30th November 2017 Guatemala City
My time as British Ambassador to Guatemala has come to an end. After slightly more than two years representing the UK in this fascinating country, I am changing my role to become British Ambassador to Honduras. One thing I can say about Guatemala is that I have never been bored here. I arrived in mid-August […]
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21st March 2017 Guatemala City
The next morning we were woken before dawn by the roaring of Howler Monkeys in the trees. We set out early for La Danta. Passing various excavations on the way, at one point our guide removed a tarpaulin to show us something of archaeological interest but all we could see were squirming snakes, tarantulas and […]
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14th March 2017 Guatemala City
Three years ago, when I first heard I was being posted to Guatemala, I spotted in the guide books a mention of a ruined Mayan city deep in the jungle which was only accessible by walking for five days there and back. I instantly decided I had to go there. And finally, last month, I […]
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8th March 2017 Guatemala City
Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette who led the fight – and it really was a fight – for women’s right to vote in the UK at the turn of the 20th century, is Manchester’s most famous daughter. I feel a particular affinity to her, not only because Manchester is my home town, but also because her […]
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6th February 2017 Guatemala City
It is always an enormous pleasure to go to Antigua. It’s only an hour (in reasonable traffic, that is!) from Guatemala City, but it is like being in a different world, with its beautiful colonial buildings, churches and cobbled streets, its bars, restaurants and language schools, and its relaxed pace of life. A couple of […]
9th December 2016 Guatemala City
Saturday 10 December marks UN Human Rights Day, which commemorates the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Speaking in London on the eve of her visit to Guatemala, the Minister at the Foreign Office with special responsibility for human rights, Baroness Anelay, said: “All […]
15th November 2016 Guatemala City
This week I visited a British NGO working in Guatemala City with children who live on the streets. Street Kids Direct ( www.streetkidsdirect.org.uk ) is a British-run organisation which offers a ray of hope to children who live in the markets and on the streets around Guatemala City’s main bus station, known as “La Terminal”. […]
29th September 2016 Guatemala City
Tikal As offered, this is the second part of the blog about the adventures we had on holidays in Guatemala, hope you enjoy! The following day we drove up through Flores (a really delightful town on its compact little island in lake Peten Itza) and on to Tikal. Tikal is the jewel of all Mayan […]
22nd September 2016 Guatemala City
Guatemala is blessed with a huge diversity of tourist sites. Best known are the charming Spanish-colonial city of Antigua, the stunning Mayan ruins of Tikal, and the beautiful volcano-ringed lake of Atitlan. But it also boasts some other remarkable but less known sites, which draw significant number of discerning travellers – and especially young backpackers. […]
14th September 2016 Guatemala City
As a public servant and as a Briton, to talk about democracy is to talk about something I am passionate about. It’s not that I am an expert in the topic, but it is a system with which I can identify closely and it is an ideal which drives every day of my working life. […]