(Colonial) history

When you go to history museums in Central America, you often get the impression that the history of Central America begins with colonisation, because that is exactly the first thing that is often (there are exceptions) mentioned in the museums. The many millennia before that are just as concealed as the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and the many sufferings that the indigenous people and slaves brought in from Africa had to endure. Obviously, the history of people, civilisations and cities in Central America begins much earlier and today we know that much of what the Spanish told about the Indians was not true. For example, indigenous peoples were portrayed as much more barbaric and less civilised than they actually were in order to justify oppression and exploitation.
A good example of the highly civilised peoples of Central America are undoubtedly the Maya, of whom about 6 million still live in southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They built impressive temples, developed their own complex language and an extremely accurate calendar. They were as gifted in mathematics as they were in arts and crafts and agriculture. Without the Maya, who knows if we would have corn cultivation or chocolate today? And who knows how far we would be in science today if much of the Maya’s impressive knowledge had not been lost? By the way, the Spanish did have a share in this, but the great advanced civilisations and cities of the Maya had already perished before the Spanish claimed every stone and every labour force in America for themselves.
It remains a mystery, not yet completely deciphered, why the Maya empires perished, but one assumption is becoming more and more solidified: the overexploitation of nature was the Maya’s undoing. They needed many raw materials for their ever-growing cities. Severe droughts and other environmental events then led to famine crises and the fall of the Maya rulers. However, because they had not shared their knowledge with the people in order to preserve their position as omniscient deities, much of it was lost.
However, there were and are many other indigenous peoples before, beside and after the Maya, which would certainly go beyond the scope of enumerating and examining them in more detail, for example the Olmecs, Toltecs, Aztecs, Nahua and Caribs. In addition, some mixed peoples developed over the millennia, of which perhaps the best known today are the Garifuna, who evolved from the Caribs and West African slaves and today mainly inhabit the Caribbean coast of Central America. The first settlers reached Central America at least 10,000 years ago. It is assumed that they migrated via North America.
And even though some of the Central American peoples were at war with each other again and again, this is out of all proportion to the suffering brought by the Spanish, which affected all these peoples, albeit to varying degrees.
When the Spanish arrived, some of them were organised into large civilisations and others, such as Nicaragua, were characterised by many independent tribes (with a cacique as head). What they all had in common was that they did not appreciate the arrival of the Spaniards and the resulting consequences. Some were directly hostile to the newcomers, others befriended them, only to be betrayed and oppressed later.
As already explained in the articles on the Dom Rep and Cuba, the peoples were largely murdered, enslaved or exploited. Many fell victim to introduced diseases and Spain tried mercilessly to squeeze as much raw material, gold, etc. out of the colonies as possible.
In a few decades, the Spanish conquered Central America both from Panama in the south and from Mexico in the north. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was founded and, with the exception of Panama, the territories of all today’s Central American states belonged to New Spain, while Panama belonged to the Viceroyalty of Peru (and later, for a long time, to Colombia), which is why we exclude Panama somewhat here.
The Viceroyalty of New Spain was divided into 4 administrative districts (Real Audiencias): Santo Domingo (from 1511), Mexico (1527), Guatemala (1543) and New Galicia (1548, also called Guadalajara). While Santo Domingo was initially responsible for all conquered territories, this changed with the founding of the other Real Audiencias, so that Santo Domingo was finally responsible for the Caribbean. The administrative region of Mexico corresponds to today’s Central Mexico, Northern Mexico and several of today’s US states were under New Galicia. The administrative district of Guatemala included present-day Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
The administrative districts are important because it was precisely from them that the new states were first created:
Haiti was the first country in Latin America to gain independence in 1804. A decisive influence on the wars of independence was the French Revolution of 1789. When, from 1808 to 1814, Spain was de facto cut off from its colonies due to the Napoleonic Wars, because all forces were needed in Europe, the independence movements got the decisive push.
In Central America, it was the Real-Audiencia Mexico and New Galicia that were the first to proclaim their independence as the common state of Mexico. When the Spanish administration discovered the independence movement around Miguel Hidalgo in September 1810, he felt compelled to proclaim Mexico’s independence in the night of 15 to 16 September 1810 in the small village of Dolores in the mountains. To this day, Mexicans celebrate the beginning of their independence on 15 and 16 September with the grito (shout). However, many years passed before they gained their independence. Hidalgo’s grito marked the beginning of a bloody war of independence that claimed the lives of Hidalgo’s leaders Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama as well as thousands of insurgents. The war of independence did not end until August 1821.
However, Mexico’s hard-won and expensive (in terms of money and, above all, human lives) independence was not only fought for Mexico. For driven by Mexico’s success, the Real-Audiencia Guatemala also sought its independence in 1821, which this time the Spanish agreed to without bloodshed. On 15 September 1821 (good to remember, because of the gritos in Mexico), the Central American Federation proclaimed its independence. So this is the Independence Day of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Belize alone remained a colony of England until 1981! It was a colony of England, which had only finally driven out the Spanish in a battle in 1798 and claimed the country for itself. Belize also became independent in September, but only in 1981.
After independence from Spain, the Central American Federation joined Agustin Iturbide’s newly founded state of Mexico. But they soon realised that the disadvantages of this union outweighed the benefits, and in 1823, after the fall of Iturbide, they separated from Mexico again (again without bloodshed). Only Chiapas remained with Mexico as a new federal state.
Two camps quickly emerged in the Central American Federation, as they did in many other Latin American countries: Liberals and Conservatives. While the conservatives naturally wanted little to change the political system, the liberals sought immediate reforms such as the separation of church and state and the separation of powers.
In the following years, internal power struggles and civil wars developed in the very federally structured state, so that the Central American Federation disintegrated between 1838 and 1841 and the present-day states of Nicaragua (1838), Honduras (1838), Costa Rica (1838), Guatemala (1839) and El Salvador (1841) were founded. To this day, they share Independence Day and the colours blue & white in their flags. Only Costa Rica added red to its flag, making it difficult to distinguish the flags of Central America. Today, by the way, they organise themselves together again as the Central American Integration System (SICA), although of course as independent states.

Politics after independence

The camps that had already emerged in the Central American Federation, namely liberals and conservatives, also shaped post-independence politics. Different parties developed in the various countries, but their ideas were oriented towards the conservative or liberal ideas, and in many countries this duality shaped the political system until deep into the 20th century, as in Honduras or Nicaragua. The vast majority of political conflicts in Central America after 1821 can be traced back to the clinch between conservatives and liberals.
But what exactly was the clinch? In the final analysis, it was about the political reality of the newly founded states, and the opinions of the two camps could hardly be further apart: The conservatives on the one side favoured leaving power in the hands of a few (the elite) and granting this elite, centralised as far as possible, access to all powers. The privileges of the church, the military and landowners were to remain untouched and no other religion besides Catholicism was to be permitted.
The liberals, on the other hand, advocated a clear separation of powers and the separation of church and state. Freedom of religion was as much a part of their programme as freedom of expression, civil marriage and free state education. They also wanted to promote federalisation.
Interestingly, many liberal ideas became established in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, while conservatives ruled much more. But why is that?
In my eyes, this shows on the one hand that many liberal ideas were supported by the population and that conservative governments had to bow to them in order to stay in power. But why then were liberals not elected from whom these ideas came? The background to this goes much further and has mainly to do with the Conservatives’ proximity to the powerful elite. Thus, the Conservatives benefited from the influence of the elite in order to stay in power. Financed election campaigns, vote buying and even fake elections were common practice in almost all countries of Central America. And if that was not enough, violence or dictatorship could be the last resort. Politically motivated murders mostly took place against liberal politicians.
And often the USA interfered, too, as they quickly feared that liberal governments would “slip” into socialism. For example, in Guatemala in 1954, after 10 years of democratic and liberal reforms, they helped overthrow President Arbenz and installed dictator Carlos Castillo Armas.
While the conservatives mainly cultivated relations with the commercial elite, landowners and other rich people, the liberals were closer to the idea of “ordinary” citizens. But this should not hide the fact that the liberals were also part of the elite and often used their power to increase their wealth. Corruption was already one of the central problems in politics back then and it still is today.

