Life in the Highlands of Guatemala

Life in the Guatemala Highlands,

I have trekked all over the highlands of Guatemala and have enjoyed every minute that I have been in the highlands. The life and culture here is so much different than in the larger cities and so much different than life in the States.  Looking around you make think this is the way life was in the late 1700’s early 1800’s in the United States.

With Mayan culture being so dominant in the highlands the majority of the language is indigenous Mayan language such as kaqchikel or K’iche (there are over 21 different dialects of Spanish spoken in Guatemala). Many of the people in the highlands speak up to 4 types of dialects I have found. As long as you can speak some sort of Spanish you can get by.

In the highlands you will find that most of the females will wear the traditional dress of the Mayan culture which is the hand-weaved huipils (blouses), cortes (skirts) and faja (belt). Now the men wear

traditional traje for men (which include colorful traditional traje for men (which includes colorful pants with a mismatched and equally colorful ‘skirt’ or ‘apron’ around the waist.) You can tell what city or town a woman is from by the design of her huipil, corte and head dress.

Life in the highlands is so vastly different than the United States. That is why I love it here so much. This culture is so very poor but so rich in life.