okay let's do this hello youtube in today's video i'm going to be
sharing my experiences traveling through two very popular tourism destinations guatemala
and mexico these are both countries that i love i've been to each of them multiple times now
so i have a lot to say i also made some little notes for this video so
so i am prepared let's get right to it so first of all let's share a little bit about the
history and culture whether you paid attention in history class or not you probably are aware that
mexico and guatemala came from the spanish empire like these were parts of new spain that were
being conquered by the spaniards around the same time in history because of that you see a lot of
similarities you know the same style churches the same style architecture similarities in terms of
the food but with that being said there are places in mexico that are culturally quite different than
guatemala and they tend to be further to the north generally speaking the further north you
go in mexico the more americanized americanized like using the united states not like we're all
in the americas north america south america i know some people like to point that out the further in
mexico the closer it is geographically and culturally to the united states whereas in
south mexico you still have that traditional more indigenous more pre-hispanic tradition
which of course runs all through guatemala all right let's move on to food and food is one where
to be honest i gotta give mexico the edge and this is a bit unfair to guatemala because like let's
remember guatemala's population is small it's only about 17 million people i should double check that
guatemala population yeah 16.86 million people i mean it's it's not a large number mexico city
the metro region has more people than all of guatemala and so what you have in a country
like mexico is you have all these different states with their own culinary tradition
when you talk about the diversity of mexican food it's just on a level that guatemala can't reach
like guatemala has their delicious classic staple foods but in terms of variety
it's more similar to a single state within mexico now with that being said when i was in antigua
which is a very popular city in guatemala there's all kinds of diverse like it's a very diverse food
scene all these meals from all around the world a lot of expats a lot of immigrants who have opened
like spanish or french or italian restaurants so you can definitely find diversity but if you're
just talking about guatemalan food versus mexican food it's hard to compete with mexican food
in this case okay so i got lots more to tell you about the differences between guatemala and mexico
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supporting my work and now let's get back to the differences between guatemala and mexico
now let's move on to climate and this is somewhere where actually guatemala might have the edge
again mexico is a huge country like there's places that are really really hot like
pretty much all the time like merida and uh like a lot of the beach towns are just crazy hot
um guatemala for example guatemala i lived a month in guatemala city guatemala city is a place that
is basically 25 degrees celsius year-round i mean it's just like you can wear a t-shirt
every day of the year it's just the perfect weather it's not too hot it's not too cold
now in mexico i don't know is there any city like that i mean mexico city is like pretty
temperate mexico city doesn't get too hot but in the winter i mean it doesn't
snow but it almost gets cold enough like some nights it's like two or three degrees celsius
and if you don't have a heater like no one in mexico city has heaters suddenly you're
shivering all winter i never had that problem when i was visiting guatemala
so i would say mexico like you need to be a bit more aware of what season you visit if you are
going to a beach town in the summer you're going to be boiling if you're going to like somewhere at
higher altitude like mexico city or cuerto uh in the winter you're gonna be freezing just plan it a
bit more if you go to mexico uh in guatemala it's i mean unless you're climbing a volcano i guess
like there are places that get cold but uh usually you gotta like climb to get to them now i want to
briefly talk about ethnicity and the population data so this is something i kind of hinted at
before when i was saying that guatemala has that indigenous tradition an interesting fact i found
is that in guatemala 42 of people identify as mayan crazy right i mean like we read about
the mayans and we sometimes like people like me canadians we think oh the mayans are gone well
the mayans aren't gone their culture has changed and they are living
in the modern world right the mayan tradition still exists very much in places like guatemala
now the majority of guatemalans still uh identify as latino i mean i didn't even know what ladino
was but it's a term which means a mix between hispanic and uh indigenous so of course not
everyone in guatemala is pre-hispanic but a large number of people are in mexico on the
other hand a country that also has a rich indigenous tradition if you're going by the
ability to speak an indigenous language it is 6.1 percent if it's racial self-identification
it's 14.9 percent and if you're asking people if they are part indigenous it goes up to 23
so depending on how you characterize it it is higher or lower but that's nowhere near the 46
percent we have in guatemala a couple other fun facts here uh mexico has a history of people from
