pollo is a younger bird. I'm not exactly sure about this, as the meat was much different, and I suspect a gallina is a wild chicken, an ancestor of our domestic chickens. The tamale also had raisins, one green olive, and a prune for flavoring. At the clamoring of the aunt's daughter, we also had strawberry milkshakes made from very small (and very expensive, I'm assured) strawberries.

Before going to sleep the man of the house had to fix the hot water attachment for the shower so I could bathe. In Guatemala there are no hot water heaters. In each shower there is a small electric attachment over the showerhead that heats the water right there as it runs over the coils. Falling into bed was a pleasant experience, especially since it was a warm, balmy night (very unlike the frozen north I had left), and I tried to ignore the crowing of the rooster from a farm plot behind the house.