Last month I went to the city to get new tires. I made the trip on a bad tire that I had no confidence in. I arrived to find the city (Santa Elena) full of Army troops and every business was closed. You would have thought there was some sort of coup, but it turns out they were celebrating Army Day. It was a Tuesday, and Army Day was not supposed to be scheduled until Friday, but Santa Elena decided to celebrate on Tuesday. So I returned on Wednesday to find out that it was Banker's Day. On Banker's Day, everybody is closed except the Bank, which is open for just a half day.
How do you make money when you take off for any number of reasons and just shut down your business? You don't, which is another reason why people here are poor. Also, how does somebody not from your town know about the holidays without paying money in gas or transportation? There is no official Guatemalan calendar that announces every holiday in every town.
Another time I needed to get some truck paperwork done. Being short on cash I decided to take a bus, sleep on the way, and take a bus back that same day. I called an acquaintance in Guate the day before I left to let him know I was coming. He had some work to do in Guate, so we couldn't get together. That night I left on the bus at 10:00pm and arrived in Guate at 7:00am. Once I arrived I discovered there was a Guate City only holiday and nobody was working that day. So I had to pay for a hotel to come back the next day. I called my acquaintance (notice I didn't say friend) and asked him about the holiday. He replied, "Oh yeah, I thought about that after you called, but guessed you'd just figure it out when you got here." Sometimes Gringos are stupid too. :)
The US embassy is even worse. They work Monday through Thursday and a half day on Friday. However, they also take off all US holidays, Guatemalan National Holidays, and Guatemala City Holidays.
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