Puerto San José

Puerto San José was founded in 1853. For more than a century it was the country's main gateway on that coast, controlled for decades by the Empresa Marítima Nacional, which held a monopoly on unloading goods. Passengers landed by being swung over the side of anchored ships and lifted on to a tall iron pier, and Anne Maudslay, wife of the archaeologist Alfred Maudslay, arriving in the 1890s, described a long beach of hot sand, palms and banana groves and a handful of houses.

The port was at the end of the railway line that crossed the country from Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean, and in the late 19th century a rival port was promoted at neighbouring Iztapa. In August 1890 the town was at the centre of an international dispute between Guatemala and the United States after the exiled general Juan Martín Barrundia was killed aboard an American ship in the harbour while Guatemalan officials tried to arrest him.

In the 20th century the pier passed to the International Railways of Central America and then to Guatemala's state railways. Its nearness to the capital also made the town a setting for films, including a Mexican film of 1962. Around 1980 the container port of Puerto Quetzal was built a few kilometres to the east, and within a few years it replaced the old port, which ceased to operate as a port in 1985. The town turned to the new port and to tourism.

Puerto San José is a Spanish-speaking coast town, quite different in character from the Maya highlands a few hours inland. Its culture is that of a weekend escape: families from Guatemala City drive down to swim, eat seafood and stay in beach houses, and the town's busiest days are Saturdays, Sundays and holiday weeks.

The sea shapes local life. The coast is known for sport fishing: nearby Iztapa is considered one of the best places in the world to catch sailfish. Along the wider coast, from the mangroves of Sipacate-Naranjo to Monterrico, sea turtles come ashore to nest, and hatcheries collect eggs to protect them. Monterrico, along the coast in Santa Rosa, is another major weekend beach resort for the capital.

The resorts of Chulamar and Likín, with their canals, pools and walled beach houses, show the other side of the coast: holiday homes a short distance from the working town and the cane fields of Escuintla that stretch inland.

Puerto San José lies in the municipality of San José, in the department of Escuintla. The 2018 census counted about 24,000 people in the town, making it the largest on Guatemala's Pacific coast. The Puerto Quetzal complex, the country's largest Pacific port, is the main employer in the district, handling cargo and cruise ships, and tourism, centred on the resorts of Chulamar and Likín, is the other important source of work.

Life follows the heat and the week. Mornings start early, before the temperature climbs, and the town is quiet on weekdays, when fishermen, port workers and traders go about their business. At weekends the beach and the comedores fill with visitors, buses and cars arrive from the capital, and the resort areas come alive.

Inland, the plain of Escuintla is sugar country, with cane fields, mills and cattle ranches. The small San José airport has been refurbished and serves as the official alternate for the capital's international airport. Some highways through Escuintla see hold-ups, so most people avoid driving them at night.

The food of Puerto San José is the food of the Pacific coast: fish and seafood. Beach comedores serve whole fried fish with rice, salad and tortillas, shrimp, and seafood soups, and the neighbouring town of Iztapa has its own seafood restaurants. These simple places are the heart of a weekend at the coast, eaten under thatch or tin roofs a few steps from the sand.

Beyond the seafood, meals follow the national pattern: tortillas, black beans, fresh cheese and cream, with tamales especially around Christmas, usually wrapped in plantain or banana leaves rather than corn husks. Escuintla's economy rests on sugar cane, with seafood, tobacco and cattle among its other products. Comedores serve set lunches, and pepián, a meat stew thickened with seeds, is one of four traditional dishes declared part of the nation's intangible cultural heritage.

To drink, there is cold beer — Gallo comes from a brewery based in the capital — and soft drinks.