Independance Day

Guatamala is a large country who until 1996 was in civil war. It is still very danagerous in many areas and nearly everyone in the country carries a gun as a matter of course. To answer you Paul, Guat still desputes Belize. In fact on some maps Belize doesn´t even exsist, it is all Guatamala. Whenever domestic political isssues become heated the Government raises the Belize issue to divert attention from their unpopularity. We got into the country in time for independence day - 15th September. The day before we passed loads of brightly coloured chicken buses full of teams of teenage school children. They all had someone running in front of them carrying what looked like an olympic torch. They run 2K´s each before swapping over. It is also customary to throw water over the runners as they passed through your village. Our truck got stuck in a small village along with around 50 of these buses - we also got covered with water. Very good natured fun. On independance day itself, there was alot of processions and drumming. Each school had a parade with marching bands and majorettes. Every local came out to the main square to watch the handing over of the flag. Again it was a wonderful party atmosphere but I resisted the urge to buy a hat made out of bendy balloons. Wonder how many more national celebrations we came stumble into?