Manifestation of inequality

The existing property relations from the colonial period were thus generally defended by the political elite.
For example, in El Salvador around 1900, 90 % of the country’s goods were in the hands of 0.01 % of the population. The majority of the peasants were landless and lived in extreme poverty. In Nicaragua, the Sogamozo family in particular used several disasters during their long family dictatorship to increase their holdings – a common pattern in Central America. For example, they organised the reconstruction after an earthquake in 1931 and a major fire in Managua in 1936 in such a way that they were able to increase their land holdings considerably. After another major earthquake in 1972, they sacked much of the relief money and even sold donated relief goods to increase their fortune. Even today, parts of the city centre and the cathedral have not been rebuilt, for which part of the relief money was intended.
In addition, there have been numerous attempts to prevent measures that would reduce inequality. In El Salvador, when Article 105 limited land ownership to 245 ha in 1983, sections of the big landowners tried to prevent the reform by death squads. The most prominent victim was Archbishop Óscar Romero.
It took a long time for “normal” citizens to have a politically successful career. And what could happen if they tried is shown by the example of Jorge Gaitan in Colombia, but more on that soon in the context of Colombia’s history and politics.
Even today, rich people in Central American countries have much better chances of occupying high office.
In fact, it took until long after independence for the first democratic elections to be held in Central America: in Guatemala, for example, in 1944.
The 19th and 20th centuries were characterised by oligarchies (rule by the few), dictatorships and military coups. Changes of government were commonplace. Honduras clearly takes the cake: from 1821 to 1876, 85 governments alternated, and in the first 150 years of the state of Honduras there were 125 military coups. To this day, Honduras in particular has the image of being a “banana republic”, although most of the neighbouring countries did not fare much better, except that the changes of government were not quite as frequent.

Dictators (often conservative but also liberal)

Dictatorships, along with oligarchies, were the most common form of government in the unstable countries of Latin America. At this point, it should be mentioned that the instability was by no means an expression of the Central Americans’ incompetence. Rather, it can be directly traced back to the long rule of Spain, which left a devastation on the continent, especially in political terms. For centuries, the people of Central America were oppressed – without any possibility of self-determination. And the people who finally fought for independence were usually not indigenous people who had owned the land before the Spanish arrived, but descendants of the Spanish or had mixed ancestors. This situation made it particularly difficult to develop a common national identity, and to this day many political struggles revolve around precisely this issue.
The large number of dictators makes it impossible or even boring to list them all here, but a few are briefly mentioned.
The conservative José Rafael Carrera y Turcios, for example, became popular in Guatemala shortly after it seceded from the Central American Federation because he successfully fought against confederates. In 1944, at the age of 30, he became president of Guatemala and used his popularity and close contacts with the military to expand his power. In 1954, he declared himself president for life in Guatemala and thus significantly shaped the understanding of conservative rulers in Central America. In general, it can be said that the elites of the Central American countries remained in contact even after the split and that the various political processes strongly influenced each other. Most of the political conflicts of the last two centuries in Central America were within the states and hardly between them.
In 1865, Carrera handed over the presidency to Vicente Cerna, followed 6 years later by a military coup by liberals and Justo Rufino Barrios came to power. He pushed ahead with many reforms such as freedom of the press and religion and the nationalisation of church property. Guatemala also got a constitution. But the liberals also had many dictatorial features. Barrios dreamed of the reunification of the Central American Federation and after negotiations failed to progress, he declared the federation restored and himself commander-in-chief. Less later, he died in armed conflict with El Salvador, which did not recognise the self-declared federation.
With Jorge Ubico, Guatemala had another liberal dictator. Ubico came to power in 1931 through presumably rigged elections and quickly became a dictator who persecuted intellectuals, journalists and writers who criticised his government.
In El Salvador, special mention should be made of the dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, who, as defence minister, used a military coup in 1930 to come to power. This again shows the enormous power that the military and its allies had, especially in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Costa Rica, which is overall rather a positive example of a stable democracy in Central America, also had some violent periods. From 1917 to 1919 there was a military dictatorship under Federico Alberto Tinoco Granados, which was not recognised by the USA but was supported by the powerful United Fruit Company. The enormous power of the United Fruit Company and other companies like Chiquita and their enormous influence on politics are worth a separate blog article when the time comes.
Other “notable” dictators were: Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the current dictator Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Tiburcio Carías Andino and Juan Manuel Gálvez in Honduras, who acted as stooges for the United Fruit Company. Manuel Noriega, who ruled Panama with the help of the military after the mysterious death of Omar Torrijo in 1981.

Civil wars

There have been many civil wars in Central America over the last two centuries, most of them arising from the conflict between liberals and conservatives, which has been the subject here several times now. The differences have been so great since the beginning of independence that the losing party often saw no other means than to take up arms, and conversely the governments often took up arms and involved the military to keep the opposing side and the population under control. I will also refrain from giving a complete overview of the civil wars and will only give a few examples that give a good representation of the motives and behaviour of the various parties.
In Nicaragua, a first civil war began as early as 1856, in which the liberals called the American adventurer William Walker to their aid, who intervened with a small private army and gave the liberals an advantage, but at a high price: Walker sought power not only in Nicaragua but in all of Central America. Only the combined forces of the Central American states could stop Walker, who later made two more attempts at conquest and was executed in Honduras in 1860.
In Costa Rica, after violent elections and electoral fraud, there was a six-week civil war in 1948 with about 2000 deaths. In 1949 there was a peace treaty and a short time later Costa Rica abolished its military.
In Guatemala, a bloody civil war began in 1960 and lasted until 1996. After the liberal president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was violently overthrown by conservative forces in 1954, one conservative military dictatorship after another followed, reversing all liberal reforms (such as the partial expropriation of the United Fruit Company). In 1960, the oppressed liberals saw no other option than to go into armed resistance, which emanated especially from the indigenous regions of the country. The military reacted harshly, bombing its own people a few times. Paramilitary groups were formed and, especially under General Efraín Ríos Montt, the fight against the insurgents developed into genocide against indigenous people in particular. The war cost at least 200,000 Guatemalans their lives and made over 1 million refugees. According to the Commission for Historical Clarification, government troops and allied paramilitaries were responsible for 93% of the deaths, while 3% were attributed to guerrilla movements.
In El Salvador, too, severe repression by a conservative military dictatorship led to a civil war in 1980 that lasted until 1991. The armed guerrilla troops united under the name FMLN and fought against the government and paramilitaries. 1 – 2 million left El Salvador, many of them for the USA.
Of the at least 75,000 deaths, 85% are attributed to the military and pro-government death squads and only 5% can be attributed to the FMLN guerrillas. The civil war ended in 1992 with the peace treaty of Chapultepec and the FMLN was formed into a party that won the presidential elections in El Salvador twice in 2009 and 2014.

