Miss Maps Goes Solo

It’s the little things

Getting your washing back from the laundry is the biggest treat. At home you have maybe 20 outfits, you wash a few bits when you’ve got enough to make it worthwhile. When travelling, you have say 9 items of clothing and you wash the lot when all your outer clothing is visibly dirty and you’re on the verge of going commando. I got my washing back today and marvelled at the whiteness of my socks!

A Minority Within a Minority

There’s an albino indigenous lady in Antigua. Imagine being an albino when you come from a race of entirely dark skinned and black haired people!

I Miss:

Now this list is obviously not for the big stuff. The stuff that makes me really sad: James, family, friends, my work (sad but true).

OK, so I miss:

Cheese that tastes of something. There’s a lot of cheese in Central American food only it’s all processed crap! If anyone fancies sending me a jiffy bag full of stilton I’d be most grateful.

Going to gigs. Infact music generally. Although I love dancing salsa the music drives me insane and the Guatemalan variety even more so. I plug into my MP3 player regularly but I don’t like to be in my hotel room alone without being able to hear my surroundings so 1 ear is always wonky to ensure I still have some normal hearing capacity. It’s not possible to sing at the top of my voice in these communal buildings and I can’t mosh like I do in my bedroom at home because wearing my headphones I’ll look like an I-pod advert, only not as cool.

I miss the adrenalin of music; listening to, dancing to and watching. You get adrenalin travelling but it’s not the goose bump kind.

I miss the CRO BAR!! Of course.

Hmm, can’t think of any more little things that I miss, that’s a good sign.

ATMs

Your bra holds more than just the usual when travelling.

Money in bra at all times ladies!!

During bank opening hours ATMs tend to be guarded by armed security men. Now I’m not saying that none of them are bad but on the whole these guys are my friends. They’re good people to ask if you’re lost or to stealthily stand near while you glare at your Lonely Planet like the vulnerable gringa that you are.

Most ATMs are cleverly located in little 1-man cubicles giving the privacy needed for the bra shuffle. If not, the security guard unwittingly becomes my human shield.

Between the ATM and your hotel is when you’re carrying the most dosh, do it carefully and in daylight.

Guatemala

On Saturday my teaher and I talked about all sorts of profound things.

This may be a little depressing.

In Guatemala 60% of the population is indigenous. If an indigenous lady goes for a job however she has to change her clothes due to discrimination. Having said that there is an indigenous lady in parliament, yay! There are over 20 indigenous languages spoken here.

The main religion is catholocism although they’ve mixed it with their own Mayan beliefs. Abortion is illegal and I’ve driven past many walls painted with pro-life slogans. Like other countries abortion is now underground and dangerous.

Child abuse is rife. A boy of no more than 7 shines shoes in the central park of Antigua. He can’t go home until he’s earnt 15 quetzales (about 1GBP) because his father beats him.

Life for most in Guatemala is to live with parents until married, then be either a housewife or, for the man, the breadwinner. Families are huge (well done catholocism), my teacher has 80 cousins.

Some people (not sure if it’s the government) want to change the name from Guatemala to Guatemaya. The reason being that in Spanish ‘mala’ means bad so there are apparently lots of jokes in other Central American countries about Guate’mala’ (Guata bad) and Guata’peor’ (Guata worse).

I’ve never seen a country with such an amazing landscape or such interesting, diverse people but poverty, domestic abuse, violence and corruption are rife. It actually doesn’t affect tourists all that much so people shouldn’t be scared off.

I hope it improves for the Guatemaltecas.

And…. here’s a picture of a volcano, more pics under the my photos link.

Adios

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.