Guatemala safety

[rjt98]

I used to post on Tpunk awhile back when I was planning my euro trips. Nowdays I have been living in Czech republic and have done many trips with a czech girl.
The last trip we took my rather large professional video camera, and shot a trip of my girlfriend and I traveling from Morocco to senegal. Most of the journey we had to hitchike. I was aware of the dangers of bringing my camera, so I made a special bag that goes around my neck and has a hole cut out in the front for the lens. We were pretty carefull about when I took out the camera to shoot.

This summer we want to go to central america, maybe guatemala and make a similar travel documentary. I hear allot of bad things about guatemala's crime, and so far have concluded that its worse than morocco, senegal, and all the other central american countries. Does anyone have any personal experience with crime rate in central america, is guatemala the same as the other countries, or should I be more worried while filming there? Idealy I would like to shoot footage as I please and not have to worry about getting mugged, but I need to atleast know how carefull I need to be.

Im currently editing the africa footage, its comming out pretty crazy, breaking down in a car packed with 10 muslims piled on top of each other trying to make it through the sahara .. footage of senegal wildlife, kings of villages in the casamance, beaches, markets. I will put it on the internet and post a link here when its finished.. Thanks in advance for any suggestions about guatemala.

-Rt

[freespiritz]

Guatemala is gorgeous!! :D I can only imagine the amazing footage you'd get if you went filming there. I traveled solo through Guatemala for close to 3 weeks and the capital was kinda sketch, as most central american capital cities were...but I felt safe out in the highlands/by Lake Atitlan walking around at night by myself...

I personally didn't have any issues other than having a towel stolen, but I did meet a fair amount of people who got mugged, or knew someone who got mugged. I don't think it was particularly more risky than any other Central American country though, out of the 5 countries I visited, it was my fave along with Nicaragua.

Not sure how packing a vid cam would change things though, but good luck with whatever you decide to do!