Gangs and drug mafia as a continuation of violence

In recent years, the violence of the ideological clashes has found its continuation in the proliferation of the gangs (called maras in some countries) and drug mafias. As in Mexico, where drug crime has become the main problem in the last 50 years, many hostile gangs developed in Central America, fighting violently for power in the drug market, but also against governments for power.
This situation escalated in El Salvador in particular, so I would like to use El Salvador as an example in this case.
After the civil war and peace agreement of 1992, many of the former guerrillas and paramilitaries were unemployed and quickly found the drug business as a niche where their “skills” and ways of doing things were useful. At that time, there were at least 1 million weapons in circulation in El Salvador. In addition, there were many repatriated Salvadorans who had “failed” in the USA and thus no longer found a home in their country of origin. It was precisely this home that the maras gave them, so that the cruelly acting gangs quickly found an influx. From some local reports I heard that initiation rituals into the maras often consisted of the new member standing in a circle and being beaten up by those present. In other gangs, you had to murder at least one person to belong to the gang.
Thus, violence in El Salvador escalated until it reached its (statistical) peak in 2015, when the murder rate in El Salvador rose to over 100 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Although it decreased somewhat in the following years, the situation remained out of control. Some Salvadorans told me about that time: Millions of them had to pay protection money to the respective mara (there were different gangs controlling different parts of the country). Here, protection money meant not so much that the maras protected you from others, but rather that they did not kill you. For example, one taxi driver told me that he had to pay 10 dollars a week, which is a lot of money for him. Others told me that being found in another town could be enough for the gang to kill you on the spot because you were not from there.
In 2019, Nayib Bukele was elected president in El Salvador. During the election campaign, he had announced a rigorous fight against gang crime. However, he had concealed from the population that he already had agreements with the maras that he would leave them alone if they behaved more inconspicuously and less murderously. Such agreements had been tried by other presidents before him and Buke’s attempt only reduced the violence for a while. After a very bloody weekend with over 80 deaths in March 2022, Bukele did a 180° turn and declared war on the maras. He had parliament declare a state of emergency, which he will only end when all the maras’ members are in prison. He tightened the conditions in the prisons and imprisoned thousands of people who were even associated with the maras. For example, I was told that it was enough to have a fake tattoo, the identifying mark of a gang, to be put in prison without trial. Human rights organisations criticise Bukule’s actions and estimate that at least 3000 innocent people are in prison. And the conditions are degrading. Bukele promised several times that the gang members would “never see the daylight again” in their lives and the pictures he posted from the prisons on social media went around the world. Relatively speaking, no other country has as many people in prison as El Salvador: 1086 per 100,000 inhabitants.
But the murder rate and crime in El Salvador fell drastically last year! The protection money from the gangs has disappeared, millions of people feel safe again and see that tourism is also making its way back into their country. Internationally, Bukele’s actions are the subject of much debate, and inevitably the difficult question arises as to whether the end justifies the means. I don’t want to allow myself a personal opinion here, but the population answers the question quite clearly: over 90% are in favour of the measures and support Bukele. His popularity is so enormous that he is increasingly becoming an authoritarian ruler. Like so many Central American presidents before him, he has a taste for power and will try to overturn the law that prevents his re-election next year: In Central America, the re-election of presidents is traditionally forbidden by law, a fact that many rulers have refused to acknowledge. It remains exciting to see how El Salvador will develop in the next few years and what the international reactions will be. The USA in particular has many interests in El Salvador and has historically often interfered in Central America when a development did not please them. However, they should like the developments of the last year, as the economy in El Salvador is flourishing (there are many US companies in El Salvador) and a safer El Salvador may enable them to deport more Salvadorans.

US interference

Not only in El Salvador is the influence of the USA enormous, but actually everywhere in Central America there are many US-American companies, such as mining companies, which have become so widespread in the last two centuries since independence that in Honduras, for example, there has been some talk of a colony-like dependency. Often, the North American companies were lured by generous concessions and the US government ensured that the respective rulers profited from the profits of the US corporations or otherwise received US support.
Thus, the USA interfered everywhere it could and decisively shaped the course of history in Central America in its favour.
In doing so, they did not miss any opportunity to intervene militarily in the countries if this could be justified internationally to some extent.
In Nicaragua, for example, the US Marines saved the conservative government of Diaz from the rebellious liberals in 1912. Only a year earlier, Diaz had borrowed millions from US banks and given the US direct control over Nicaragua’s customs revenues as collateral. The Marines remained in the country until 1933, supporting the conservative governments against liberal rebels until a peace treaty was signed in 1933 between the government and liberal leader Augusto Cesar Sandino, who had dealt the Marines some stinging defeats in the years before. Sandino and his men laid down their arms and the US left Nicaragua (not without first training the National Guard). Sandino and his generals were assassinated shortly afterwards and the Somoza family (close associates) were able to establish their family dictatorship.
It was not until 1979 that Somoza’s rule came to an end and the liberal movement “Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional” (FSLN) came to power, creating a new constitution and whose socialist programme was initially well received by the population. But it did not take long for the USA to intervene. Ever since the Truman Doctrine in the Cold War, the USA had been trying to overthrow any government that even appeared to be socialist in order to limit Russia’s influence. With illegal arms sales to Iran, the USA made money that it gave to the so-called Contras in Nicaragua, who were fighting against the socialist government – the so-called Iran-Contras affair, which older readers here may still remember. And the plan worked, the instability created (also due to a US embargo) caused the FSLN to lose the 1990 presidential elections. Incidentally, in the aftermath of the Iran-Contras affair, the US was fined $2.4 billion by the International Court of Justice, which the US has still not paid.

Another prominent example of US interference is the PBSUCCESS mission in Guatemala. The overthrow of the above-mentioned Guatemalan president Arbenz, whose liberal reforms were detrimental to US companies among others, was largely engineered by the USA. To this end, they stationed soldiers in both Honduras and Nicaragua, who willingly made their territory available and from there supported the military coup of the later dictator Carlos Castillo Armas. Several unidentified aircraft that bombed Guatemala City in 1954 were subsequently identified beyond doubt as US planes. The United Fruit Company may also have had a hand in the war against liberal reforms, since they were restricted by them, but CIA documents published after the fact make the UFC’s influence seem rather slight. But more on this in a blog article about the UFC, Chiquita and Co. in due course.
A last of many other examples of US military interventions in Central America and the resulting economic interests is the Panama Canal. When the USA wanted to continue the construction of the canal, which had been left fallow by France, at the beginning of the 20th century, Colombia, to which Panama belonged at the time, did not agree. Without further ado, the USA sent its military to Panama and supported Panama in its independence. In the process, they secured all the rights and profits to the canal, which they did not relinquish until the year 2000! You can read more about this in my article on Panama.

A short side fact for German readers: In 1878, there was a German military intervention in Nicaragua after an attack on the German consul in León, the so-called Eisenstuck Affair. However, this was not about economic interests or long-term influence in Central America, but about a family feud.

Conflicts between the countries and union against Walker

Most of the (warlike) conflicts since the peaceful disintegration of the Central American Federation have been within the respective states, but there are also individual examples of wars between states – mostly over the interpretation of borders and interests in the border area.
In 1863, Guatemala joined forces with Costa Rica in a border conflict after suffering a severe defeat in the war with El Salvador. El Salvador sought support from Nicaragua and Honduras, but was unable to prevent Guatemalan troops from entering the capital San Salvador. Guatemala strengthened its then supremacy in Central America, but San Salvador lasted only for a short time.
In February 1921, a dispute between Costa Rica and Panama escalated, with Costa Rican troops capturing the town of Coto from Panama, whose allegiance had not been clarified since independence. Since Panama did not have an army at the time, policemen were used to push back the invaders. After some minor fighting with casualties, the USA ended the war, called “Guerra de Coto”, with the arrival of the battleship USS Pennsylvania. This so-called gunboat policy was especially popular in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: by the appearance of one or more gunboats and the accompanying threats, superior states such as the USA demonstrated their power and, as a rule, conflicts were ended in this way before the gunboats were actually used. Incidentally, this is also how Germany ended the “Eisenstruck affair” mentioned above. Costa Rica reported 31 dead soldiers and one civilian casualty in the short Coto war, Panama reported only casualties.
In 1969, there was the “100-hour war” between El Salvador and Honduras, this time not a border conflict, but about 300,000 small farmers who had emigrated from El Salvador to Honduras and were increasingly a thorn in the side of the Honduran government. In 1969, Honduras gave the migrants 30 days to leave the country. El Salvador protested, mainly because the small country is much more densely populated than Honduras. On the Honduran side, the paramilitary terrorist group “Mancha Brava” formed, which increasingly hunted Salvadorans. After a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries in Mexico City, there were riots with several fatalities, as a result of which war broke out, also called the “football war”. The Salvadoran troops quickly advanced far into Honduras. But the looming defeat of Honduras was prevented by the Organisation of American States (OAS), which intervened in the war and singled out El Salvador as the aggressor. The Salvadoran military was forced to retreat without their most important demand, the cessation of persecution of Salvadorans, being met. In the following years, tens of thousands of Salvadorans returned to their homeland.

