🇬🇹Guatemala

The CA-4 clock is the thing to understand

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua share one 90-day allowance under the CA-4 Border Control Agreement. This is the Schengen problem in Central America, and it is the single most common misunderstanding here.

• The 90 days start when you enter the first of the four, whichever it is.
• Crossing between them does not restart the clock. Six weeks in Guatemala then six weeks in Nicaragua is twelve weeks of the same ninety days, not two fresh allowances.
• The stamp you get at an internal CA-4 border is not a new entry. It looks like one, which is precisely why people get caught.
• Leaving the CA-4 area resets it - Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama are all outside it. A few days in Belize is the standard reset, and it is legitimate.
• You can extend by 30 days, applied for and paid before the 90 expire, at the migration office in Guatemala City.
• Overstaying is fined, payable before you are allowed to leave.

At the border

• Your passport must be valid at least 6 months from arrival and have 2 blank pages.
• File the traveller declaration online before you fly. The Declaracion Jurada Regional de Viajero is completed electronically through the SAT portal and takes a few minutes; it replaces the paper form at La Aurora. Carry the confirmation email or a screenshot of the QR code - the airport wi-fi is not to be relied on.
• There is a 30 US dollar departure tax, payable in dollars or quetzals. It is normally already in the ticket price, but check, because at a land border it is not.

If your passport needs a visa

• Guatemala sorts nationalities into categories A, B and C and does not publish them as a usable public list. Category A needs no visa; the others need one arranged in advance, and category C needs prior authorisation from the Interior Ministry, which takes weeks.
• Confirm with the nearest Guatemalan consulate rather than trusting a summary, and start early if you may be in category C.

• Archaeological objects may not be exported. Anything pre-Columbian is state property regardless of what the market seller in Antigua tells you, and the airport screens for it.
• Colonial religious art needs a permit, which affects the older santos and paintings sold in the antique shops.
• The allowance is a carton of cigarettes and a couple of litres of spirits per adult, plus a value cap on other goods.
• Cash equivalent to USD 10,000 or more must be declared on entry and exit.
• Plants, seeds and fresh produce are controlled, and the coffee you buy needs to be roasted and packaged rather than green.
• The land borders with Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador are all customs crossings with their own hours and their own fees.

Altitude

• Much of the country you will visit is high. Guatemala City and Antigua sit above 1,500 m, Quetzaltenango above 2,300 m, and the volcano summits far higher.
• Altitude sickness is a real risk here and it catches people who flew in from sea level and went straight up a volcano on day two. Give it a day.

Care

• Private hospitals and clinics in Guatemala City and Antigua are good; outside them, facilities thin out fast.
• Take insurance covering treatment and medical evacuation. Semuc Champey and the Peten are a long way from a hospital that can do anything complicated.
• A prescription written abroad is not valid in Guatemala. Bring what you need, in original packaging, with the prescription as documentation rather than as an instrument.
• Pharmacies are good and everywhere: Meykos, Cruz Verde, Galeno and Batres are the chains the FCDO names.

Food and water

• Do not drink the tap water. Bottled or filtered water is universal and cheap; most hotels provide a refill dispenser.
• Street food is part of the point of Guatemala, and the usual rules apply - busy stalls, hot food, fruit you peel.

Mosquitoes

• Dengue, Zika and chikungunya are present in the lowlands, and the mosquito bites during the day.
• The highlands are high enough to be largely free of it, which is one of the compensations for the cold nights.

Numbers

• 122 or 123 for an ambulance.

Guatemala City

• The FCDO says no part of Guatemala City is free of crime, Zone 10 included. Zone 1, the historic centre, carries a particular risk to visitors, and Zones 6, 7, 8 and 18 to 25 warrant caution.
• If you must stay, stay in Zone 10 or 14 and use cars rather than walking after dark.
• Most people do not stay at all - they land and go straight to Antigua.

Where people actually stay

• Antigua - colonial, walkable, volcano views, the best range of accommodation in the country and a real tourist police presence. This is the default.
• Lake Atitlan - Panajachel is the transport hub, San Pedro the backpacker village, San Marcos the quiet one, Santa Cruz the one you can only reach by boat.
• Flores - the island town that is the base for Tikal, and pleasant in its own right.
• Semuc Champey and Lanquin - remote, basic, and reached by a road that is genuinely rough.

