La Basura or the the city dump is a huge landfill in the center of the city. It is a large ravine several hundred feet deep and is constantly being filled with the cities trash, which is almost everything, most people do not recycle, and all the toilet paper in thrown in the trash (yes, all of it.) It comes in these trucks here by the time the trash makes it to the city dump it is not in trash bags. This is because it has all been gone through in the back of the truck by some of the poorer people in the city for anything of value. Some of the items such as plastic and cardboard can be sold to recycling companies, other things may be used to build houses or other things. Once it gets to the dump it is dumped and sorted through again by even poorer people who live around the dump. These people spend each day going through the trash of the city looking for things to help them survive. People used to live in the city dump but after a documentary was made many years ago the Guatemalan Government made them move out as it was an embarrassment to the country and hurt their tourist economy, most of which comes from Europe, Americans go to Costa Rica. These are the people who live their and make their living this way, which can be as much as 5 dollars american a day. Many of the Drivers of the trucks have come from that way of life and moved up into a trucking job. Therefor there is little or no animosity toward those who are in the dump from the drivers and the work together.
It is hard to see for the first time. Especially with our middle class cleanliness perspective, it is something that is like no other. The smell is one of the most noticable things. I can't really explain it and I wish I could, it is like rotting food, old food, mixed with chemicals and old toilet paper, but that is not exactly it.
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