GUATEMALA!

Trip Start Dec 02, 2008
1
24
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Trip End Feb 07, 2009


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Flag of Guatemala  , Western Highlands,
Monday, January 12, 2009

After leaving Nicaragua, we chose to head north, flying over Honduras and El Salvador, to Guatemala for our last three weeks.

We took a tour of the city with Wifredo the taxi driver (recommended by hotel).  It has been 33 years since I was here with my buddy Tom Valentine, in 1976. Back then, they had just suffered a major earthquake a few months before or arrival. Barb and I will retrace some of the trip I took years ago. Barb has been to Guatemala twice before, (Tikal- from Belize and The Peten Jungle on Usumacinta River).  She has never been to Guat City or the highlands. 

Our first day we toured the city's historic district, the Presidential Palace, and the National Cathedral. The city is bustling and clean. The is a new fountain dedicated to the Peace Accords that ended to long genocidal was here in the 80s and 90s. The National Cathedral now has the names of hundreds of thousands of victims inscribed on all sides of hundreds of columns around the church. To date, the Army has retained impunity for their war against the natives here, and it is still a contentious issue. There was a prosecution of elements of the Army that assinated the Archbishop here after he published a report indicating that the Army was responsible for the vast majority of the murders of over 250,000 indeginious people here in the 80s. Here are a few pics from the Historic District in downtown Guatemala City. 
 
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Comments

donmckee
donmckee on Jan 20, 2009 at 11:11PM

nice flowers
A little less rustic here. You did good with the flowers!
Don & Janis

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