This post may be a little boring to some, but I find it interesting!

The currency used in Guatemala is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the quetzal, and to the right is a picture of a quetzal in the wild.  I’ve never actually seen one as they are very rare, but quetzales have the longest feathers of all animals.

Here in the U.S. we’re in a recession, and I’ve been asked how that affects countries like Guatemala.  Well, I’m not an economics expert, but I do know that Guatemala’s economy is very closely tied to ours.  A large part of their economy is agricultural exports like coffee, bananas, sugar, and other produce. They also have large number of clothing factories that export here.  But the surprising thing is that the largest source of income is actually from Guatemalans living here  in the U.S. and sending money back home!

So a recession here means that we buy less from them, and also that there are more Guatemalans here unable to send money back.  I’ve been watching the exchange rate between dollars and Quetzales, and since I was last visiting over Thanksgiving, the rate has gone from about 7.5 up to 8.2 quetzales per dollar.  Here’s a plot below of the exchange rate over the last 5 years, and you can see how much it’s risen since last year.

I feel bad saying this when this graph shows that their economy has been having troubles, but it also means that compared to last time I was there, the value of the money that I’ve been saving for a Guatemalan house has risen by about 10%!