Yel Kaye – Travel Blog, Writing and Photography

From my travels, I have become pretty desensitized to seeing enormous guns.

In Guatemala, guns are everywhere. Men with huge shotguns or even assault rifles guard anything from banks to coffee shop, McDonalds to trucks full of bottled water.

The other day, I asked a young man standing in front of a bank where I might find another ATM.

Walking away, Jen asked, “how can you chat so casually with a guy with a three foot rifle?”

To be honest, I hadn’t even noticed. It’s just such a normal thing here to see a tiny 95 pound man holding a gun almost bigger than him.

Anyways, today was a day unlike others. A couple blocks in Xela were blocked off with pylons, and there were armed men (soldiers or police, it’s hard to tell) everwhere. Seriously, on every corner for a few city blocks there were five men with assault rifles just lounging around.

“Que pasa?” I asked one, who looked about seventeen.

“Nada,” he replied, giving me an annoyed glare. Ok – time to move along.

A few theories were tossed around on what was going on. One guy mentioned that most people get paid on the same day in Xela, and on this payday there are many more policemen out to deter armed robbery. But I’m pretty sure that payday is tomorrow, so that theory is out. A more likely theory: someone important is in Xela today. The president, perhaps? I guess I’ll have to read tomorrow’s paper to find out.

Well, it’s amazing what can become “normal.” Armed men (like in so many countries) just become a part of the landscape, another quirk of a complex country.