Cuisine from “south of the border” (Mexico) has become popular not only with the country’s neighbor to the north, but around the world. From China to Finland, South Africa to New Zealand, words like “taco,” “enchilada,” and “tamale” evoke images of delectable, spicy Mexican fare. Try to order the same dishes in Guatemala and you’ll get a quick reminder that you’re south of a very different border.

Guatemalans and other Central Americans use many of the same culinary terms as Mexicans, but Guatemalans use different ingredients and methods of preparation. Guatemalan cooks typically cook with corn rather than flour tortillas and place less importance on “spicy;” they also favor rice, plantains, and potatoes more often than their Mexican counterparts. 

Think you know what a taco is? Guess again; in Guatemala they are corn tortillas rolled with meat and vegetable filling, deep-fried, and served with steamed cabbage and Guatemalan cheese. Quesadillas are far from the Mexican variety; instead they’re spongy, cheesy cupcakes served as a treat to deserving children. Eating a Guatemalan enchilada, you might be surprised to stumble across ingredients like hard-boiled egg, tomato sauce, and even pickled beets! 

 Two weeks later, while on my way to Semuc Champey, my shuttle driver pulled over to a little hotel on the side of a dirt road so that we could use the bathroom. I didn’t have to use the bathroom, so I stayed in the shuttle. Of course, as I was sitting there, I could hear one of those songs playing inside the hotel, but I thought nothing of it because I had given up. However, after 6 hours at Semuc Champey, we passed through the same hotel, and I heard the other song playing inside. Deciding that this would be my final attempt, I got out of the shuttle, ran inside, and asked the teenage kid behind the counter if he knew the name of this song. He replied, “this one? This is ‘Te Amo’ by Makano.” I was shocked. I then had him play a few other songs that were on his playlist, and before long, we had found the other song as well. I was grinning from ear to ear, and this poor kid was VERY confused.

I have always been fascinated by a song’s ability to transport me back to a particular time and place. Sometimes, when I particularly like a certain place, I will listen to a song over and over so that the next time I hear that song I will be immediately reminded of being in that place. Before coming to Guatemala, I downloaded a lot of new music in the hopes that one of those songs would eventually be the song that could bring back all of my memories, good and bad, of the time that I have spent here this summer.

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I was neither optimistic nor excited about having to spend 4 days and 4 nights in Guatemala City. Normally, 5 weeks spent in small towns and villages would leave me absolutely craving some big-city action, but I had heard enough horror stories to leave me utterly dreading having to research in Guatemala City. “Well, my friends and I figured that it would be okay to walk where we needed to go since it was broad daylight and we only had to walk a block—unfortunately, seconds after we stepped outside, someone was shoving a gun in our face and screaming at us, so we just started running in the opposite direction.” “Oh yeah you definitely shouldn’t take a chicken bus into the capital…they’ll slash your pockets in those terminals faster than you can say ‘dinero.’” “Make sure that you stay far away from the red intra-city buses—I heard that there are at least 2 armed robberies every day on those buses.” Needless to say, I was anxious. But, when the time came, I hopped onto the shuttle that picked me up at my hostel in Antigua, and 45 minutes later I was standing in front of the Xamanek Inn in the heart of Guatemala’s safest district, Zona 10 (also known as “Zona Viva”).

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Typically, when one thinks about Central America, some of the first words that come to mind are “hot,” “tropical,” or “sunny.” Strangely enough, though I find myself in the heart of Central America, I would use none of those words to describe my first four weeks in Guatemala. What many fail to realize is that Guatemala’s terrain is extremely diverse for a country of its size, with mountains, plateaus, and high altitudes characterizing nearly its entire Western half (known as the Western Highlands). This is where I spent the first half of my Guatemalan route; as such, instead of hot, tropical and sunny, I would use the words cool, comfortable and rainy to describe my experience thus far. Starting in Antigua, I worked my way through the Lake Atitlan region, all the way up through Chichicastenango and Santa Cruz del Quiche to the Ixil triangle in the north (Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal and Chajul), and then over to Huehuetenango and Quetzaltenango.

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