Category Archive: Central America

Stand in the middle of the Grand Plaza between Temple I and Temple II at Tikal, Guatemala and imagine what life must have been like in this Mayan city over 1,200 years ago when Tikal was at its peak. The size of the temples and surrounding acropolis indicate that this must have been a rich and sophisticated city-state. Yet the ruins are only partially exposed and understood, as thick rain forest still covers most of the park.

And the grand mystery remains: Why was Tikal abandoned in 900 AD?

We can’t answer that question, but we can give a sense of what it’s like to sit in the middle of the Grand Plaza and wonder. Continue Reading »

Ever wondered what sawdust carpets have to do with Good Friday? Continue Reading »

When travelers think “Honduras” they probably don’t think “big, weekly indigenous markets.” So when we were in Honduras and caught wind of a weekly market in a little town called La Esperanza in country’s western hills along a path of historically indigenous villages called the Ruta Lenca, we hopped a series of chicken buses in the wee hours of the morning to see what it was all about.

One part windblown, another part oasis and a whole lotta’ cowtown, La Esperanza appears a concatenation of dusty street corners. If you open up the panorama and take a spin around, you can see for yourself what it’s like to stand amidst it all and watch market life go by. Continue Reading »

What is it about the center of a land mass that seems to dull its food? Continue Reading »

Article Series - Central America: Golden Plantain Awards

1. The Golden Plantain Awards: Central America’s Best and Worst
2. The Golden Plantain Awards: Best of Central American Food

As we close out our reflections on Central America (don’t worry, food comes next), we are reminded of the places and moments — the good, the bad, the idiosyncratic, the illustrative — from our zigzag chicken bus journey across Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Let’s dig in. Continue Reading »

Article Series - Central America: Golden Plantain Awards

1. The Golden Plantain Awards: Central America’s Best and Worst
2. The Golden Plantain Awards: Best of Central American Food

As we travel, it’s common for locals the world over to ask us where we are from. In Asia, the response “The United States” was usually sufficient. In Europe, they didn’t ask; they assumed.

Not so in Central America. People were curious to know the states and often the towns and cities where we grew up, where we have lived. After sharing our details, it wasn’t uncommon to hear: “I had a cousin who lived there”, “Oh, I lived [nearby] for 15 years” or “My brother lives there.”
Continue Reading »

We usually share photos to better relate our experiences and provide a more personal look at a country and its culture. Here we do the same, but we add a cautionary tale. Continue Reading »

What does a family-run small business launched or expanded with the help of a microloan look like? We offer a couple of answers…in three dimensions.

Maybe you’ve seen our photo essays from microfinance programs in Guatemala and India. Now we share a three-dimensional inside look – via 360 degree panoramic photography – at two small family-run businesses in Guatemala. Continue Reading »

Article Series - Microfinance Around the World

1. The Face of Microfinance in Guatemala
2. Microfinance Panoramas from Guatemala
3. Microfinance Diaries: Seeing is Believing in West Bengal
4. Machu Picchu? Not Yet. A Slideshow of the Other Peru

El Salvador is one of those places I recall from my childhood, but for all the “wrong” reasons. Newscasts in the 1980s equated the country with menacing jungles, death squads and guerrillas. Our recent conversations suggest that for many, El Salvador’s image as dangerous and gun-prone persists today.

So we wanted to see El Salvador for ourselves and perhaps dislodge some of those lingering perceptions. Our itinerary was simple: Perquin to better understand the civil war that plagued the country from 1980 to 1992; Santa Ana as a transit point; Juayua for its weekend food festival and coffee plantations; and Alegria for a look at life in the hills. Our focus: the people we would meet along the way.

If you’re itching to get to the photos:

Perquin, Santa Ana, Alegria, Suchitoto

Juayua and the Ruta de las Flores

And if you’d like to read more about El Salvador, keep going… Continue Reading »

Our timing was again impeccable.

Honduras, a country we had just visited, experiences a military coup and begins to melt down just days after we leave its borders. Nicaraguan newspapers go so as far as to headline “Blood Bath.” Nothing from our visit indicated how events would turn so suddenly. With the exception of a taxi driver in La Ceiba ranting about corruption across the political spectrum (a common taxi driver tirade the world over), politics didn’t figure much in our other conversations.

You’ve probably seen the images on TV, websites and newspapers of riot police, protesters and barricades in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital city. But if you’re curious as to what Honduras looks like without a coup, we share photos from our recent visit to the Ruta Lenca, the Mayan ruins at Copan and the bay island of Utila. Continue Reading »