Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with guatemala and mexico

Will we have trouble bringing camera equipment to Central America?

sabotagerabbit — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:57:44 -0800

I'm trying to find out whether we're going to have trouble bringing still and video camera equipment into Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, and my Google-fu is failing me. I'm logistics lead for a fairly major delegation to Mexico and Central America in January. We will have a photographer and a videographer travelling with us to document the trip. Both will obviously be bringing a fair bit of equipment, though not a ridiculous amount, since we'll be moving around a lot.

Does anyone know, either from experience or better Google skills than mine, whether we can expect to have an difficulties upon arrival in these countries? We'll be flying in to each country's capital.

Guatemala

freddymetz — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:52:11 -0800

Travelling to Guatemala (from Mexico) without a passport and Visa. Is it possible? Im in Veracruz, mexico right now and i stupidly left my passport and visa at my house in morelia.
I decided to travel to Guatemala, maybe antigua and i was wondering if its at all possible without passport and visa?
I'm a german citizen and i have a mexican visa. I am only carrying a mexican drivers license, so thats the most official documentation im carrying at the moment.
How do i get over the border? Would it be ok to just pay a "fine" to get in, and then to get out of guatemala again?
Has anyone done this before, because i dont want to arrive at the border and be turned away from guatemala!

Central America

freddymetz — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:23:49 -0800

Backpacking from Mexico to Colombia! More inside Im planning to go backpacking in central america sometime over the next year. Has anyone here already done this? whens the best time to go? what should i watch out for? i know about mexico well enough, but how safe is guatemala, honduras, costa rica and panama? i also heard that there are no roads from panama to colombia and that one has to take the boat?
thanks in advance!

Central America chili-off

harhailla.harhaluuossa — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:31:36 -0800

So Taksi Putra has challenged me to a 'chili-off' in Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize) this summer. What should we eat and where? Higher on the Scoville the better. Anything east of Baja is fair game. If it sounds tasty and is super-hot, we'll hunt it down. Specific restaurants / neighborhoods to go to?
Recipes welcome too.
Also: what drinks do we pair the food with? Alcohol suggestions?

We're not looking only for Central American food; simply the hottest.

Note: We're pretty resilient to capsacin and super-mobile - suggest away!

Guatemala travel advice?

soviet sleepover — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 20:43:26 -0800

In a few days I'm headed to Guatemala for a month followed by several weeks in southern Mexico. Offer some travel suggestions please! Also, as I'll be traveling by myself, suggestions on how to be more outgoing in a language I'm not confident with welcome. I've got a rough itenerary mapped out: a day in Antigua, several days in different towns on lake Atitlan, and then two weeks in Quetzaltenango studying Spanish. After this I have about ten days before I'm due to meet friends in Mexico. Initially I'd planned to go to the Mayan ruins of Copan in Honduras, then spend about a week hiking & hitching around the rural Honduran highlands putting my brushed-up Spanish to the test before heading back through Guatemala to San Cristobal in Chiapas. Lately though, an intermittant hip problem's been flaring up making extended walking/hiking painful, so a change of plans may be in order.

I'd like to stay off the tourist track, minimize days spent mostly/entirely in travel, and choose a route that heads either through the Peten (to meet up with my friends at Palenque) or through the Guatemalan highlands (to San Cristobal). After spending hours poring over the guidebooks, brain numb with guidebook-ese, everywhere sounds pretty much the same ("quaint" architecture, "charming" Mayan women in traditional clothes, etc). I'd like suggestions/stories about interesting places in the highlands or en route to Tikal. I'm on a budget but a flight between Guatemala City and Tikal wouldn't be out of the question provided I was near GC to get that flight. Finally, what are your tips for having meaningful interactions with strangers in a second language?