Practical

• Antigua is cold at night. It sits at over 1,500 m and few buildings have heating; ask for blankets rather than assuming.
• Book ahead around Semana Santa. Antigua's Holy Week is one of the biggest events in Latin America and the town sells out months in advance.
• Check the hot water actually exists in cheaper places, and how it is heated.

The local SIM

• Claro and Tigo are the two networks, and between them they cover the country including Peten and the Atitlan basin.
• Prepaid SIMs are sold everywhere - network shops, supermarkets, corner shops - and cost very little. Take the passport.
• Coverage follows the population, not the road. You will have signal in Antigua, Panajachel and Flores and lose it on the mountain roads between them.

An eSIM instead

• The reason to have data from the moment you land is the FCDO's own advice: do not hail a taxi in the street, use Uber or a radio-dispatched cab. Both need a connection.
• Install and test it before you fly. Both Guatemalan networks are well supported.

Wi-fi

• Antigua is unusually well connected - it is a language-school and remote-work town and cafes there have real internet.
• Lake Atitlan villages vary enormously between one another; San Pedro and Panajachel are fine, smaller villages are not.
• Assume nothing in Peten outside Flores.

Sockets in Guatemala are Type A and B at 120 V, 60 Hz - the American standard.

• American and Canadian plugs fit straight in. Everyone else needs an adapter.
• Two-slot unearthed sockets are the norm outside newer hotels, so an earthed American plug sometimes does not fit either.
• 120 V means European 230 V-only appliances will not run.
• Supply in the highlands and around Lake Atitlan is unreliable, with cuts most weeks and voltage that sags under evening load.
• Chargers marked 100-240 V are fine, which covers nearly everything a traveller carries.
• Belize, next door, is the odd one out. It mixes American sockets with British Type G and runs at both 110 V and 220 V.

The basics

• Plugs are the American flat two-pin, type A and B, at 120 V. European appliances with a heating element need a converter, not just an adapter.
• Spanish is the language, and English is limited outside Antigua and the tourist trade. Twenty-plus Mayan languages are spoken as first languages in the highlands.
• Antigua is one of the cheapest and best places in the world to learn Spanish, which is why half the foreigners there are in a one-to-one class in a courtyard.
• UTC-6 all year, no daylight saving. Dialling code +502, no area codes.

Climate

• The highlands are "the land of eternal spring" - warm days, genuinely cold nights, all year.
• The rainy season runs roughly May to October and means a heavy afternoon downpour, not all-day rain. It also means landslides on mountain roads.
• The lowlands - Peten, the Caribbean coast - are hot and humid year round.

Conventions

• Ask before photographing anyone, and accept no for an answer. See the safety section for why this matters more here than almost anywhere.
• Markets are a working economy, not a display. Chichicastenango on Thursday and Sunday is the big one.
• Bargaining is normal in markets and not in shops.
• Sunday is family day and things move slowly.

The quetzal

• The quetzal (GTQ) is the currency and it is a cash economy once you leave Guatemala City and Antigua.
• US dollars are widely accepted for tourist services - shuttles, tours, the departure tax - but they are not legal tender and change comes in quetzals at a rate that is not in your favour.
• Carry small notes. A 200 quetzal note is hard to break in a village.

Cards and machines

• Cards work in Guatemala City, Antigua and larger hotels and restaurants and almost nowhere else.
• Cash machines are the risk point. The FCDO's warnings about express kidnapping involve victims being driven to machines - use one inside a bank or a guarded supermarket during the day, never a street-facing machine at night.
• Take out what you need for several days at once when you are somewhere with a reliable bank, especially before heading to Semuc Champey or the smaller Atitlan villages.
• Decline the offer to be charged in your own currency.

Everyday

• Tipping is 10% in restaurants where service is not included.
• Guides, shuttle drivers and boat crews are tipped in small quetzal notes, which is another reason to carry them.
• Markets are haggled, politely and without drama. Chichicastenango expects it; a shop does not.

The shuttle network

• Shared tourist shuttles are how visitors move around Guatemala. Every hostel and agency sells the same seats on the same minibuses, so shop on departure time rather than price.
• They are slow. Antigua to Lake Atitlan is about 90 km and takes three hours.

