Working as a guide at Latin American ruins...

Hi,
This is just an idle thought, but....how hard is it to work as a guide
for tourists at archaeological sites, ie Tikal, Chichen Itza, Copan,
etc.? I assume you need some kind of a permit from the local
authorities, or maybe not. Does anyone do this?

It just occurred to me that I could do it fairly well- native English,
of course, and good Spanish, and one of my two majors was Anthropology,
which included lots of archaeology classes, and I know a *lot* about
the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs, etc. Probably a good deal more than the
guide we ended up with at Palenque, who seemed to know more about UFOs
and aliens than about the actual ruins.

Yeah, I'm sure its not a good way to make big dough, but all I'm
thinking is enough to get by in say, Guatemala...

"Bill Johnston" <wackeddoutm> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:1153718968.424262.132990@m79g2000cwm. o...
> Hi,
> This is just an idle thought, but....how hard is it to work as a guide
> for tourists at archaeological sites, ie Tikal, Chichen Itza, Copan,
> etc.? I assume you need some kind of a permit from the local
> authorities, or maybe not. Does anyone do this?
>
> It just occurred to me that I could do it fairly well- native English,
> of course, and good Spanish, and one of my two majors was Anthropology,
> which included lots of archaeology classes, and I know a *lot* about
> the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs, etc. Probably a good deal more than the
> guide we ended up with at Palenque, who seemed to know more about UFOs
> and aliens than about the actual ruins.
>
> Yeah, I'm sure its not a good way to make big dough, but all I'm
> thinking is enough to get by in say, Guatemala...
>

when i Was in Mexico and guatemala I realized they had a lot of european
tourists.. and almost nobody could speak
German french or italian
I tried to find out how much a job would give me as a guide that speaks all
these languages

they told me 500 dollars a month would be a dream..
300 dollars would be a normal salary

I do not know whether this amount of money would be enough to live at
european standards.

tile wrote:
> "Bill Johnston" <wackeddoutm> ha scritto nel messaggio
> news:1153718968.424262.132990@m79g2000cwm. o...
> > Hi,
> > This is just an idle thought, but....how hard is it to work as a guide
> > for tourists at archaeological sites, ie Tikal, Chichen Itza, Copan,
> > etc.? I assume you need some kind of a permit from the local
> > authorities, or maybe not. Does anyone do this?
> >
> > It just occurred to me that I could do it fairly well- native English,
> > of course, and good Spanish, and one of my two majors was Anthropology,
> > which included lots of archaeology classes, and I know a *lot* about
> > the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs, etc. Probably a good deal more than the
> > guide we ended up with at Palenque, who seemed to know more about UFOs
> > and aliens than about the actual ruins.
> >
> > Yeah, I'm sure its not a good way to make big dough, but all I'm
> > thinking is enough to get by in say, Guatemala...
> >
>
> when i Was in Mexico and guatemala I realized they had a lot of european
> tourists.. and almost nobody could speak
> German french or italian
> I tried to find out how much a job would give me as a guide that speaks all
> these languages
>
> they told me 500 dollars a month would be a dream..
> 300 dollars would be a normal salary
>
> I do not know whether this amount of money would be enough to live at
> european standards.

Hmm, very interesting.

I did live in southern Mexico for a while, and rented a pretty decent
furnished apartment for $70 a month (no A/C though), and was under the
impression that that was considered pretty high locally- I saw one
newish 3-bedroom house with a really nice interior renting for $100/mo.
And Guatemala is much cheaper than Mexico, IIRC. So one could
probably live on that, probably not with full western amenities, but
decently comfortably. Maybe wouldn't want it for a career, but it would
I imagine be fun for a year or two. Although maybe English-speakers
are not in as high a demand as the languages you mention?