Guatemala Travel Guide

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Cuisine

There are restaurants and cafes serving a wide selection of cooking styles including American, Argentinian, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Mexican and Spanish. There are many fast-food chains and continental-style cafes. Food usually varies in price rather than quality and some of the cheap eateries are amongst the best.

National specialties:
• Kaq Ic (soup made from turkey and seasoned with samat (a herb from Alta Verapaz).
• Guacamole.
• Flan de naranja (orange-flavored flan).

National drinks:
• Coffee.
• Gallo beer.
• Quetzalteca (an extremely potent raw cane spirit).

Tipping: 10% is normal in restaurants where service has not been included.

Nightlife

In Guatemala City in particular, there are nightclubs with modern music and dance, featuring national and international artists. Guatemala is the home of marimba music, which can be heard at several venues. In the cities, the marimba is a huge elaborate xylophone with large drum sticks played by four to nine players. In rural areas the sounding boxes are made of different shaped gourds (marimbas de tecomates). There are regular concerts throughout Guatemala. There are also theaters with numerous plays in English and other cultural performances. Films with English and Spanish subtitles are often shown in major towns.