Money Matters

The Resplendent Quetzal

What can be more indicative of another culture besides language and currency? The language of Guatemala is Spanish, that's an easy guess. But what about the currency? We were not familiar with it, and in fact, our first currency converter app for the iPhone didn't even have it as an option nor did we see it as an option at the currency conversion booth at the airport. We had no choice but to wing it.

The Guatemalan currency is called the Quetzal, named after the national bird, the Resplendent Quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency.

Similar to the dollar, the quetzal is divided into 100 cents, or centavos. The centavos comes in coins while the whole quetzals are paper bills the same size as our US dollars, yet in various colors. The older bills have a feel very similar to our dollars while the newer bills feel very much like plastic. The coins are either gold or silver and greatly vary in size. The smallest we found is the 5 centavos which is smaller than our dime, and the 1 centavos, about the size of our 50 cent piece. The coins don't seem to be used as much as paper money and it was three days before we saw our first coin.
As of this writing, the conversion rate is approximately Q7.7 for $1 so trying to calculate the cost of things is not always direct or easy. At our first breakfast, we were presented a check for a straightforward Q120 while the waiter stood by for the payment. The three of us hovered over the check as if we were trying to decipher a secret code. We guessed, divided, calculated and added, and then with uncertainty did it again. Still unsure of the tip, which we later found out was always 10%, we started over-figuring in both dollars and quetzals. It must have been quite a dialogue going on inside that waiter's head watching as if we were trying to iron out the whole country's financial trouble. Whatever he though, it must have ended with "crazy gringos". We soon improved on our payment methods and decided it is sometimes best to pay up front and do the figuring back at the apartment. Fortunately, in a pinch we found that most places would accept American dollars too.