Zacapa

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Zacapa is a city in eastern Guatemala, along the Motagua river. It is renowned locally for its manual crafting of cigars, hard dry cheese and a flavored cake made with said cheese(Quesadilla). Ron Zacapa Centanario, an aged rum considered one of the best in world by connoisseurs, is made in Zacapa as well.

The inhabitants of Zacapa are renown throughout Guatemala as being very entrepreneurial, passionate and having a wry, mocking sense of humour; they are also stereotyped as gunslingers much like those in the American "Old West". Zacapa once was a bustling railroad stop and attracted a fair amount of non-Guatemalan immigrants, it is not unusual to find people whose surnames were originally from England, Germany, China and the Middle East.

Zacapa is also the name of the departmental capital department of Zacapa and the municipal seat of Zacapa municipality. The population is estimated at 50,000. Other cities close to Zacapa (in the same department of Zacapa) are Gualan (once a fluvial port), Teculutan (located on the Carretera al Altantico providing stopover facilities) and Estanzuela, home to the Calado handicrafts and to the Archeological Museum.

Zacapa is mainly a rural area that contains a large amount of flat land used mostly to grow cantaloupe, tobacco and roma tomatoes. Bordering the Zacapa valley is the Sierra de las Minas, which harbors a rainforest that contains marble mines and coffee plantations. Some of the world's finest jade is also found in this area.

As with most of Guatemala, Zacapa suffers terrible poverty and pollution problems. There is a pronounced dry season, often marked by more than two months without rain, which worsens the air quality of the region tremendously. The region's flat areas are known for their loud insects, called chicharras, which chirp in the fields and along the roads during the dry season.