The root word for travel is travail: i.e., laborious effort, toil, task, effort et cetera. There’s not much worse than arriving at a foreign destination without a plan, an outline or current information. There’s jet lag, a difference in languages and disorientation to contend with. There are the currency exchange rates, a different set of customs and no matter how new the guide book that one might have recently purchased; only the historical sections will be accurate. As a professional travel writer with a shelf full of Central American travel guides I encounter this situation every time I travel and as I walk the streets of Antigua daily I encounter lost tourists with their maps upside down and confused looks on their faces. I know exactly how they feel, because that’s how I feel when I’m on the road to El Salvador or Nicaragua, or to any parts of Guatemala that I haven’t seen.
A few months ago, after a less than epic journey to the archeological site known as Takalik Abaj, on Guatemala’s Pacific coast near the Mexican border, I was thoroughly confused by the guide book I had. The information about hotels, taxis and general prices was either out of date or just plain wrong. To be candid, I’m a professional traveler and it stressed me: to expect an occasional vacationer to find transportation, make advance reservations and enjoy their first experience in Guatemala using unreliable information is unrealistic. Hence the popularity of guided tours, for those who are less than daring: it’s a package with a guide, who takes you where you think you should go and you’ll end up in his favorite shop, buying souvenirs with a commission added.
I recalled how I had felt the first week I moved to Antigua, a few years ago: the confusing similarity of the architecture, the unmarked streets and where to find the basic necessities. Why not write a guide book specifically aimed at answering the questions that aren’t covered in regular guide books? So, I did and discovered another world of publishing. Tomorrow, the evolution of Our Man in Antigua and the next time you decide to travel somewhere, perhaps this will guide you to asking the right questions first, before you land at midnight somewhere strange.
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