Subject: Alert for Individual Birders Planning a Trip to Guatemala
Date: Feb 17 14:29:32 2001
From: Bob Hansen - bhansen at teleport.com


In Antigua, Guatemala, on January 13th ( my second day of a 17 day birding
vacation to Guatemala and Belize), I was assaulted and robbed of my
binoculars, digital camera, guidebooks, passport and money. Total value
lost in about 40 seconds was $2,800. I was relatively lucky, as a
British-American birder near Tikal a week early tried to flee a robbery and
was shot and paralyzed.

As a result of this event and other events like it that were related to me,
I decided to convey my story to others, particularly those birders who are
considering a birding trip such as I planned to Guatemala. I had heard
that going to the volcanos near Antigua, whether alone or in groups, was
unsafe. I had not heard that birding in Antigua in daylight hours was
unsafe. In talking to others, I heard mixed reports...some saying it is
commonly known to be unsafe in this particular park, others saying it is
unusual for a male to be attacked in daylight so close to residential area.
As it turns out, it is recommended you arrange a police escort while
birding the Candelaria Park on your way to the hill with the cross (Cerro
de la Cruz).

It is not my intent to:

--> speak about the relative safety of other third world countries, except
to say that I did not experience nor hear about similar events in my four
recent trips to Belize and Costa Rica in the last 5 years.

--> create nor reinforce a stereotype about 3rd world countries, especially
those in the western hemisphere. My sense is that more than 90% of the
Guatemalans are warm, friendly, honest people who are or would be more
enraged by the events that happened to me in their country than I was.

--> speak about guided or group tours. Although I understand that no one is
completely safe from being shot at in a public bus or having their tour van
stopped and being robbed, my comments are intended for individual birders
birding near tourist locations (e.g., Tikal, Peton, Antigua, etc)

--> scare individual birders from going to other third world countries. My
assessment is that Guatemala has a higher risk of robbery and violence
(bodily harm) than other countries.

I am interested in sharing information, but I am not interested in getting
into a debate with those who once went to Antigua 20 years ago, and found
it safe then, have not been back since, but are sure nothing has changed.
People who live there will tell you differently.

And finally, this was not my first trip to a foreign country. I was robbed
in Costa Rica, at the Carrera Reserve and I did not feel a need to alert
others to the danger. I have spent more than two years travelling outside
the United States, alone, much of the time in 3rd world countries from
Bali to Nepal and India. I am familiar with how to survive alone on the
road on the cheap. This was by far the worst experience I have had.

With all this said, here is the web site for my account.

http://www.teleport.com/~bhansen/guatemala.htm