I meant to include this story/photo series in the last post, but it got long, and bam! Now you get two posts instead of one.
These are a collection of photos I took on a recent trip to La Torre - Petén's new mega-mall. It was a pile of concrete and rebar when I first got here, and 4 months later, it has opened as the new commercial center. It's built right across the bridge from Flores on the Santa Elena side, next to the Burger King and Pollo Campero. The Baldizon family, as mentioned, owns most of the land along that shore, so I believe it's safe to assume they own (or at least rent the land to) this new construct.
Along with number of empty shop spaces and several stores selling dollar-store plastic crap, La Torre has a couple of high-end clothing, fashion and interior decorating stores, catering to the Flores elite. The main draw for everyone else (including my host family) is the new supermarket. When I walked in, I was surprised to see a rather familiar layout. Produce in front, hanging signs printed with gorgeous pictures of well-prepared food, interior design features... it was funny how these things are what made it feel like an American supermarket. I've been to the Maxibodega (the other supermarket/commercial center, a 5 minute tuktuk ride from Flores out by the airport), and the selection didn't seem impressively different - in fact the only product difference I noticed were really good looking granny smith apples, which I could not resist buying (and their delicious crispiness was more than enough to sooth my conscience - I miss New England). Other than that, it seemed to have a similar selection, and at similar, if not slightly higher prices.
The construction of the mall was very mall-esque. From the bottom, it appeared to have a very clean, pyramidal setup, with convenient central escalators. Of course, upon ascending to the second level, I realized that I would have to walk the entire loop of shops on this level to reach the escalator to the third level. There was no way to make a quick trip to a single shop. When did this become something desirable? This building is designed not to make my shopping experience easier/faster/more pleasant. It is designed to do the opposite - make me walk farther, taking more time, all for the purpose of "giving" me more opportunities to spend my money. Now I'll admit that this is something that bothers me about pretty much any modern commercial center I've been in, and is most definitely a 1st world problem.
La Torre will provide Petén's first movie theater.
I don't need to harp on the design though, because La Torre has plenty of other annoy effects. They brought out a search light last weekend, and sent it flashing around the sky all night, just in case anyone hadn't noticed their building. Vans with speakers roll through Flores blasting advertisements frequently - though La Torre is not the only offender in this case. I wonder why these advertising trucks, blasting obnoxiously loud club music and yelling unintelligibly through scratchy speakers, are so prevalent. They can't annoy the locals as much as they annoy me, otherwise they wouldn't be a viable marketing option.
The local love affair with loudness is quite something. Everyone (even the very poor) sets off (expensive) fireworks (not colorful ones, just loud ones) all the time. The fact that it's Thursday seems a good reason to celebrate with some fireworks. On mother's day - something taken rather seriously around here - I was awoken at 4:30 am by firecrackers and a truck driving circles around Flores, wishing everyone a happy Dia del la Madre, and reminding them of a mothers day sale somewhere. Had I been in Flores, I would have thrown furniture out my window in an attempt to crush the driver. Who wakes up the next morning feeling anything but sleep deprivation and loathing for whatever business hired that truck? La Torre goes along with this by having a DJ and a mountain of speakers set up at the entrance pretty much all day, again blasting club music, and apparently completely ignored by everyone passing by.
Unable to imagine a Guatemalan family sitting on their porch or walking down the street, listening to David Guetta yell "Damn you'sa sexy bitch" at 4:00 in the afternoon (this actuallyhappens) and thinking "It's so nice to hear free music" or "I want to get closer to the source of this sound, and buy whatever I find around it", I struggle to understand why this form of advertising persists.
La Torre, home of Mayamall, in its pyramidal glory, featuring statues and imitation stele - even walkways patterned with jaguar spots - clings to the trappings of culture, while promoting nothing but the sort of "development" that only truly benefits a small number of local elites tied into a global economic system.
The view from the top level of La Torre provides a rather spectacular view of Flores and the surrounding lake - making this tower the modern commercial counterpart the the wooden mirador perched atop an earth-covered Mayan ruin on the Tayazal peninsula, overlooking Flores from the other side.
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