Outdoor Books
Buy and sell outdoor books in Guatemala.
Plenty of outdoor books in Guatemala have been up Acatenango before they change hands. Travellers carry English guidebooks for the loop through Antigua, the lake and Xela and are finished with them long before they fly home, while a survival or knot manual can sit on a shelf for years and come off it in good shape. Hikers and climbers pass on Spanish volcano guides too, along with folded topographic sheets for routes like Tajumulco. List yours new or pre-owned, and with a guidebook name the edition, because it matters more than the state of the cover.
Trekking guides, volcano guides and topographic sheets:
the big English travel guides from Lonely Planet and Rough Guides carry Guatemala’s best-known walks, from the overnight climb of Acatenango facing Fuego to the lakeshore trails around Atitlán, the treks from Xela to the lake or from Nebaj to Todos Santos, and the long approach to El Mirador in Petén. A Guatemala guide gives those routes far more room than a Central America guide, which fits the whole country into a few chapters for people crossing several borders. The Spanish shelf is thinner, and a local book such as Carlos Prahl Redondo’s guide to the country’s volcanoes, with approach and ascent routes for each one, is harder to come by than any imported title. Bird and wildlife field guides are filed under animal books, and a camp-stove recipe book sits more naturally among the cookbooks.
Survival manuals and the outdoor book that earns a place in the pack:
which one depends on the trip. For a single journey, a recent guidebook covers the route, the transport and where to sleep. For finding your own way between villages, a topographic sheet and a compass beat any guidebook map, which is a sketch rather than a survey. For skills, a manual whose content does not age is the better buy. The SAS Survival Handbook, which also comes in Spanish, teaches shelter, water and navigation that work the same on any mountain, and its pocket edition is the one that actually gets carried while the thick reference copy stays at home.
Old guidebook editions against survival manuals on resale:
an imported English guidebook costs Q200 or more new, and once the next edition is out the old one keeps only its maps and route descriptions, because hostel prices, shuttle times and park arrangements have all moved on. Someone who only wants the trail sections will still take it cheaply; anyone planning a whole trip wants the latest. A skills manual dates far more slowly, so a clean used copy sells much closer to what it cost.
Rain, rucksacks and torn-out chapters in a used guidebook:
a book that has done a highland trek has usually been rained on. Wavy, swollen pages, tide marks and a cover lifting at the corners mean water got in, and pages stuck together will tear when you separate them. Check that the fold-out maps and the route chapters are all there, because travellers tear out the section they need and leave the rest. Pencil notes in the margin can count in a book’s favour: a hiker’s note on where a trail forks or which spring was dry is information no new copy has. A topographic sheet worn through at the folds is another matter, since it goes illegible along the crease, which is where the path usually runs.
Passing on a guidebook at the end of a trip:
most guidebooks are done with in Antigua, Xela or one of the lake towns, just as someone else arrives needing one. Put the edition number and the year on the cover into the title, say which language it is in, and list any chapters or maps that are missing. For topographic sheets give the sheet name and whether it is folded, flat or laminated, and sell a guide together with the sheets for the same route, because the set is worth more. A traveller buying from a traveller wants to meet near a hostel or a language school before one of you moves on, so say where you are staying and until which day. A Spanish volcano guide or a survival manual is different: it usually goes to a local climber, and there is no bus to beat.