You can tour the landfill, Basurero Zona 3, through a local non-profit, but what fun would that be? Not as fun as going through an opening in a fence at the back of a cemetery to get a look from the side of a cliff, obviously…
On my second trip to Guatemala City, I was trying to decide what sights I wanted to visit and/or had missed the first time around. Atop my list, the city’s massive landfill, Basurero Zona 3. I told my sister I wanted to visit the General Cemetery, and then offhandedly mentioned that perhaps we could glimpse the landfill while nearby. She immediately began mocking me, which is fair enough, because who wants to visit a landfill while on vacation (or, like, ever)? After continuing to harass me she eventually, begrudgingly agreed to the plan and we set off.
You cannot simply visit nor enter the landfill, as it’s closely guarded (part of the city’s effort to prevent people from scavenging trash under dangerous conditions). So, we had to find another way. That way was through the [impressive] General Cemetery, but I have written about that in another post so we will stay focused on the landfill! We made our way to the back of the cemetery. Looking down one of the many rows or crumbling graves, a row which happened to be blocked off by a metal gate, we saw blue sky (not a wall). We determined this could be an opening to the Guatemala City landfill! Just as we were about to walk around the gate, a random man appeared. He shook his finger at us and told us not to go down that way. He was onto us!
We acted casual, our body language saying we are not in fact trying to go to the back of the cemetery to gain access to the landfill, and walked on. A few moments later we saw what appeared to be another path to the back…but there were some youths wielding shovels down that way. Although these youths were unquestionably grave workers and not nefarious shovel-murderers, it didn’t seem an ideal route either.
Finally, we saw a walkway that went to a chain-link fence – likely the landfill! There was only one man in sight, walking up and down the rows playing a guitar. When he wasn’t looking we crept down the narrow lane, past blowing trash bags and innumerable large vultures perched atop the apartment-styled graves. The smell of waste wafted into our nostrils and we walked faster, our dreams of the landfill coming closer.
We finally we reached the fence and it was a glorious. THE LANDFILL LOOMED BELOW. Suddenly high (as in excited), we began snapping photos through the chain links.
Then we noticed there was an opening in the fence. Sarah hesitated in front of it, but I quickly pushed her aside and went out onto the cliff ledge. Within 5 seconds, Sarah was also swept up in the excitement of the landfill and followed me.
From here, we had an unobstructed view! We exhibited pure joy as we looked at the trucks below, snaking down the dirt hill to the landfill’s entrance, dumping waste. We watched people and vultures going through the trash at a scale that was unbelievable. We even filmed a video, or three, but I won’t include those here.
