Hola niños y niñas! The Marvelous Maverick of Southside Elementary School here, reporting from Guatemala City, Guatemala! A long way from home for us native Kentuckians, Guatemala is located in Central America, right beneath Mexico and above the equator.
Lucky for you, I’m learning a lot while I’m here and I’m ready to report! First, I want to share some fun facts about Guatemala, and some things I have observed that make this country different than the United States.
Guatemala is a very mountainous country. As I was flying over Central America into Guatemala, the first thing I noticed was all the mountains! If you look to the horizon in the picture above, you will notice some of those mountains. Many people live high up on these mountains, making their climate much cooler than a summer in America because of the difference in altitude. You would expect that the temperature would be very, very hot since Guatemala is located so near the equator, but the temperature in the mountainous regions is really around 80 degrees on the hottest summer day! Of course in other places in the country, such as the beaches, the weather gets much hotter. When you’re there you have to say, “Hello, swimsuits and sunburns!” 
In addition to the temperature,I noticed that the surroundings looked very different than in America. Below are some pictures around Guatemala city that I took on my travels from the airport to my first destination. I was riding on a school bus – which is a common way to travel in Guatemala City! The picture of the yellow bus below is the kind of bus I was riding on, but the red bus is different. The red bus is called a “chicken” bus – this bus doesn’t really stop to let passengers on. Instead it slows down just a little and you have to jump on and off! You shouldn’t ride it if you’re too “chicken!” You would think people wouldn’t ride it at all, but they do because it’s the cheapest way to travel!
Regular Bus
Chicken BusAs I was riding down the road, I noticed that there were lots of signs that looked like election signs all over the place! You can see some of them right here:
There was a presidential election going on this summer, as well as some elections for other political offices. In America, we have two candidates for President – one from the Republican Party and one from the Democratic party. Do you remember which party President Obama belongs to? In Guatemala, however, there are 19 political parties, and this summer there were 11 candidates for president! Can you imagine having to pick one of eleven people to run your country? What if every party presented a candidate and you had to pick from 19? I can’t even decide which socks to wear in the morning, so I don’t know how I would do it!
Well it’s getting late and I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow – and you’ll have to stay tuned to the blog to find out all about it! I’ll leave you with one more picture of downtown Guatemala City. Can you name some similarities and differences between downtown Cynthiana and downtown Guatemala City? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!
Well it’s time for this Maverick to hit the hay (sorry – just a little horse humor)! I’ll get back to you soon with more information and exciting tidbits from my trip!Adiós amigos!
The Maverick