Guatemala had always been high on my travel watch list but it’s on other watch lists too. I was drawn to its diverse terrain and Mayan history. I wanted to see active volcanoes, hike through dense jungle regions and visit its ruins and beaches. But concerned relatives were quick to buy me vats of DEET and counsel me with kidnapping stories they heard from their mail man’s second cousin’s ex-wife’s hairdresser. Apparently, Guatemala was once tied with Iraq for its public safety ranking. Though this was off putting at first, I still had my heart set on the resilient little country. I’d always rather regret than wonder what if so I started preparing for a trip to Central America.
I wanted my trip to be more than a week-long “I survived Guatemala” vacation. I had finished my undergraduate degree but wasn’t quite ready to embrace the corporate world so I was looking to move south. A friend who had completed her TEFL program in Peru referred me to Maximo Nivel. When I realized they also had a program in Antigua, Guatemala, I quickly abandoned any lingering doubts. I applied. I got accepted. And I left.
Waiting for my ride in the thick air outside the Guatemala City airport, I couldn’t help but mull over my parents’ travel advisory fears. They were right after all. I would narrowly escape being mugged and murdered only to die in a massive volcanic eruption bound to trigger a catastrophic earthquake. But then the Maximo Nivel driver beckoned me with a smiley face flag and we began to crawl through city traffic toward Antigua. As we moved out of the urban chaos and started cruising on greener open roads, I began to feel at peace with my plan.
I was stunned when I first stepped foot on Antigua’s cobblestone streets. Though historically incriminating, the colonial architecture is charming. The whole town is painted like a pack of Skittles and building regulations prevent any new structures from exceeding two stories. Preserved churches and archways look over the rest of the town. It’s a little grid of paradise surrounded by lush mountains and shadowed by an impressive volcano.
After my first cup of Guatemalan coffee and a tour of the training facility, I was taken to meet my host family. I had been assigned a roommate who was also enrolled in the program and we set out to explore the town. I was still conscious of the media’s negative depiction of the country but walking Antigua’s quiet streets put me at ease. I love that it’s small enough to walk everywhere and there are no bus routes that cut through the city center. And I never feel unsafe while walking by myself. I often spend an afternoon hiking up to Cerro de la Cruz, a beautiful viewpoint that overlooks the city.
From the first day, I felt welcomed by the town and its people. And I can’t help but be bothered by misrepresentations of Guatemala in the media. It’s not that Westernized news coverage about Central America is untrue, just that it’s one-dimensional. Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie delivered an insightful TED Talk entitled “The Danger of a Single Story.” While addressing African stereotypes, she talks about her college roommate in the United States being surprised that she spoke English, supposing she’d never used an oven and requesting that she play her “tribal music.”
At the time, Adichie enjoyed listening to Mariah Carey. But the intention of the lecture wasn’t to ridicule her college roommate or paint her as ignorant. Her questions had been a product of stereotypes embedded in Western society. The same stereotypes that often address the African continent as a singular country. I may not have voiced my limited perspective in the same way but my (mis)perception of Guatemala was very much the same before living here. Same in that it too was a “single story.”
The world is becoming more globalized through the eyes of online media and international broadcasting every day. But could this be more dangerous than it is enlightening? We aren’t really developing a cosmopolitan worldview if we’re only amplifying our negative associations of developing countries. Westernized news coverage often perpetuates underdeveloped ideas of places that we have never even seen.
And if we do acknowledge the positive aspects of these places, it’s always prefaced with a caveat: “what a pity for such a beautiful country.” Why does it need to be a pity? Why can’t we just go and decide for ourselves? This is not to say that we should ignore international hardships. Of course, there is crime and poverty in Central America, as there is in urban America or Europe. In fact, I feel much less safe walking to my car at night in downtown LA than I do roaming the streets of Antigua.
The area of Guatemala that I’m living in is lovely and tranquil. My favorite getaway weekend is Lake Atitlan. And if you exercise caution to a normal degree, you shouldn’t run into any problems while traveling. Common sense about little things can make your experience abroad everything that people were trying to tell you it wouldn’t be: safe. Simply keep your belongings and beverages in sight. And if you’re alone and it’s late at night, take a taxi home. No matter where you are, the same precautions apply.
I’m grateful to call Guatemala my home for the time being. I learned a lot from my TEFL training and it gave me the contacts and skillset I needed to stay. I already had some experience teaching children back home so my TEFL trainer was able to set me up with a local school where I’ve been working ever since. I try to tell anyone I can just how beautiful Guatemala is. If you’ve never been, exit out of this article right now and start looking for tickets. Because there is so much that we will never see if we allow fear and misperception to dominate our decision making. Guatemala is made up of millions of stories and one of them could be yours.