Finally... A Guatemala Post

Hello!!

I'm going to do several Guatemala posts because it is a bit hard to get my mind together. Guatemala does that to you... It scatters your brain and you come back in a daze thinking, "did that really happen? Where was I? What is Guatemala?"

I'm still stuck on that last one, what is Guatemala?

However as I try to get my mind in order I figure I'll start off with the basic, how was it?

When people ask me how Guatemala was I generally say the same thing; Guatemala was weird, but in a good sense. Guatemala is not really anyone's number one choice of destination. Truth be told, when I said I was going to Guatemala there was a lot of confusion to why. Despite it being a land filled with everything we need in life (coffee and chocolate) it is a country that I truly don't hear much about. However coming back from Guatemala I kind of understood why I never heard much about it; it wants to remain silent.

In reality, I don't think anyone knows what Guatemala is like. I think everyone is trying to figure that out on their own. It is a country where everyone seems to know what Guatemala truly is like, and where everyone denies everything the previous person had said. To me, Guatemala is a country of scandal and serenity, of the rich and the poor, and of the excitement and boredom. It is hard to sum Guatemala in one short sentence because it is every word put together in one confusing clusterfuck. 

Will talk about food in next post

I did have some really great experiences in Guatemala, and I also had some really terrible experiences in Guatemala. I found that what I expected to be great was terrible, and what I expected to be terrible was great. For example when I thought I would enjoy the nature of Guatemala, I felt underwhelmed; when I thought I would bore my friend and I with the sites of Guatemala's Mayan history, I was ecstatically enthralled. 

Guatemala, for sure, cannot be planned ahead. I needs to be a "spur of the moment" vacation. I know for a fact I do not work that way. So every time I needed to be free with my plans, I felt uncomfortable. Guatemala was unkind in those regards. However it made up for it in sense that what you see in Guatemala is not something that can be seen in any other country. The country purposely kept itself off people's radars for a reason, which is why that is a weird thing to experience.