And There I Was Volume VII: A Backpacking Adventure in Guatemala

Alive and Well--The Mayan...The year was 2002 and the author was about to embark on the seventh of nine journeys in the "And There I Was" series---Guatemala. The Mayan civilization still survives after emerging from thirty-four years of scorched-earth destruction and genocide supported and precipitated by the CIA's assassination of the country's democratically elected President who dared disturb America's economic interests in support of land reform and peasant rights. Travel amongst beautiful indigenous people in a land of stunning topography---emerald lakes, forest-clad highlands, rainforest and jungle---studded at every turn with smoking volcanoes and the colorful dress of the gentle Maya. Visit an extraordinary enclave on the Caribbean coast known as the Garifuna and the hellhole that was the home of the United Fruit Company. As always, the people and their precious children---a little blind girl on Lago Atitlan and little Gloria in the highlands who'd had her fingers removed during the war. There too, was gentle Gaspar and his son, Mayan recently returned from exile in Mexico, trying to rebuild their village while keeping alive the memory of those that had lost their lives. The journey comes to a climactic close when a gun-toting gangster threatens to kill a child football player on the Rio Dulce.