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F: Pascu Robredo
Destination Guatemala
T
he name of Alta Verapaz y Baja Verapaz derives from its pacification, achieved through dialogue and evangelization –an exceptional case in the country- by Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas, renowned defender of the region’s indigenous people. The inhabitants’ indomitable nature and the
isolation of this mountain region covered by tropical forests had been too much even for the warring zeal of the conquerors, but it wasn’t for the stubborn patience of the religious man. Therefore, partially, the people in this zone keep a stance of deep pride for their roots, a kind of “regional nationalism” that
is not to be found elsewhere in the country. The region’s gastronomy is a pleasant surprise for newcomers. Unique dishes, such as kak’ik, or “chunto” –turkeybroth, subaniq, in which the meat, floating in a spicy red sauce is cooked in a hole on the ground, tayuyos (tortillas
stuffed with black beans) and of course, the renowned and perverse coban ground chile, await to assault the mouths of those willing to be seduced by their flavors. Not to mention, of course, that it was here where the great coffee boom upon which the modern Guatemalan state was founded hap-