Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

Guatemala is not a real safe place.  It's evident from the number of armed men everywhere.  Some look professional, others seem like your every day parking lot rent-a-cop, and some look like kids; all with big guns.  There are armed guards in front of places you'd expect to see them:  banks, ATM's, jewelry and jade shops.   These guys also exist, however, to protect tourists, or at least create a deterrent.  There are tiny guys with big guns outside the bus stations, the entrance of Mc Donald's and Burger King, and outside all the coffee shops.  There's a guy standing outside this big wall I walk by every day, dressed all in black like a bouncer at a discotheque, but I'm not sure what's behind the wall, as I never see anyone go in or out.  Here in Antigua they have established a special force of tourist police to accompany gringos to the cemetery and parks, apparently it has cut down on the muggings and robberies.  They still make tourists feel paranoid, however, and there's probably some good reason to be very alert.  In fact, in Xela, at 8:00 p.m. at night in a fairly popular area, a woman was robbed of all her clothes... I couldn't even imagine how humiliating that would be, walking home to my homestay family completely naked.  Several days ago the Secretariat General of the Xela Fútbol team was gunned down in the street - after they lost the playoff game to determine who would compete in the Central American round of games to select the world cup team.  It's election season, November 4th is the final round.  Politicians have been killed or have gone missing, and children of politicians are murdered.  People here are used to violence, and aren't too phased by it.