Guatemala treasures Maya ruins and their rich history TIKAL
NATIONAL PARK, Guatemala - On the road to the Maya ruins we sat
in our guide George Hernandez's van, waiting for him to complete
the paperwork in the concrete immigration building at the
Guatemalan border. As he jumped in and shifted gears, he warned
us it would be a long, bumpy ride with no facilities en route,
suggesting we stop at the gas station just ahead. My heart raced
as I watched my husband, Tom, get the men's room key from a
uniformed soldier with a rifle. A few miles down the dirt road,
we passed an army barracks and saw armed men in camouflage
fatigues looking out over the horizon. While Guatemala's 36-year
civil war ended in 1996, the military is a presence along its
border with Belize. We were later told that many Guatemalan Maya
relocated to Belize to escape becoming victims of "ethnic
cleansing." Hernandez's father, along with many others,
emigrated from Guatemala to Belize in the early 1900s, at the
end of the Caste War, in which the