lebanon like the middle east and that's actually where the taco al pastor came from which is now
one of the most famous tacos in mexico city it came from the arab tradition of immigrants coming
from that part of the world and also in guatemala something i just realized recently is there's
actually an afro-guatemalan community they're living more on the coast of guatemala closer to
the caribbean all right now let's let's talk about a big one for travelers cost of living
and this one is actually surprising i you would imagine you know two culturally similar places
um maybe the cost is about the same but in fact guatemala is significantly more expensive
some websites saying that guatemala is 36.4 percent more expensive another website has
it listed as 27 more expensive i can't verify the math on those numbers but i can tell you
having visited each of these countries multiple times i've noticed it as well and
i don't really know why like i can't actually tell you how guatemala got to be more expensive i can
tell you a neighboring country costa rica is also very expensive and it's a shame because it's not
like the average guatemalan is making a lot of money and so for the locals there it's it's it's
not a good thing that their cost is this high in fact i have a friend who lives in guatemala
and she was telling me about how she's always shocked at the price of coffee in guatemala given
that they're a coffee producing country and you know sometimes you're paying 20 cat salads just
for a basic cup of coffee which is you know it's like three dollars that's like canada prices and
canadian salaries are quite a bit higher than the guatemalans so yeah i haven't figured that out if
anyone from guatemala knows what that's about let us know in the comment section
one more thing i forgot to mention when i was filming this video
there are certain places in mexico where the gringo pricing is very much in effect tulum
excuse me um and when you go to these places and you get caught inside the tourist bubbles you can
easily be paying more than in guatemala so always be aware that pricing varies a lot depending on
how touristic the area you're in happens to be finally i just want to share a few thoughts on
what are the biggest attractions in each of these countries this will give you an idea
maybe which country is is better for you so when it comes to guatemala one of the first things
people like to do is hike volcanoes it's one of the more volcanic countries in the world i mean
like literally from antigua you can see at least four different volcanoes and actually sometimes
you can see them erupting like one of them i think it's volcan del fuego is just constantly
erupting and so in the night sky you can see like little puffs of red and smoke and it's super cool
but if you want to see an active volcano guatemala is one of the best places in the world for that
other things going back to the indigenous tradition you see a lot of textiles
these beautiful outfits that you see guatemalans wearing throughout the country can be bought at
very affordable prices and as i was just talking about coffee i mean you can visit a coffee farm
you can learn more about the production um i'm a coffee addict so that's always i just want to
say thank you for all the endless hours of energy you've given me over the years i never would have
made it without you oh and chocolate too if you're not a coffee drinker they've got lots of good uh
chocolate as well um and finally the nature when i think about guatemala i think of nature i think
of the beautiful lake i think of the jungle which take a bus ride through the country it's frankly
it's mostly jungle like guatemala is mostly jungle as well as some coast and and some cities but it's
i think of a green very very biodiverse place so if that if that sounds like what you're
after guatemala is a good pick now mexico has green jungles as well don't get me wrong but i
think when most people travel to mexico let's be honest the first thing they think of is the beach
mexico is blessed with just huge varieties of beautiful coastlines uh for pasty skinned
canadians to get sunburned as they lay in the sun um another big thing food obviously i you
know i gave the advantage to mexico and food so i think if you are foodie and you want to uh
or if you like to drink i mean mezcal tequila it's just food and drink is one of the uh one
of the joys of visiting mexico and you know prices are getting more expensive but you can still find
some good deals if you get away from the tourist traps nightlife again mexico i mean like don't
get me wrong guatemala city antigua you have some places to party i mean it's it's getting there but
in terms of variety i would i would say mexico is more of the party spot uh and also luxury travel
when i think about very expensive five-star beach resorts yeah that's probably more mexico guatemala
again it's more traditional more natural mexico i mean mexico's got a lot of different sides but
you're talking about more like big cities beaches food stuff like that at the end of the day both
these countries are definitely worth a visit and i mean they're neighbors so you could potentially
visit them both on the same trip it's not like they're opposite sides of the world or whatever
as always i'm dan from the new travel hope you like this video i'll see you next time peace
i don't know what i'm doing with my hands oh god
that was awkward one day i will figure out this youtube stuff but not today why am i still talking