Buses

• The painted "chicken buses" are converted American school buses and are the country's real transport network - and the FCDO is blunt that gang attacks and extortion on bus drivers have caused serious injury and death, and that armed robberies happen on most tourist routes.
• Private intercity coaches - the first-class lines between the big cities - are considerably safer, and are the right choice for a long leg.
• Do not travel intercity at night.

On the lake

• Public lanchas connect the Atitlan villages and are cheap, frequent until late afternoon, and stop early. Missing the last boat means a long road journey around.
• Agree the fare before boarding on a private boat.

Driving

• Roads are mountainous, unlit and slow. Landslides close them in the rainy season.
• Roadblocks from protests happen and can close a highway for a day or more.

Worth having

• Uber works in Guatemala City and Antigua and is the FCDO's recommended alternative to a street taxi.
• The SAT portal for the traveller declaration - file it before you fly.
• Maps downloaded offline. Signal disappears on the mountain roads, and that is exactly where you want to know where you are.

The number to save

• 1500 is the tourist assistance line. It is free, it runs 24 hours a day all year, operators handle English, and it is a direct liaison with embassies, consulates and the security services. It is not a call centre for hotel bookings - it exists to help a foreign visitor in trouble.
• Save it before you need it. Almost nothing written for visitors to Guatemala mentions it, and it is the single most useful thing in this guide.

Free roads, slow mountain routes, and buses that overtake wherever they like.

• Roads are free, and the CA-1 through the highlands is the main route between Guatemala City, Antigua, Lake Atitlan and Quetzaltenango.
• Chicken buses overtake on blind bends and stop without warning; they set the rhythm of every highland road.
• Speed bumps (tumulos) are unmarked and frequent through villages, and they damage more hire cars than anything else.
• Do not drive at night between towns, which is both official advice and local practice.
• The alcohol limit is 0.08 %, and checkpoints are common at weekends.

The honest picture

• Guatemala has one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America, and serious attacks have happened in tourist areas. That is the FCDO's assessment, not a hedge.
• This does not make it a country to avoid - it makes it a country where the standard precautions are not optional. Most visitors have no trouble at all.

The specific risks

• Unauthorised taxis and express kidnapping. Victims are picked up and driven between cash machines. Use radio-dispatched yellow taxis, Uber, or a hotel car.
• Buses. Gang attacks and extortion on drivers have caused deaths, and armed robberies occur on most tourist routes, including around Lake Atitlan. Private coaches are safer.
• Guatemala City is risky throughout, and the rural departments of Huehuetenango, Chiquimula, Zacapa, Izabal, San Marcos and Peten have elevated crime.
• Do not travel intercity after dark.

Volcanoes

• People die on Guatemala's volcanoes because they underestimate them, and there is no mountain rescue service. Nobody is coming.
• Check the official volcano status before climbing - several are active, and Fuego in particular.
• Go with a licensed guide, take warm clothing for the summit, and do not overnight on an active cone because a photograph looked good.

The child photography rule

• Do not photograph people without permission, and especially not children. In remote areas there have been attacks on foreigners driven by rumours of child abduction, and they have been lethal.
• This is not about etiquette. It is the one piece of advice in this section that has a body count attached and that visitors routinely ignore.

Drugs

• Penalties are severe, for use as well as trafficking, and the FCDO describes the prisons as overcrowded, violent and dirty.

If something happens

• Call 1500. English-speaking, 24 hours, and connected directly to the embassies and the tourist police.

The numbers

• 1500 is the one to use. ASISTUR runs it free, 24 hours, 365 days a year, it handles English, and it connects directly to embassies, consulates and the security services. If something has gone wrong and you do not know who to call, this is the answer.
• 122 and 123 reach the bomberos, who run the ambulances as well as the fire service.

If something goes wrong

• Report a crime to the police and get the report before you leave the country - no insurer pays without one, and 1500 will help you do it.
• Contact your insurer quickly if you are referred to a hospital; private hospitals want payment or a guarantee up front.
• Lost passport: 1500 will put you in touch with your embassy, most of which are in Guatemala City.

On the road

• If a roadblock closes the highway, do not attempt to pass it. Wait or turn back.
• On a volcano, there is no rescue service. Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back, and turn around when the weather changes.