Guatemaya
Matteo's beautiful dream on Guatemala
We are very happy to give life to this column of your trips with the interview to Matteo, mind behind the project Guatemaya . Matteo has recently decided to devote himself full time to his dreams, which originate in Central America
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Tell us something about you and how your blog is born
Florentine by birth, Mexican by adoption but married with a guatemalan, A true twisted picture?
Well for “Mexican by adoption” I refer to the fact that my maternal grandparents have lived in Mexico since '72 and consequently I started my trips to Mexico from the age of 10 years. I consider it my first house on an equal footing with Guatemala.
I immediately fell in love with this country because of the marked cultural and lifestyle diversity that boasts towards the much civilized Italy and Europe in general. A lifestyle that I love, much more calm, much more face to “enjoy the present” enjoy this.
But what most impressed me immediately of this country is the “kindness” (kindness) Mexicans, stuff that does not exist in Italy, or perhaps it exists in the South but that at least from us in Tuscany is unobtainable commodity.
In the meantime my life flows, I graduate in economics and trade at the University of Florence and as a first job I start working with an accountant. I don't know why but I never managed to conform much, The linear and classic paths are not really part of my way of thinking. I decided to leave for Mexico to look for “something” that it was better than my present at that moment.
And that's how I lived in Mexico in 2014 per 6 months, And it was here that I met Karen, even if we even put together well 2 Years later when she came to Europe to take a holiday with some of her friends.
And it is in 2016 that I met Guatemala for the first time and I really fell in love with it, Also because knowing him together with a person who was born and raised means first of all to know him in a more in -depth way but, secondly, It means discovering even the deepest and controversial aspects, aspects that a simple tourist maybe don't even care, but that from a professional point of view in my work they certainly make the difference.
Always in 2016 I start working on a project, A tour operator on Mexico with a friend who has a travel agency in the province of Florence and who shares his passion for Mexico with me since he too had lived us even a couple of years and that his ex -girl was Mexican in fact.
I owe a lot to this project because it allowed me to learn practically everything I know about tourism. It also allowed me to travel a lot in Mexico thanks to the relationships that we cultivated with the Mexican tourism body in Rome, that every year invited us to the main tourist fair of the country, The famous tourist Tianguis, thus allowing us to do, After the fair, of the familiarization tours around Mexico, So knowing the territory better and weave solid relationships with suppliers.
The project really thrilled me a lot, So much to become a real obsession; I was working on it 12 hours a day, In addition to the fact that to keep myself I did a second part time job, I practically come to no longer have a lifetime because my happiness was not in the present but was projected in the future success of my beloved tour operator.
But then I realized that, As far as I commit myself, As much as I sacrificed my life and also as far as the project already went well, I would never have achieved success and happiness, I felt frustrated, dissatisfied and sad. This is because my partner, from the great friend who was before, It had been transformed practically into my boss, He decided my salary (I dare say non -existent), he decided my timetable, He decided on the corporate philosophy, the product etc. etc.…So at the end of the story, From deeply to Amare the project I came to hate him with all of myself, simply because I felt I did not have a say, I don't feel like mine anymore. And in addition to all this I had practically annihilated my life and my person.
And so I said to myself: cabbage I have great knowledge of Mexico, I have a great knowledge of Guatemala, so many right hooks, Karen graduated in tourism and knows her country very well… But because I don't start doing something that is really mine, where it really can decide?
And you cannot imagine what pain make a similar decision after working on one thing for 3 years and literally throw all your dreams into the nettles in one fell swoop, Your efforts and your job.
And that's how Guatemaya was born, which is probably not a tour operator but more a travel philosophy; And it is precisely through this blog and my YouTube channel that I hope to transmit this philosophy to all the people who want to know Guatemala, Mexico and Belize.
How your passion for travel was born?
Well you know someone who doesn't like traveling? Maybe I don't!
