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Happy Foreign Travellers
The Guatemalan experience is happy and safe for most foreign travellers. I rode through last year on my Honda 125 on the way from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego home
I have family connections in Guatemala and have been visiting for twenty years. Guatemalans live in a different reality, a reality increasingly ruled by gangs and drug barrons, a reality where high electric fences and armed guards and guard dogs are the norm. Police reported 2,200 armed attacks on urban busses in Guatemala City in the first five months of 2006. Middle class and wealthy Guatemalan are in permanent fear of having their children kidnapped. If a farmer in the Peten improves his land, he can expect a buyer to make him an offer for the land which he can't refuse. Police are unable to cope with the violence. Guetemalans talk of the need for a new Strong Man to run the country, a General. I remark that the problem with Generals is their tendency to be a little too general in their choice of whom to eradicate...
So, yes, travel in Guatemala and have fun.
However, be aware that there is another Guatemala, the Guatemala of the Guatemalans, where many live in fear and misery.
Last edited by simongandolfi; 11 Aug 2007 at 22:54.
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