Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Electricity
Nearly all outlets are 110 volts, 60 cycles with outlets for plugs consisting of parallel flat
blades just like the ones found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Power outages
and electrical surges are common in rural areas, especially during unusually arid dry sea-
sonsorverywetrainyseasonsinthunder-storms.Beextracarefulwithsensitiveequipment
such as laptop computers.
Measurements
Like the American and European influences on its culture, Guatemala uses a sometimes
confusing mixture of weights and measures from both the metric and old English systems.
Fruitsandvegetablesareweighedbythepound,butfolksweighthemselvesinkilos;gasis
dispensed in gallons but distances are computed in kilometers, and so on and so forth.
Another commonly used distance measurement is the
vara,
equivalent to 0.84 meters or
a little less than a yard. For measuring land areas, the
manzana
equals about 0.7 hectare or
1.7acresandthe
caballería
coversalittlemorethan45hectaresor111.5acres.The
quintal
is widely used for weighing coffee and is the equivalent of 46 kilos.
The following U.S. car-rental agencies are represented in Guatemala and have
kiosks at La Aurora International Airport:
Advantage
(tel. 2332-7525 Guatemala City or 800/777-5500 toll-free U.S.,
Alamo
(tel. 5219-7469 Guatemala City or 800/462-5266 toll-free U.S.,
Avis
(tel. 2331-0017 Guatemala City or 800/331-1212 toll-free U.S.,
Budget
(tel. 2332-7744 Guatemala City or 800/472-3325 toll-free U.S.,
www.budget.com
or
www.budgetguatemala.com.gt
)
Dollar
(tel. 2331-7185
Guatemala City or 800/800-4000 toll-free U.S.,
www.dollar.com
)
Hertz
(tel. 2470-3800 Guatemala City or 800/654-3001 toll-free U.S.,
Thrifty
(tel. 2379-8747 Guatemala City or 800/847-4389 toll-free U.S.,
Potential travelers to Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve are urged to contact
one of the conservation groups managing the individual parks before planning a
