GAY & LESBIAN TRAVEL STORIES

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country of exotic experiences.

You can gaze at the somber tops of temples thrusting above the rainforest in Tikal. Climb an active volcano and roast marshmallows in the lava's heat near the colonial city of Antigua. Visit

Guatemala See Photos

a wooden saint who dangles a lit cigarette from his "lips" in a small village on Lake Atitlan. And, you can shop for a rainbow of textiles in the giant market of Chichicastenengo.

Inexpensive for Americans at about 8 Quetzals to the dollar, Guatemala is the land of friendly adventure, where the locals are happy to give you an insider's view to their culture for the equivalent of $1.50, and shopkeepers will cheerily set aside selling to give you advice on the sights. Tidy small hotels rent rooms for about $25 a night; a full meal with alcohol can cost about $10. Large tours geared toward tourists and Western-style hotels are considerably more.

Guatemala wasn't always this easy of a country, of course. The vicious 36-year-old civil war only ended in 1996 and tourism has yet to completely rebound. There are students, French tourists and the occasional ex-pat American, but for the most part, Guatemala has few tourists.

The government, though, has been working on infrastructure, and the roads from important city to important city are wide and smooth. Rumors of banditos are overrated, though occasional attacks happen. Don't hesitate to take a tourist bus or hired car to your next destination (there's no public transportation).

As a single woman traveling alone, I never felt unsafe - except in Guatemala City, which has little to recommend it anyway.

The western highlands around Lake Atitlan are particularly charming. The weather is called "eternal spring," and it really is. Year round, people enjoy daily temperatures in the 70s, which drop to about 60 at night.

Depending on the source you use, Guatemala is between 40 to 70 percent indigenous Mayan. In the dozen small towns around the lake, the women wear their traditional costume of heavily embroidered shirt (called a huipl) and skirt and balance bundles wrapped in cloth on their heads. For almost all Mayans in these towns, Spanish is a second language, and English is a choppy third. Their first is their own Mayan tongue, which varies from village to village.

A good place to get acclimated is Panajachel, a picaresque blend of local restaurants, tourist bars, and bicycle-led "tuktuks" to drive you around. A launcha, boat, will take you to Santiago, where the Mayan saint Maximon lives. Give a local about 10 Q ($1.50) to take you to the smoky basement that hosts him. Maximon, I was told, is called St. Sebastian in English, but I had never heard of a Christian saint wearing a low Gaucho hat and an uncountable number of ties, with a hole that lets the whiskey slide down smooth.

Bring a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of liquor, or a tribute of 10 Q for the statue saint, if you want to take pictures - and you will.

Tiny travel agencies can hook you up with a bus or private driver for other day trips in the area, from coffee plantations, to Chichi's not-to-be-missed market, to the sleepy Antigua if you want a gay-friendly bar hit, or just need to see the fountain that has water streaming from Mermaid nipples. A day is fine for Antigua and its hulking church ruins, but overnight if you want to hike up Pacaya volcano. Tours leave at 6 a.m.

Oh, and take the walking stick and the horse when they're offered. Believe me, it's a long trek up - but it's worth it when the lava is crackling around you and the clouds you are hiking in are lit by a dry orange glow.