Repression and killing of indigenous people

Not only did the indigenous people in Central America have a hard time, as they were almost exterminated by the Spanish during the colonial period and their identity (cities, temples, cultural sites) was partially destroyed, but also after independence from Spain, the indigenous people, who were clearly outnumbered, were repeatedly oppressed and fought against as such a minority. The process was often similar, although of course not identical: the rural population and especially indigenous people were hardly taken into account in politics (even today, politics in Central America is extremely city-focused). When conditions became unbearable, the indigenous people revolted and their uprisings were put down. The uprising was then subsequently instrumentalised by the government and military to justify further persecution and murder of indigenous people.
In 1881, for example, in Nicaragua, an agrarian reform for privatisation forced many indigenous people into forced labour, so they fought back with an uprising from Matagalpa, which was brutally put down by the conservative government.
Under the conservative dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez mentioned above, there was a bloody suppression of the indigenous Pibil uprising in 1932, which marked the end of indigenous cultures in El Salvador! The Pibil were wiped out by the military and it was reported that people were killed solely because of language or dress.
In Honduras, the fight against indigenous people was not so open, but Battalion 316 in particular was accused of serious human rights violations, torture and murder against hundreds of Hondurans during the conservative dictatorship. The battalion was trained by the CIA, among others.
But it was not only conservative forces that oppressed the indigenous people. The Sandinistas, who came to power through the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, established torture, disappearances and mass executions of Miskito indigenous people. A general forced labour system was also put in place for the indigenous population.

Today’s situation

Finally, I would like to give a brief overview of the current political situation in Central America.
Not only El Salvador under Nayib Bukele is drifting further and further towards autocracy/dictatorship, but also in Guatemala such a development towards right-wing authoritarianism can be observed in the last election periods. It will be exciting to see how Guatemala develops under the new, left-wing president Bernardo Arévalo. Arévalo surprisingly won the run-off election in August. He is the son of the well-known ex-president Juan José Arévalo, who was Guatemala’s first democratically elected and liberal president in 1945. At the same time, the judiciary recently suspended his party “Semilla”. If this remains the case until he takes office in January, Arévalo will have no faction behind him. The current ruling conservative political elite, known as the “Pact of Corruption”, which has infiltrated much of the judiciary, is suspected to be behind the suspension.
At the same time, Guatemala strongly reflects the trend in Central America that the original two-party system with conservatives and liberals is passé. Guatemala currently has 18 parties in parliament.
As of 2023, Honduras is so strongly characterised by gangs and their violence that the extent is sometimes described as war-like. This is one of the main reasons why Honduras is one of the main countries of origin for migrants in the USA, as many want to prevent their sons from being recruited or their daughters from being sexually abused. According to the United Nations, 400,000 of the approximately 9.7 million inhabitants live as internally displaced persons in their own country.
Nicaragua has been under a dictatorship for several years by Daniel Ortega, who was already president for the FSLN revolutionary party from 1985 to 1990. He was re-elected president in 2006 and in recent years has developed the country into exactly the form of government he had fought against during the revolution. In 2011, he should not have been re-elected according to the constitution, but a controversial court decision allowed him to run again. In 2014, he then had the ban on re-election removed and the following elections were almost certainly rigged. Press freedom and freedom of expression are severely restricted in Nicaragua and in 2018, nationwide protests were put down with live ammunition. As Ortega’s health has deteriorated in recent years, his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo has increasingly taken over the reins of government.

But there is also a positive example of stability in Central America: Costa Rica. After individual violent episodes, the country developed into a success story in the second half of the 20th century. President José Figueres Ferrer had the army abolished by constitution in 1949. Since then, border protection tasks have been taken over by the police, and the USA and other American states gave military security guarantees through the Inter-American Treaty on Mutual Assistance (TIAR Pact).
In 1983, Costa Rica then proclaimed the country’s permanent, active and unarmed neutrality. This is why Costa Rica is also called the Switzerland of Latin America. The money that has been saved for the military since 1949 has been invested in education and health care, which is why the country has developed a high standard in these areas in particular. Due to political stability, Costa Rica has also become a highly visited country and, through tourism, has achieved a level of prosperity that the other countries of Central America dream of.

If you are interested in the Darién-gap, how to cross it in boats and why it is dangerous for refugees, then checkout this blog entry.

Two Paradise Places in Panama

Before I get to the Panama Canal, first a report on two beautiful places I visited in Panama.
I crossed the border into Panama from Costa Rica in the northwest. So a visit to the islands of Bocas del Toro was a good idea.
Bocas del Toro is the name of a region of Panama and its capital on the island of Colón. But travellers usually use the name synonymously for the islands of the region.
A short digression: one island translates as Columbus, another as Christopher. I find it frightening and disconcerting that there are many places in Central America that are still named after Columbus, after the suffering that he and the Spanish brought. This is a clear sign that history is far from having been dealt with. For example, the currency of Costa Rica is also called Colón and there is a bus line from Guatemala called Cristobál Colón.
Fortunately, there are many other islands in the corner and the most beautiful ones had other names.
I arrived on a Thursday in the town of Bocas del Toro, which is known for its nightlife, and had to decide right away if I wanted to join the legendary Filthy Friday: every Friday, there is a very popular party on three different islands, which is celebrated as the best party in Central America (among tourists) with the Sunday Funday in Nicaragua. The party starts at 11 am and you are driven to different locations. In the end, the price of 45 dollars (drinks not included, only shots) kept me away. I would have found it exciting, but I probably would have raised the age average 😀
At the same time, I met a group of four super cool Spaniards with whom I went on a boat tour and then partied in the evening. The boat trip was super cool and we got along very well. The highlight was the breathtakingly beautiful island “Zapatillos”, where only the 12 people from our boat were! I played the guitar on the boat trips and we also went snorkelling. Since the food was super expensive and I had no preparation time, Ines, Monika, Azier and Pablo shared their lunch with me. The 4 of them were really super sweet and we spent some time together the next day too!

On the second full day, I explored Colón Island and did a beautiful hike to Starfish Beach. All the beaches along the way were empty and paradise-like. Only the starfish beach itself was full of tourists who are brought here in boats. But I could see really big starfish 🙂
In the evening, I met Alessandro from Switzerland, whom I had met in Costa Rica, and after a second long evening in Bocas del Toro, I drove on to the Lost & Found Hostel the next day. The hostel was started a few years ago by two Canadians and is located in the middle of the rainforest at an altitude of 1250 metres. Since I had heard a lot of good things about the hostel and I like remote hostels because of the family atmosphere, I stopped by for two nights and had a very good time. Located in the middle of the jungle, but at the same time in the mountains, the hostel offers really fantastic views and great hiking opportunities. In the evening, all the guests have dinner together.
The first day I chilled in the hostel and did a short hike in the rainforest and the second day I went on a trip with 4 other travellers: first to a beautiful 40m high waterfall and then to a small natural canyon to cool down. At the waterfall we were the only ones and at the canyon there were about 10 other people, so we really enjoyed these two wonderful places!

From Lost & Found, I hitchhiked in the evening to the city of David, where I met Alessandro one last time and then took the night bus to Panama City.

