Today we docked in Guatemala. This Central American country sits due south of Mexico, north of El Salvador and west of Belize and Honduras. Its is on the same latitude as Louisiana. It spans the width of Central America with coast lines on both the Pacific ocean and the Caribbean sea. It is roughly the size of Tennessee. This lovely country was once the heart of the Mayan civilization and there are still ruins attesting to its proud history.
It has a political history that is the poster child for a banana republic. All was well, or as well as a dictator strong man would have it until 1954 when the most recent dictator decided to expropriate land from the U S owned United Fruit Company. That is when the CIA got involved and was able to engineer an overthrow of the government. There is nothing like seeing your government dollars at work. Even after the overthrow there were about three or four coups that changed the leadership. After almost 36 years of civil war a peace accord was signed in 1996. Since then the country has been peaceful. So now cruise ships can come and unload their tourists on their shores.
We got off the ship and wandered through a small market where the locals were selling various souvenirs. They like to use very bright colors on the the things they make. They look great here but when you get home they don’t seem to fit in well.
Today was a special day for Chris because the restaurant had Sauerbraten on the menu. So true to her German heritage she made it a must do.
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