Development Happens

Well folks, after a week off for Holy Week and a vacation to the tourist capitol of Guatemala, the colonial city of Antigua, we have some good things to report. After living here for over a year and through a change of a president, it would appear that some positive change is happening. For those of you that don't already know, Holy Week here in Guatemala, as in much of Central America, is the most important and eventful holiday of the year. Antigua, the catholic center of Central America is inundated with THOUSANDS of tourists for the week while processions and other honorary events occur to celebrate the death and subsequent rising of Jesus. Although the crazy amount of tourists from both Guatemala and around the world were a little annoying, there were many positive things about the experience. One new element that was very noticeable was the increased levels of security throughout the city. On every corner of every block stood pairs of private security guards hired by what we imagine were the local or national officials. We are not exaggerating when we say every corner either. There were hundreds of these guards on the streets during all hours of the day, 24/7. Like the National Police they were quite militaristic but at least they weren't toting Uzis or AK-47s like many of the other police officials. On the subject of the PNC or National Police force, there were many police officers on patrol as well as the private security. Additionally they had a police and fire substation in the central park with paramedics and ambulances standing by in case of emergency. The police were also making announcements to families to keep track of their children, hold their hands, etc. One last observation was the absence of the military. Typically in the past, Antigua has had regular patrols of Military Police officers walking in groups of four, packing around Israeli made assault rifles (note the reference to another Israeli made firearm ealier(Uzi), one can see quite a few here in the arms of government employees as it seems a good way to make friends in the developing world). Overall we saw some significant improvement in the tourism department versus Semana Santa last year and view this as a positive step for Guatemala has a whole and potentially a sign of things to come. We encourage everyone to think of Guatemala when they think about their next vacation. Guatemala offers rich culture, beautiful natural and Mayan-made wonders, all at a very inexpensive price.