The Panama Canal and its difficult history

Shortly after the Spanish arrived in Costa Rica and Panama, the officer Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, which he then called the “Southern Ocean”. That’s what many texts say, but of course it’s bullshit. Thousands of indigenous people had already seen the Pacific before him, but they were not white Europeans. In fact, Balboa was only able to travel to the Pacific through the descriptions of indigenous people.
Be that as it may, it was only a short time later that the idea of a canal through Central America first arose. At that time, however, a breakthrough in Nicaragua was actually favoured, as it would be possible to reach Lake Cocibolca via the Rio San Juan, and then only about 20 km would have to be bridged to the Pacific.
However, it was to take almost 400 years before the idea of a canal through Central America became a reality in Panama. The fact that it did not happen in Nicaragua was mainly due to border conflicts with Costa Rica at the time, as the San Juan River separates the two countries. And of course, the interests of the USA played a major role, which helped Panama gain independence at the beginning of the twentieth century and was able to assert its influence there more clearly.
In 1881, a French delegation began construction of a canal with the consent of Colombia, to which Panama still belonged at the time. After the economic success of the Suez Canal, opened in 1869, many in France assumed that it would be similarly possible to build a lock-free canal in Panama. But after many discussions in parliament and several investment extensions, they had to realise that it was not possible without locks. Together with Gustave Eiffel, locks were then to be built. But in 1889, the French finally stopped the construction work after planning deficiencies, wrong geological investigations, bad planning, bribery and numerous mishaps. Last but not least, a mass death contributed to this. At least 22,000 people died of malaria or yellow fever during construction between 1881 and 1889, diseases that were not yet known or researched at the time. French doctors recommended that workers’ bedposts be placed in buckets of water, but these buckets became breeding grounds for the malaria mosquitoes, which only made the spread more rapid.
For 3 apples and 1 egg, the US bought the previous advances from the French canal company in the late 19th century. When Colombia objected and refused to allow the USA to build the canal, the USA marched unceremoniously into what is now Panama and declared its independence (of course, this is a somewhat abbreviated version, but that is roughly what happened). In the so-called Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, the USA secured unrestricted control of the entire canal area of approx. 84,000 hectares, which it only ceded in full to Panama in 1999. In return, they guaranteed Panama’s independence.
In 1914, the USA finished construction work on the canal and the first ship to cross the canal was a small freighter named “Cristobal” (as usual). On the same day (3 August), the First World War broke out, so the celebrations were postponed.

The canal quickly became very busy and has become one of the most important waterways in the world, indispensable for world trade. The lack of alternatives to the canal is also noticeable in the exorbitant prices to cross it (about 2000 dollars for a sailboat alone), from which mainly the USA profited for decades. Today, the canal is by far the most important source of income for Panama and ensures that the capital, with its many bank towers, does not look like a classic Central American capital.

Off through the canal

To cross the canal, you have to go through 3 locks up into Gatun Lake, then travel 82km and then 3 locks down again. To allow ships to sail in both directions at the same time, there are a pair of locks in each direction. In addition, newer locks were completed a few years ago, so that there are 18 locks in total, but as mentioned, you only pass through 6 of them.
Depending on the time of day you cross the canal (you have to register days in advance), you anchor and spend the night in Gatun Lake and the pilot comes back on board the next morning. It’s a bit different for container ships, which usually also sail through at night, but then pay more for the pilot who works at night. This is because container ships are much faster than sailing boats through the Channel, and the aim is to arrive at a destination as quickly as possible in order to deliver goods worth enormous sums of money.
A pilot is compulsory, by the way, and one of the reasons why it is so expensive to cross the Channel. In shipping, a pilot is a person who comes on board a ship to give advice on how the ship should manoeuvre for a difficult passage. This can be the entrance to a large harbour or even a canal.
All quite exciting, I thought, when I came to Panama and I knew I wanted to try to go through the canal in a boat. I didn’t have much time, but I was very lucky 🙂
When I arrived in Panama City, I just put my things down and went to Shelter Bay Marina, which, unlike Panama City, is on the Caribbean side of the canal. The marina is quite remote and was inconvenient to get to and could only be reached by hitchhiking (taxis were out of the question for me, both because of the price and for environmental reasons).
When I arrived at the port at 1pm, it took me only an hour to find a boat that was going into the canal the same day. I got on well with the captain, Henrik from South Africa, but he then told me that he had already signed up 5 people for the canal. But when I talked to his crew for a while on the jetty and had a good chat with them, he fortunately changed his mind and it was no problem afterwards that there was one more person on board. Half an hour later at 3pm we were off! Together with Steven, also from South Africa, Louise from England, Laura from France and Max from Germany, we made our way through the Channel. Max and Laura also hitchhiked across the Atlantic in sailboats and we have some mutual friends. So we got along great and had a good time.
The trip through the canal took longer than I thought, because the pure travel time is about 8 hours. We had to wait for the pilot at the locks for about 2 hours, so it was already dark when we went through the locks. The locks are definitely the most exciting part of the canal. We went through the locks together with a large container ship, a motor yacht and a sailing boat. The container ship in front of us, so it couldn’t be pushed on us from behind. We went through with the other sailing boat in a pack, which means that we tied ourselves to each other. So, as the right-hand of the two boats, we only had to take two lines from starboard and the other boat only from port. The lines are attached to our boat and to the edge of the lock so that we are not pressed against the walls in the strong current created by the inflowing water. On the container ships, these lines are not handled by people but by large machines that run alongside on rails.

When we had passed the three locks and were about 30m higher, we sailed to a buoy where we moored for the night and the pilot disembarked. The next morning we were supposed to be ready at 6:30am and got up early, but we had to wait until 9am for the pilot to come and then we still had to sail the 82km through the canal. So we didn’t arrive at the locks until around afternoon, which then took us down into the Pacific. Here we were watched by many tourists from a grandstand and as the currents are different when going down the locks, this time there was a big container ship behind us instead of in front of us. Our view over the locks was phenomenal.
All in all, the trip through the canal was an absolutely thrilling experience and a real highlight for me as a sailor! It’s impressive what engineers were already able to build at the b

The Categories

We considered the following categories and then awarded the prizes:
Best Food, Greatest Beaches, Most Impressive Fauna, Biggest Surprise, All-Around Highlight, Most Beautiful Flora, Most Fantastic Underwater World, Friendliest People, Greatest Waterfalls, Most Spectacular Volcano, Most Beautiful Accommodation, Most Wonderful Sunsets, Best Atmosphere, Most Beautiful Island, Best Transport, Most Impressive Archaeological Site, Most Beautiful City.
One more note: Of course, these are all our personal impressions and we haven’t seen every corner of all these countries. If you go there, you might get different impressions, but that’s normal when travelling anyway. Let’s start with the award ceremony:

Best Food: Mexico

The best food is without a doubt in Mexico – and by far! There is street food on every corner and good vegetarian dishes were also easy to find. So far, nothing in Latin America comes close to tacos, quesadillas and the like, and even in a global comparison, Mexico’s diverse cuisine doesn’t have to hide.Our favourite on the Yucatán peninsula, which is also known within Mexico for its spectacular food, was panuchos.For this, a fresh tortilla is filled with bean paste, deep-fried and then topped with bean paste, meat and salad. Instead of the meat, we usually ordered cheese and we really couldn’t get enough of it!
Another culinary highlight were the pupusas in El Salvador – a slightly thicker corn dough that is filled with everything and then fried like a tortilla. My favourites were with bean puree and cheese or with jalapenos. In the other Central American countries, it was sometimes more difficult to find a vegetarian dish besides rice with beans and we cooked even more ourselves.

Most amazing Beaches: Mexico & Costa Rica

A split prize, because we couldn’t decide between Costa Rica and Mexico. In Mexico, we were most enthusiastic about the beaches on the island of Holbox, but Tulum, for example, also has beautiful beaches. The only thing that prevents Mexico from winning is the amount of seaweed that washes up on the shore. Costa Rica doesn’t have this problem, especially not on the Pacific coast (Mexico doesn’t have seaweed on the Pacific either and I personally find the beaches of Oaxaca even more beautiful, but we weren’t there this time).We especially liked the beaches at Uvita and Esterillos Oeste in Costa Rica!Costa Rica is definitely worth a visit, but keep in mind that Costa Rica is very expensive.

