Guatemalan Time

Chances are, you`ve heard of Guatemalan time. It`s the same as Latino or Central American time. North Americans might call it "being late".

The fact is, life just moves at a slower pace down here and if you don`t just give in and go with the flow, you`ll be frustrated 99% of the time. I learned this the hard way, because back in Canada, I was that person who showed up 5-10 minutes early for everything, who had things all neatly scheduled out and who needed a plan. All that went right out the window once I got down here!

Photo by rahego

Here, it`s still normal to have a siesta after lunch. It`s really not uncommon to find stores, particularly the small, family run ones, closed between 12 and 2 pm. It`s a little frustrating when you want bread for lunch and the bakery is closed just at that time, but you learn to buy ahead in the morning or opt for tortillas which are always available at noon. And there`s nothing so relaxing as sprawling on the couch after a hearty lunch of tortillas and churrasco and letting it all digest.

That`s the nice part about Latino time.

But then there`s the downside. Like showing up for work . . . or rather, NOT showing up. We`re currently building a house and have been for the past 4 years. The bathroom still isn`t finished. We`ve gone through 7 different builders.

Because this is where Guatemalan time REALLY starts to kick in. We`re not talking about an hour, but days. For example, my husband ordered sand for mixing the concrete footings for the bathroom and they delivered it . . . two weeks later! We`d forgotten about it by then.

The builders usually show up fairly early in the morning to start work before the sun gets too hot. At noon, they head home for lunch and a nap and sometimes they come back at 2 or 3 in the afternoon . . . sometimes they don`t come back until the next day, or even the next week if it`s Thursday or Friday.

That`s the bad side of Latino time.

And then there`s the more typical "late" time. When someone asks you to meet them for lunch in the park, there`s no real exact time. They say 3. You leave your house at that time, wander on over to the park and maybe 10 minutes later, your friend shows up. Or 30 minutes. Or maybe you`re the one who`s there at 3:30, after putting the kids down for a nap and stopping to make a sandwich for the spouse. Either way, there are no hard feelings . . . that`s just the way things are done!