Behind The Coconut Curtain

Before I start sounding too much like the president of the Izabal Chamber of Commerce, I want to level with you here if you are seriously considering purchasing land in Izabal, Guatemala (or anywhere else in Latin America, for that matter, every part of which has some version of the story I am about to relate here). You can easily spend a month or more in the neighborhood as a vacationing tourist and never be aware of all the political drama going on behind the coconut trees. But if you're seriously considering making a larger commitment to the area, it probably would behoove you to read my oversimplified interpretation of what is going on behind the scenes down there (ask ten other people, and you would get eleven other interpretations, of course).

If you look at a map of Izabal, Guatemala, particularly the stretch of river between Rio Dulce and Livingston, you will no doubt notice that the whole area (essentially, the entire waterfront) has been declared a "national park" by the Guatemalan government. Like most Gringos, you will probably jump to the understandable conclusion that this must mean that the river is lined with thick tropical rainforest, teeming with all sorts of exotic wildlife. Well, you would be about half-right... The vast majority of the once-teeming wildlife has ended up in the stewpots of the exploding local population, and the "protected" jungle is under serious assault from everything from chainsaws on down to machetes. To Gringo eyes, the jungle still appears to be luxurious -- and there are still large stretches of (so-far) uncut forest remaining -- but with each passing year (make that month, or day), more trees hit the dirt, to be sliced up for lumber or, more commonly, to be hacked up for firewood.

The other ironic thing you will soon figure out about "Rio Dulce National Park" is that it is already full of ramshackle primitive houses inhabited by the local indigenous Mayan population, with more and more beautiful homes being built every day by Gringos, other foreigners, and rich Guatemalan landowners from the city. As you begin to peel back the layers of what is going on down there in the jungle, some fascinating, though disturbing, patterns emerge. It would be way beyond the scope of this little website to go into great detail about Guatemalan politics in Izabal, Guatemala, but I will try to touch on the two most salient points, which would be the local Mayan population on one hand, and the voracious deforestation of the jungle on the other.

A tiny bit of oversimplified history of the region to set the stage... When the Guatemalan government created the Rio Dulce "National Park" upteen years ago, the area really WAS an untouched jungle teeming with all sorts of exotic wildlife. One long-time resident told me of the days barely a dozen years ago when he had jaguars eating monkeys in his back yard. Well, the jaguars -- not to mention the monkeys -- are long gone, no doubt never to return. The once-abundant caimans (small alligators) have been reduced to a tiny remnant population at the extreme western shore of Lake Izabal. I challenge you to find a lousy turtle or squirrel left in Rio Dulce National Park. (Amazingly, the wading bird population appears to be in fairly stable shape, and I have spotted otters, toucans and boa constrictors.)

The reasons for this precipitous decline in wildlife and ever-increasing assault on the remaining virgin jungle are myriad and complicated. To oversimplify: during the 30-year Civil War that ended (we hope) in 1996, the mercilessly persecuted indigenous Maya, to save their lives and the lives of their families, fled from the western highlands where they were being massacred. About the only place left for them to escape to was the swampy riverside jungle of the remote Rio Dulce "National Park." (The Maya you see in Rio Dulce today are not remnant populations of the ancient pyramid builders from 1000 years ago, they are recent transplants from less than 20 years ago.) When they got to their new home, they found the ground was worthless to grow anything to eat, so they did what any intelligent starving person would do: they ate everything they could find that swam, crawled, or flew (except the egrets and cormorants, which apparently taste awful, or they, too, would be as rare as tapirs today).

Before I tread one step further into this iffy territory, I need to make another El Pirate disclaimer, this time about the "Mayan Dilemma." Here goes: Please understand that I adore the Mayan people. Never in my life have I met a more humble, polite, soft-spoken, hard-working group of folks than the Mayan friends I have met in Izabal, Guatemala. The plight they have suffered for the past 500 years is tragic beyond words, and their enduring poverty is heartbreaking. And you had better believe that we Gringos buying land in Izabal need the Maya a HELLUVALOT more than they need us! If the Maya REALLY want to rebel against their plight and bring us Gringos to our knees, all they need to do is not show up for work for three days running, and the entire Gringo ex-pat community would collapse. And you had better believe if I were hungry and needed to feed my family, I would eat every squirrel and turtle I could lay my machete on. And if I needed firewood to cook my squirrel-turtle soup on, I would chop down every tree in the forest. As I hear so many Gringos in the area say, nobody "blames" the Maya for their mistreatment of the land, but it is a fact of life in the jungle that cannot be swept under the carpet any longer.

That disclaimer out of the way, here is the bottom line: whatever your opinion about Guatemalan politics, the horrendous mistreatment of the Maya by the government, etc., the ugly fact is that the Maya -- through no "fault" of their own -- are a serious threat to what little remains of the jungle in Rio Dulce "National Park." While everybody frets over what to do about the "Mayan dilemma," the forest continues to fall at an alarming rate, one machete whack at a time. This is the situation you will be getting into if you decide to buy land in Izabal, make no mistake about it.

So, what does all this mean for Gringos buying land in the area? A couple of things:

-- When you buy land (actually, when you LEASE it, which I will get to in a moment), you very well may be buying it from a Mayan family already living there. If so, that probably means you will have to kick them off to make room for yourself. Of course, if there is nobody left to guard your land because you kicked them off, who do you think is going to guard it from "squatters" (exactly WHO is the squatter in this equation, anyway?) while you're not there? This is a real dilemma, and one with no easy fix (I, personally, try to buy vacant land and hire the nearest Mayan neighbor to be my guardian).

-- And, no doubt the most absurd conclusion I will draw, but one I am forced to admit is accurate after studying the dynamic down there: The single best way to save the remaining rain forest in Rio Dulce National Park is for a bunch of Gringos to buy up all the remaining forest and build houses on it. There, I said it. If you had said that patently absurd statement to me a few years ago, I would have accused you of being a racist at best, crazy at worst. I am neither, but I have reached this conclusion after hearing other Gringos voice the same opinion, and seeing it with my own eyes. The logic is fairly straightforward: Generally speaking (and there are exceptions to this rule as there are to all rules), Gringos do not cut down trees on their property for firewood, they save them, and reforest areas that have been cut before they arrived. Gringos do not raise large families of children on their plots of rainforest. Gringos do not eat squirrels and monkeys. Okay, I have made my point -- and though I would readily agree with you that Gringos, per capita, take a MUCH bigger bite out of Mother Earth on a planetary scale than any Mayan could ever hope to taste, they take a much SMALLER bite out of this PARTICULAR little corner of Mother Earth. So, to repeat my absurd contention: The single best way to save the remaining rain forest in Rio Dulce National Park is for a bunch of Gringos to buy up all the remaining forest and build houses on it. Period.

Don't get me wrong. What I strongly believe is that the Guatemalan government ought to kick EVERYONE -- Mayan, Guatemalan, and Gringo -- out of Rio Dulce National Park, once and for all and forever. The situation is crazy. But the bottom line is that it ain't gonna happen. Everybody wants their piece of the pie, and some map that calls a place a "national park" isn't going to stem the tide.

Enough background information for now. You can either CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE PROPERTY LISTINGS, or read on to find out what all this behind-the-scenes political shenanigans means to a Gringo shopping for land in Izabal, Guatemala.