Most impressive Fauna: Costa Rica

If we had to pick just one place, it would be the national park around the Mayan ruin of Tikal in Guatemala. There we saw different species of monkeys, raccoons & various birds and you can also spot crocodiles there.
But as a country, Costa Rica clearly wins this category. Our discoveries were: 4 monkey species, 2 sloth species, crocodiles, snakes, a tarantula, aguti (rodents), frogs, stick insects, hummingbirds and some other birds.Even though the national parks are particularly good for observing animals, we found most of them outside because we looked for them through tips, e.g. there is a hummingbird café near Monteverde National Park where you can observe tens of hummingbirds while drinking coffee.

Biggest Surprise: El Salvador

El Salvador was not on our list from the beginning, rather we wanted to see if there was time for it or not. But after some reports from other travellers, it was clear that we wanted to make at least one stopover there. And the country really convinced us! The nature was absolutely impressive.Especially the Santa Ana volcano and the seven waterfalls of Jacua are spectacular. I have already written about the super delicious pupusas. But above all, the people were incredibly nice! More on this below.
The politics of the current president, Nayib Bukele, can be criticised with absolute justification (I will in the next entry), as he rules in a very authoritarian way and has imprisoned tens of thousands of suspected gang members without trial. But he has the population on his side, because they feel safe again after years of terror by the gangs and no longer have to pay protection money. They are also happy about more and more visitors. In the near future, it will probably be a good time to visit El Salvador, since the country is not yet touristised and overcrowded.

Friendliest People: El Salvador

All in all, we had almost exclusively beautiful encounters with the people in Latin America and met many hospitable, warm and wonderful people.
But as we have already mentioned, the people in El Salvador seemed particularly attentive, courteous and friendly. A big factor here is certainly the country’s dark recent past, which in 2015 still had the highest murder rate in the world. You can literally see the people’s relief that the murder rate has dropped and that they want to do everything they can to ensure that visitors take away a good impression and talk well about the country. No matter who we asked for help, the people were absolutely willing to help and often offered help without being asked. Not only that no bus driver charged a higher price for our backpacks than for locals. When I once misunderstood the price and gave him four times the amount, he pointed it out to me instead of pocketing the 2 dollars. I think I’ve developed a pretty good radar for when someone is ripping me off, lying to me, etc. (I don’t have a problem with paying more than locals, but rather with dishonesty), but in El Salvador the radar didn’t go off at all. Absolutely recommended if you come to Central America!

Allround-Highlight: Guatemala

Both of us were looking forward to the volcanoes and landscapes of Guatemala before the trip and we were absolutely not disappointed, quite the opposite: the home of the quetzal (paradisiacal bird and the currency of the same name) was definitely the highlight in Central America! Guatemala simply offers everything: spectacular volcanoes, some of which are even still active, natural pools and waterfalls for jumping, an absolutely impressive canyon, fantastic lakes, surf beaches and indigenous Mayan culture that reaches far into everyday life. Especially the hike up the volcano Acatenango, from where we could see the volcano Fuego erupting, was probably the highlight of the trip. In Guatemala, we also had the coolest accommodation with Mexio (including a sailing boat from friends). I also really liked the pools, waterfalls and caves at Semuc Champey and Lake Atitlán! The town of Flores on a small island in Lake Petén Itza was probably one of the most beautiful towns of the trip.
As you can see, Guatemala is absolutely not to be missed!

Schönste Flora: Santa Elena, Costa Rica

This award undoubtedly goes to the cloud forest near Santa Elena and Monteverde in Costa Rica. Cloud forest means that the forest at an altitude of 1500 – 1800 metres is almost continuously shrouded in clouds. The plants here are therefore more attuned to humidity than precipitation and there are an incredible number of plants growing on other plants/trees: secondary growth. As a result, everything is really green. Besides many, many other colours in flowers and leaves. An absolutely fascinating and recommendable experience! And even though during the day the animals are well hidden and hard to find, I was able to go on a night hike in the cloud forest and observe several snakes, a tarantula and various exciting insects.

Most Fascinating Under Water World: Caye Caulker, Belize

What Costa Rica was to the animals on land, Belize was underwater! We went snorkelling in a few places, especially in Belize and Mexico. But the most fantastic was definitely on the Caribbean island of Caye Caulker, which is part of Belize. Marieke and I went snorkelling here together and saw colourful corals of all kinds, countless fish, seahorses, rays, Atlantic tarpon and nurse sharks (and dozens of them!). But while some of the animals were fed during the snorkelling tour, it was different on my two dives. Here I encountered the animals by chance. Sure, I didn’t see as many sharks, but it was much more special and a small shark followed us for over 20 minutes, probably out of curiosity. But the most special shark encounter I had was in Cozumel, Mexico. Sharks are hard to find there and when I spotted one and showed it to my instructor, even he was thrilled and for all the other divers it was the highlight of their dives.

Most amazing Waterfalls: Juayúa, El Salvador

Near the town of Santa Ana, we went on a tour with other travellers to 7 different waterfalls, following the stream that the water forms and even climbing several waterfalls ourselves. Finally, I jumped off a 5-metre waterfall and we bathed in a pool at the base of the waterfall. Even though the Naucaya waterfall in Costa Rica was more impressive as a single one, the many waterfalls in Jacua with the hike were the more amazing experience!

Most spectaculous Volcano: Acatenango/Fuego, Guatemala

An absolute highlight of the whole trip and certainly the most spectacular volcano was the Fuego in Guatemala. In a very strenuous hike, we climbed with a group of 28 people and 4 guides to the base camp of the Acatenango at 3750m. Arriving there in the afternoon, we enjoyed a fantastic view of the Fuego and saw it erupt over 10 times!
At the basecamp we had dinner and sang together around the campfire (it was super nice even without a guitar). After a short night, we climbed to the top of Acatenango at 3976m to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed the view of the Fuego again before starting the descent.
Even though the hike was exhausting, it didn’t push me to my limits as much as I thought. Also because an extra hike at night had to be cancelled because of the weather.
But the experience was unique and the strenuous hike welded our group together so that we are still in contact with some of them.

Most Beautiful Accomodation: Hotelito Perdido, Rio Dulce, Guatemala

On Marieke’s birthday, we went by boat through the Rio Dulce and an impressive canyon to the Caribbean village of Livingston. In the afternoon, we drove back into the Rio Dulce and stayed at the Hotelito Perdido – the lost hotel, which is located directly on the river in the middle of the jungle. We chilled in hammocks by the river, went swimming and enjoyed the peace and seclusion. For dinner, which all guests eat together, we had a super tasty vegetarian lasagne and then we relaxed with a book at the end of the day. We would have loved to stay longer.

Most beautiful Sunsets: Popoyo, Nicaragua

In Popoyo on the Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua we spent three days and I went surfing there – one fateful time with my mobile phone, but that’s another story….
On the three evenings in Popoyo we saw three wonderful sunsets. Once from the beach, once from a bar on a cliff and once from the spectacular rock “Magnific Rock”. Each evening the colours were different and special! From yellow to orange to red and purple, everything was there. I think the only colour missing was green 😀

Best Atmosphere: Pepos Xul-Ha, Mexico

We had many great moments and met many wonderful people, both locals and many other travellers! The best atmosphere, we quickly agreed (as with all categories), was at the Pepos Xul-Ha accommodation in Mexico. To the south of the lagoon of the 7 shades of blue – Bacalar – is the lagoon Xul-Ha. We spent a weekend in the village of the same name and had wonderful hosts. The accommodation is right on the lagoon, but it is much quieter than in Bacalar. Even idyllic would be an understatement. In this place, even I can find inner peace.
We stayed in a small thatched hut and had a direct view of the lagoon when we got up in the morning. As it was the weekend, the hosts Sefa and Israel had family visiting. We sat down in the evening and I played the guitar. We laughed a lot and made some new Mexican friends straight away. When they came back on Sunday to spend the day at the lagoon, we stayed much longer than expected at the accommodation and they offered us a free night. The hospitality really knew no bounds and we had not been normal guests for a long time. At least, that’s not how we felt any more.
When we declined because we had already booked accommodation in Chetumal and wanted to go on to Belize the next day, they took us to our accommodation and showed us around.

