Cell Phones

Cell phones permeate Guatemalan society in the capital. I walk down the street or through the university campus and everyone I see seems connected to these electronic devices. But, why shouldn´t they; after all companies like Tigo and Claro offer easy to use pre-paid prices. A cell phone costs around Q250, which is about $30. From there, you just buy "phone cards" to recieve minutes on the cell phone. I don´t know if it turns out to be less expensive than the US, but there is no service plan and no two year contract. It´s like self service cell phone use.

After just 3 days here and subtle observations that there don´t seem to be a lot of public phones easily available, I decided I would feel better if I got one of these little devices too. I walked over to the mall and up to the Tigo booth and bought one of the least expensive phones. $35 and a free t-shirt later and now I am connected to the magical cellular world of Tigo (best cell service in the country). The SIM chip is installed and the cell phone number is plastered by the battery so if I ever forget my number, I take off the phone back and there you go. Tigo 51961693. How convenient. It even lets me call at a decent price to the USA.

At the beginning of the month, Tigo phone card sellers in their brilliantly blue shirts, put on a red vest labeled "hoy doble." On the "hoy doble" days, the Q100 are double value. For Q100 you get Q200 (twice the amount for $15!). Now I just have to find one of these guys and I´m set. Tigo a la orden.