Monday, April 29, 2013

While traveling through Latin America in 1974, we finally cleared the border at Tapachula, Mexico and entered Guatemala.  It was like emerging from a dusty and arid desert and entering an oasis.  Guatemala was verdant green and we climbed quickly into the mountains.  We stopped in Huehuetanango and poked around the Mercado and the girls were thrilled to find huaraches (sandals) colored with red and green in the native style.  They each bought a pair and we drove on to Guatemala City.  We stayed in a small pension for the night and the girls and I decided to explore a bit.  We were dressed casually, the girls wearing their newly purchased sandals, and we covered a couple of miles arriving at Parque Central at dusk.  It is usual in Latin American cities to have a Central Park that is in the middle of the downtown area.  Bordering the park was the National Museum and National Palace, home of the President.  After walking all that way in new sandals, the girls had worn painful blisters on their feet and as we passed by the Palacio Nacional, the guards stationed in front noticed that they were limping.  We chatted for a few minutes and soon they had called the Jefe de la Guardia, the  Chief of the Guard, who lived in an apartment in the Palace.  He was a very nice fellow who found bandages and insisted on dressing the girls’ wounds.  We were surprised to be so close to the Guatemalan “White House”, and he offered to give us a tour.  He led us from room to reception hall to ballroom and on, flipping on the lights as we went and giving us a history and current use tour of the building.  He finally took us to his apartment where he gave us cold drinks and finally, as it was getting late and we had only a vague idea of where to go from there, put us in his red Mercedes with a driver and sent us back to the pension.  I don’t suppose all tourists get this kind of treatment in Guatemala, and there has been a regime change or two since then, but my advice for the low budget traveler: Always travel with a couple of cute girls and your life will be much better.