Best Island: Holbox, Mexico

All my friends who have been to Holbox rave about this island, so I really wanted to go there too! And they weren’t exaggerating. Holbox is beautiful and has a great vibe. The island is located north of the Yucatán Peninsula and the inhabited part is relatively small, so you can easily reach everything by bike! There are no cars on the island, but there are lots of golf carts.
The beaches are beautiful and there are also some where there is not much going on. We found Punta Cocos particularly beautiful, where no seaweed washes up like on many others. Nearby, there is a special natural spectacle: bioluminescent little animals that glow in the water. You can only see them at night and without moonlight, so we got up at 4 am and were rewarded with a fascinating sight. We could even swim in the glowing water and had little glowing dots all over our bodies. Really a special experience.
You can also see porpoises and crocodiles on Holbox, but we didn’t want to do any of the overpriced tours. Also because we liked Holbox so much already.

Best Transport: El Salvador

The most common means of public transport in Central America is the bus, so we mainly used it to get around. Only in Guatemala did we often travel in small shuttle buses with other travellers, as the places were sometimes quite isolated. But we both didn’t like that very much, we prefer to travel cheaply and with the locals.
Mexico certainly has the most comfortable buses and they are also extremely well equipped. Often there is even WiFi. However, they are also relatively expensive.
That’s why El Salvador wins this ranking. The bus system there was very extensive, so you can really get everywhere by bus. Also, the buses are very reliable and actually left at the times we were told (approximately). And also the prices were the lowest we had. A bus ride of up to 2 hours cost between 50 and 80 cents and the drivers never asked us for more. When I once misunderstood the price and wanted to give more, the bus driver refused and did not just pocket the money.
The last argument for the buses in El Salvador is the experience. As in many other Central American countries, many chicken buses, former school buses from the USA and real old-timers drive here. Compared to Guatemala, however, the drivers were much more relaxed and not as breakneck.

Most impressive Ruins: Tikal, Guatemala

Tikal was not only the most impressive archaeological site during this trip, but for me the best I have ever visited. This is despite the fact that I have visited many archaeological sites, including the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, the Acropolis in Athens and the Modern World Wonder Chichén Itza.
Tikal was a huge Mayan city that was home to up to 50,000 people – crazy for the time! On the guided tour, which was 5 hours long, we learned a lot about the Maya and it was again impressive how advanced they were in mathematics, astronomy and co, how accurately they could predict astronomical events, for example. We would certainly be much further ahead in science today! But the Mayan ruling elite kept their knowledge to themselves in order to maintain their god status, and so with the collapse of the great Mayan empires (even before the arrival of the Spanish), much of their knowledge was lost. And so the more than 6 million Maya who still live in Guatemala, Mexico and the like today have only a fraction of the knowledge, but the customs are still very much present.
What also makes Tikal special is that it lies in the middle of the jungle. Only a small part of the city has been excavated at all, so you walk past some “hills” that are actually overgrown temples. It is also because of the nature you walk through that Tikal is so beautiful. In fact, this is why the place is not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but also a World Heritage Site. There’s only 38 more places in the world.

Nicest City: Valladolid, Mexico

There is a lot to criticise about the Spanish and colonisation, but the Spanish architecture was really beautiful, so for me the colonial cities are usually the most beautiful cities in Central American countries. Unfortunately, they used stones from indigenous cities for many buildings, especially churches, which they tore down. What I also don’t like is that the cities are usually completely square, which takes away the spontaneity and surprise.
But the cityscape is usually beautiful and, above all, clean! Something that unfortunately cannot be said about many other places in Central America, as many people have no sense of pollution whatsoever and literally drop their plastic waste where they no longer need it….
The houses, at least in the centre of the colonial cities, are well kept and often painted in a variety of rich colours. In some cities, there are even colour catalogues that prescribe the colours in which a house can be painted. Certain architectural styles are also prescribed.
For me, these beautiful cities include Granada & Leon in Nicaragua and Antigua & Flores in Guatemala. But what Marieke and I liked best was the city of Valladolid in Mexico. I had been there before and was a fan of the city, which is colourful and beautiful and combines many of Mexico’s special features: including the karst caves Cenotes, indigenous culture and good food!

If you’ve read this far, or even if you’ve just scrolled over the pictures, I’m glad you’ve now got a small impression of our time in Central America. It’s really only a fraction of the pictures, stories, experiences and I am infinitely grateful that I was able to see, feel and taste it all.
I can recommend any country without reservation. Please get in touch if you want tips 🙂

Mexican hospitality: 4 weeks without hunger

In Mexico, I don’t have to get used to a new currency. In Mexico, I know what I can buy where and how much it costs. I know the routes, the people, the history and politics. So on the one hand, Mexico was relaxing: I could unpack my backpack in Cardonal and not have to pack it for a fortnight.
Cardonal is a small mountain village in the state of Hidalgo. I did my voluntary service there 9 years ago and even though I know people in many other places in Mexico and have lived in some of them, Cardonal is my home in Mexico. And by the way, it is a beautiful place!
Cardonal is located at an altitude of 2000 metres in the mountains. You won’t find any forests here, but you will find all kinds of cacti and fantastic views! The people are modest and hospitable, it is not as touristy as in other parts of Mexico, but rather original. There are even still some people who don’t speak Spanish, but the indigenous language Hñahñu.

There is one tourist place, however, and what a place it is: Tolantongo and La Gloria lie on either side of a river. But the water in this river is not ice cold like that of a normal mountain river. It is warm like in a bathtub and comes out of the earth here. The fact that an approx. 6m wide river of warm water forms is actually spectacular enough, but there are several spectacular caves to discover, beautiful natural pools and, at La Gloria, a fantastic natural bath in a rock crevice! Staying here in tents by the river or natural pool is indescribable.
But, as I have been there many times before and wanted to visit as many people as possible in the 4 weeks until Marieke joined us, I didn’t go to Tolantongo or La Gloria this time. And that brings us to the beautiful and exhausting part of Mexico: the visits.
The last time I was in Mexico was four and a half years ago, before that it was a maximum of one and a half years between my visits. And so the 4 weeks were packed with countless visits to sooo many people who mean a lot to me. It was wonderful and heart-filling! But it was also exhausting.
Little sleep was matched by excessive eating, because visits to Mexico always involve food. Either they cooked for me or invited me to some restaurant. So there were days when I had two breakfasts, two lunches and of course two dinners – 6 meals is quite a challenge.
But it’s not the first time I’ve been to Mexico 😉 So I was prepared and always ate so much that it wasn’t impolite and that I quenched my appetite for this unbelievably delicious food, but never so much that I couldn’t eat any more. Nevertheless, I didn’t get hungry during the 4 weeks 😀 An expression of Mexican hospitality and also of their culture: a no is only accepted reluctantly, because people think they have done something wrong if you don’t eat. And I don’t want them to feel bad 🙂

