Makind Friends in Guatemala

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It is so amazing how easy it can be to meet people everywhere you go. It never fails, as long as you are outgoing and friendly, how quickly and easily you will meet locals. Wait a minute, I seem to be jumping ahead. Lets go back to the beginning.

So we are flying to Guatemala and we meet a gentleman on the plane. We are talking to him the whole way over, and it turns out he owns furnitue factory in Guatemala City. He also has a location in Miami and lives about 15 minutes from me. He is a young guy and pretty friendly so we continue asking him questions on the plane ride. When we arrive he offers to take us to whereever we want to stay, as we have no clue where the hell we are going we basically tell him any place that he recommends in our price range.

As we exit the airport the is brand new suziki 4x4 waiting for him, along with two men, who we later find out are armed bodyguards...affectionately known as his dogs. This seems like a good way to get into town we have been told can be quite dangerous. We load up and hop in. He takes us around town for awhile and then out to dinner. After dinner he takes us to one of his extra apartments and tells us we can stay no problem. Unfortunately somebody forgot to pay the power bill so no lights. Thats cool though. After we drop off our bags he takes us back out to enjoy some nightlife.

Our first experience in Guatemala City happens to be a strip club...OK twist my arm just a little more. We enter the cluba nd he orders a bottle for the table. Awfully nice of him. At this point I feel that, if you haven't noticed, I should point out that he is quite wealthy and quite generous.

At the end of the night we all head back to the pad to crash, on a lovely carpeted floor...see below. By the way, the morning time in Guatemala is very noisy with many birds starting before the sunrise. The next he takes us to breakfast and then over to see his factory. The whole time he always has at least one bodyguard if not two with him. We follow him into his warehouse and are welcomed by a nice gentleman with a machete and don't forget his buddy with the shotgun. Also see below.

After we are done at his warehouse he takes us to the bank to change some money (until now we have not spent a penny, he would not let us) It is nice to have an armed escort when changing money at the bank. Then we say our farewells and he puts us on a bus to Antigua.

Enter our next local friend Clara. We meet a friendly woman on the bus to Antigua. We talk to her the whole way over and by the time we get there she has offered to show us around the city a little. She talks us to a nice place to stay, in which we also get a discount because she used to be friends with owners. After we have that settled she shows us the market as well as where to rent scooters and some good places to eat. It is also always nice to have local show you the ropes of town and where to get everything you need.

So far Antigua is really nice and the coffee has been slammin'. Unfortunately the prices for food and goods in most of the places we have been seems almost comprable to the U.S. The lodging is cheaper though. We are staying in a pretty decent place for $10 each a night. We are ging to hang around here for another day and rent scooters then it is off to Lake Atitlan and Panhachel.

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Photos

The Business Man
Meet our friend Gian Carlo

High End in Guatemala
Who would have though there is a market for such high end cars here

Some of the dogs
Yeah, thats not a scary situation, but I am happy to have them on my side

Another dog
Patrolling the grounds. Notice how dirty and scummy it is outside. The warehouse with a half million dollars worth of cars is right in this alley in one of the worst parts of town. Kind of shady

Clara the tour guide.
our Antigua friend.

Guatemalan Roof Top Gardens
sounds like a cool book

Guatemalan Coffee
Darn good

Comments

[AUNT LANNIE]

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!:_):):):)
HI BRETT (AND WARNER), IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE HAVING ANOTHER WONDERFUL TIME EXPLORING. th "DOGS" ARE JUST CHARMING ... WHY ALL THE BODY GUARDS??? HAVE FUN, LOVE AUNT LANNIE XXXOOOO

[Off The Grid]

response
he has all the bodyguards because he is crazy rich, besides they only cost $125 a week

[Gail Dvoretz-Mom]

Interesting!
Hi honey, So far it sounds like a very interesting trip. This is the first time I could find a computer. I heard about the earthquake in that city and had Lannie write to you. Thank you for writing back quickly as I had Jon on it too. He said take care of yourself. I am glad to see that you have met "interesting people. They seem to be very nice and helpful. Do you like the places you are visiting? Not as nice as Japan is it? Great coffee is always nice no matter where one goes....right? Bring some home. Can you do that? Anyway , I will try and get to another computer while on this vacation. Be careful and take care. I love you and miss you. Love MOm

[Off The Grid]

response
I love the places we are visiting. I always do. Guatemala is certainly a beautiful country. You can´t compare a place like Japan to a place like Guatemala. It all depends what you are looking for.

[Sebastian]

Guys wit guns...
I LOVE those bodyguards...but they seem expensive to me...around here, they can be had for about US$100 a MONTH. Also, the chances that the guy with the shotgun actually has like shells is maybe 8 to 5 against? What is GREAT is that you are experiencing first hand how rich the rich are and how miserably poor the rest are...