But frankly I do not consider myself a fixed trips, yes of course I like to know and visit new places…But my focus is always on Mexico, Guatemala e Belize. It gives me much more taste to travel within these three countries because I feel that you never stop discovering them all the way, they always have new surprises to give you.
Unfortunately today, especially due to the existence of social networks, traveling has become almost a fashion, you travel to take a selfie in cool places… to always appear on vacation in the eyes of yours “amici”…There are few people who travel to truly understand a culture different from their own, to live it, Know a lifestyle different from yours, get stories tell… These are all things that now in most cases have passed second or even third or fourth floor.
It is said that traveling open your right mind? Yes because theoretically knows ways of living with a perspective different from yours.
But how many travel organizers are able to open your mind? Because visiting the places of interest is something that in my opinion can do everyone, indeed one can do it very well even alone, Open Skyscanner and book the flight, Open Booking and book hotels, Open GetyoutGuide and purchases the cutest excursions. It doesn't take a genius.
But between organizing a trip and traveling really there is a nice difference.
Because traveling means living experiences with local people, Taste typical things with them, Maybe try to learn their language and yours. The speech of the language is also fundamental, Maybe it doesn't matter to learn it perfectly but making the effort to use their terms as much as possible is very simpático and useful.
For example, many go to Mexico and lock themselves in an all inclusive resort, But they do not know that a few meters from them live indigenous community both of Mexico but above all of Guatemala where the Mayans live. But I don't say as a joke, they are original Maya that do not speak Spanish, they speak their indigenous language, they dress with their typical clothes, they pray their religion, In short, there is a crazy world to discover much more interesting than the international buffet in the Mega Resort in Cancun.
I hope through this blog and to the YouTube channel to transmit these values more and more to people even if I don't pretend to be right, it's just my idea, But maybe someone may like this vision and embracing it in my opinion will be better in his next trips or at least I hope you can find it better.
Why did you choose Guatemala as a destination?
As I said before, Guatemala that made me know Karen literally made me fall in love because it is a country as small as it is complete and full of personality.
The beautiful thing about knowing both Mexico and Guatemala is that I can compare these two cultures and the stunning thing is that despite being practically the same territory and people are the same as ethnicity and as origins…They are two countries very distant from many points of view, From language to customs and also the same temperament of the two peoples is completely different.
Obviously I do the comparison with the part of Mexico closest to Guatemala, The one with Coi shares the MAYA descendant, Because it would be impossible to make a comparison with the rest of Mexico which is an immense country from the point of view of the extension of the territory, which was inhabited by many different civilizations (aztec, Olmachi, toltechi, teotihuacani ecc ecc).
What do you do to make your travels more ecological?
First it must be said that for example Guatemala is becoming a truly eco-friendly country, Above all, the area of Antigua and Lake Atitlan really offer so much from the "staff" point of view as they say in Spanish, which would then be our "organic"; Many hotels and restaurants using typical products of the area and often even cultivated by themselves.
In our Tours we only use typical hotels and where possible also ecological. No resorts or chain hotels.
A project, which for now is simply an idea, is to give a percentage of our sales for an important ecological cause, Like the safeguarding of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala or the construction of Anti Sargazo barriers in the Riviera Maya. It would be something that would do very happy and at the same time it would make the conscious traveler happy that with the simple fact of embarking on a journey he would contribute to the small part to preserve a part of this world.
But I would like to be able to do something more than the simple donating, I would like travelers to be part of the interventions and improvements performed in the projects in which their money ended. In practice, the possibility of touching real projects with the hand and having the opportunity to see tangible results over time, the so said "work advancement".
I know it may seem utopian but I think it's a totally feasible thing.
Easy Travel Hosting Thanks a lot Matteo for his article on Guatemala, land that is particularly close to us as one of the founders of this hosting company is Guatemaltec of origins.
If you want to inform yourself more about Matteo's projects, You can follow him on his site By clicking here
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