Of village festivals, fruit wine and my first tattoo

I don’t want to and won’t bug you here with a list of the names of the 19 families or over 80 friends I visited. I’ll draw a bit of my route and the stops I made, and tell you about a few special experiences.
If I find the time, I’ll also write about 2 or 3 other projects here. The first one I’ll present below – a migrant house that feeds people travelling through Mexico to the US. This is impressive work that I would like to share with you and that you can support if you want to!
But first about my visits: when I came to Mexico from Cuba, I first visited my friend Eduardo in Cuernavaca, about 2 hours away from Mexico. I know Eduardo from my semester abroad in Mexico and was on holiday with him on the coast at that time. Like me, Eduardo studied mathematics, but even then he was a bit more alternative than his fellow students, most of whom now work for Google, Oracle and the like. Eduardo is passionate about juggling and parcour and two years ago he discovered a new passion with which he wants to build up his own business: he ferments different fruit wines and they are really mega delicious!
After 3 days with Eduardo and his mother, I stayed for 2 weeks over Easter in Cardonal, my favourite place in the Mexican mountains. In addition to countless visits, I also took part in the Stations of the Cross at Easter, which are sometimes very elaborately acted out in Mexico. I was able to play a concert with some well-known friends, visit several village festivals and celebrate my birthday. The fact that over 40 friends came together at the celebration means the world to me. It was simply unbelievably beautiful!
I spent the night with my Mexican family: Obdulia and Martin are like parents to me, and Stephanie, Nicole and Christian are like siblings. But I spent at least as much time with my best friend Ivan and his family, I guess I have two Mexican families (if not many more) 🙂

How my friend Goyo, besides the solar boilers and the agave syrup he has been making for years, now also distils the finest schnapps is worth a blog post of its own, which I will write when the opportunity arises.
From Cardonal, after a few tears of farewell, we continued on to Queretaro. With Cristobal, whom I met during his voluntary service in Germany (for the last 7 years there have finally been reverse volunteers coming from Mexico to Germany), I visited Peña de Bernal, where we marvelled at the third highest monolith in the world!
The next day I went on to Guanajuato, where I started my semester abroad 5 years ago and made many friends. Even though many of my friends have moved away from the university, I still know some of them and had some great evenings in the bars. For me, Guanajuato is the most beautiful city in Mexico. It’s colourful, chaotic and has countless roof terraces with wonderful views. This is also where many of the bars are to be found, although I unfortunately noticed that about half of the good bars have fallen victim to Covid. (I’ll spare myself a joke about the Mexican beer brand here).

The most emotional reunion in Guanajuato was with my friend Reyna, who came all the way from Mexico City for the weekend. I was very close to Reyna during my semester abroad and our reunion was so nice that we spontaneously decided to get a tattoo together. If you’re curious about what it is, you’ll have to wait until we see each other live 😉

The biggest fair in Mexico and my Mexican granny

On the way from Guanajuato to Guadalajara, the second largest Mexican city, I made a stopover in Aguascalientes. My friend Daniel took me to a concert by the band Enjambre and to the biggest feria in Mexico. A feria is a fair held to celebrate the saints of towns and villages. In most places in Mexico, it is the biggest celebration of the year, perhaps together with the bank holidays on 15 September. And the one in Aguascalientes is the biggest in the country and was really impressive! There are hundreds of food stalls, carousels, arts and crafts, games and several stages throughout the city.
In Guadalajara, where I went the very next day in my visiting frenzy, I mainly visited fellow students from Guanajuato. Those who now work at Oracle or Walmart or others. Every reunion was really nice, but the one with my friends from Guanajuato was especially special because I saw them again for the first time!
In Guadalajara, I also met another ex-volunteer and a nun I lived with when I was volunteering in Cardonal. At that time, I lived with two priests and four nuns. Three of the nuns were relatively young and the fourth in the group, Madre Esther, was already old then. Now she is even more so. But she has not lost her big heart and her admirable missionary spirit (in her case absolutely positive and not so imposing as with the original missionaries). For example, she has complained to me several times that at the age of over 80 she is not allowed to leave the nuns’ home alone, where she is now staying. For me, Madre Esther is like a grandmother and she was just as happy as my grandmother was when I visited her <3

After the second largest city, the final stop of the visit was of course Mexico City, where I stayed with Reyna for 3 nights and met several friends every day. So, extremely exhausted but super happy, I sat down on the 28-hour bus to Cancun to meet Marieke. But the tourist part in the south of Mexico is part of the next blog entry, which I would like to combine with our short visit to Belize 🙂

The migranthouse “El Samaritano” close to Tula

Mexico has long been a transit country for people on their way to the US, because it is impossible not to travel through Mexico by land. And while the number of asylum applications from Mexicans in the US has fallen sharply in recent years – according to the Segob report, it was only 3.5 percent in 2022 – those from Central and South America have risen sharply. 22.7 per cent of applications came from Central America, 18.7 per cent from Venezuela and almost all of these people travel through Mexico.
There are also shuttles that take asylum seekers from Guatemala to the US-Mexico border, but hardly anyone can afford the $1,000 or so it costs. In Guatemala, I spoke to someone who made these shuttle trips through Mexico for years. Those who can afford them are quite safe, because the $1000 includes protection money to various Mexican cartels like the Zetas.
But since most cannot afford this, they have to find other ways to cover the minimum 2000km through Mexico. Many use the goods trains that pass through Mexico. Among Mexicans and asylum seekers, the train is only called “La Bestia” because it is so dangerous to jump on it and then jump off again somewhere else. Only recently, a man from Venezuela fell off the train near Tula and had to have both legs amputated – a terrible fate that is only one of many.
In addition, asylum seekers in Mexico are often treated like scum both by gangs and sometimes by the police. All this after they have already spent weeks or months on the road before Mexico. Many people from Venezuela also cross the extremely dangerous jungle of the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia, where gangs also frequently ambush them.
To support the people in Mexico, there are many so-called migrant houses, which are mainly located along the La Bestia train route. One of these extremely important houses is the migrant house “El Samaritano” near Tula.
We have been supporting “El Samaritano” for many years with the association animo e. V. and without having visited it, the project was a matter close to my heart, as flight & migration have been my political focus for years.
Animo e. V. is an association of former Mexico volunteers who work for intercultural exchange between Mexico and Germany.

When, during my visit to Mexico, I finally drove by the house in person, where several volunteers and friends of mine have helped in recent years, I was even more impressed than I was by the reports.
Near Tula, there is a place where the train regularly stops or slows down, so it is possible to hop on and off. There, “El Samaritano” opens its doors Tuesday to Sunday to serve the people. I was able to join the process for one day and also help out a bit.
On that day, about 15 asylum seekers arrived, most of them from Honduras or Venezuela. First, the people, who are usually very hungry, are offered breakfast. After breakfast, they can take a shower and get clothes from a clothing collection in case they need new clothes. Most of them had small backpacks with everything they had or still had. Of course, there is also a pharmacy so that people can get medical care if necessary.
Those who want to can rest afterwards. There is an extra rest area for women and children. When everyone had had breakfast and washed up, there was time for me to talk to the people and also to make some music with and for them. The fates and stories I overheard often reminded me of refugees I met during rescue missions in the Mediterranean. There were young men who left their families and sometimes even their wives and children behind in the hope of being able to provide for them better from the USA, as well as entire families who travelled together.
And unfortunately, the way asylum seekers are dealt with in the US is similar to the way they are dealt with in Europe. In the last three years, the US deported about 2.7 million people, 2.3 million of them to Mexico.
After the talks, we had lunch together before the people continued on their way. It was a depressing feeling to watch them leave.
For me, the work that Sister Luisa and so many other volunteers do is incredibly important and I am glad that I was able to get a better impression.
If, like me, you would like to support the project, I would be very happy to do so and you can transfer money to the animo e. V. account. 100% of the donations will go to “El Samaritano”. Animo is an honorary association that bears the extremely low administrative costs through membership fees.

animo e. V.
IBAN: DE98 4006 0265 0018 4487 00
BIC: GENODEM1DKM

Alternatively, you can send me money via PayPal to kai-echelmeyer@web.de, which I will then transfer 100% to animo.

Thank you very much for your support!