vagabum.com

Greetings Loyal Readers,

I am now into my second week of a 2 week trip in Guatemala and Honduras. Guatemala and Honduras are still a bit unstable and there are all kinds of reports of tourists getting held up, beaten, raped or murdered (do a search for US Travel warnings Guatemala for some hair-raising reading) and hence there is massive security throughout both countries as the government recognizes the importance of securing the tourist trade. The security comes in the form of a show of force of soldiers - private and military - around pretty much every location where security might be a risk (ruins, cities, banks, malls, etc.). The guards range from paramilitary guys with flak-jackets and semi-auto shotguns, uzis or assault rifles (mostly in Honduras) to less educated private guards with shotguns and seemingly little weapons training (they tend to keep their fingers on the trigger guards and to wave the barrels of the weapon arround carelessly - hardly the most effective in making tourists f! eel safe! Compared to the period of ~1980 - 1997 though (when civil war and various other skirmishes took place) the country is vastly more safe and I have not once been personally threatened (althouigh a few times I felt my nerves stretched when I was at night in more remote areas out on the streets).