Shop 'til you drop Guatemala Style

Having never been to Guatemala we had no idea what to expect. We had heard it was a beautiful country and it certainly lived up to that. Like almost all of Central America its more modern history (last five hundred years or so, but who's counting?) is closely tied to the Spanish conquistadors and priests who laid such a strong imprint upon the lands they conquered.

We arrived at the port of Puerto Quetzal on a lovely, warm, and calm morning. Looking landward we could see a very distinctive haze all along the coast. Volcanic peaks poked over the haze and beckoned us ashore. The haze was from burning sugar cane fields and is normal at this time of year as the farmers get ready for the growth of new sugar cane. Puerto Quetzal is a working port which means it largely hosts and services large container ships. There is a shopping market right as you get off the cruise ship which if we had thought about it (or known at the time) would set the tone for our shore excursion to the historic town of Antigua which is about an hour and a half drive and an increase of 5,000 feet in elevation. The elevation almost made us feel at home as Denver is known as the 'Mile High City' but the lush rain forest and luxuriant foliage (and volcanoes!) quickly let us know we weren't in Colorado.

As with most of the tour bus rides we took during the cruise the tour guide spent the travel time sharing insights and history of their country. Being a tour guide is considered a very good job in these countries proving yet again that being bilingual is a valuable commodity anywhere in the world and that I should have paid more attention in junior high Spanish class.

The streets of Antigua are largely cobblestone and are too narrow to accommodate large tour buses so we were shuttled in on minivans leaving the tour bus parked outside of town. Guatemala is home to the Mayan civilization which flourished from before 2,000 BC until their unfortunate introduction to Europeans in the 1500's. The last Mayan city of Nojpeten fell to the Spanish in 1697 which if you think about it is really not that long ago (Harvard University, in Massachusetts was founded in 1636). Makes you wonder what the Maya, and all the other indigenous peoples of the America's, would be like today if they had been left to determine their own fate.

Guatemala has its share of volcanoes and we could see several spouting steam and smoke as we made the drive to Antigua. The town itself is lovely and would be a stroller's paradise. Today, however, the most visible presence of the Maya has been reduced to Mayan women selling trinkets to la turista. They deserve kudos for being the most persistent vendors we came across during our whole trip. In some countries a gentle "Gracias, No" had been sufficient to let the vendors know we weren't interested, in other countries you just had to walk away and they would drop off, but in Antigua we had some of these sturdy Mayan ladies follow us the entire half-day tour. It wasn't so much that they were overly pushy or rude; in fact they brought a stoicism to their work that was admirable. Their focus tended to be the ladies of our group and you could tell many were getting annoyed and flustered by the continual attention. Most of our tour guides on these excursions acted as somewhat of a buffer when the attentions of the local merchants became too forceful but not our tour guide this day. She seemed oblivious as the size of her tour at almost doubled with the trailing group of merchants tagging along.  Make no mistake: I understand completely how desperate some of these local vendors are for the tourist dollars but sometimes a softer sales approach yields more results and our guide could do some educating of the local merchants on this subtle point. As it was, I saw very few tourists parting company with their cash during this excursion and it was largely because the vendors were simply trying way too hard.

I did notice that most of the Mayan ladies had cell phones so their sales efforts must be reaping rewards so I'll leave it be that they know their business. Still, it was a little disconcerting to see Mayan ladies decked out in their finery talking, texting, and taking selfies right along with the rest of us. If the Spanish left their imprint 500 years ago suffice it to say Norte Americanos are doing the same today. Says the man writing a blog on a laptop.

Anyway, Guatemala was a wonderful place to visit and Antigua has all the grace and charm one would expect of a traditional Spanish Colonial town. Beautiful churches and beautiful town squares and cobblestone streets that make you wonder who walked in your steps all those hundreds of years ago. Here's a quick video snapshot of our time in Guatemala: