Guatemalan quetzal Guatemalan quetzal The quetzal (; code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala, named after the national bird of Guatemala, the resplendent quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 "centavos" or "lenes" in Guatemalan slang. The plural is "quetzales". The quetzal was introduced in 1925 during the term of President José María Orellana, whose image appears on the obverse of the one-quetzal bill. It replaced the peso. Until 1987, the quetzal was pegged to and domestically equal to the United States dollar and before the pegging to the US
The Resplendent Quetzal The Resplendent Quetzal "The Resplendent Quetzal" is a short story by Margaret Atwood. It was published in the collection "Dancing Girls & Other Stories" in 1977. Sarah and Edward are on a vacation in Mexico, and are visiting uninteresting tourist locations. They are married, but do not get along well. Sarah describes Edward's passions (such as birdwatching) as "compulsions" which are "awkward and boyish". They merely make her tired. She is "bland and pale and plump and smug". Things were once different between them, but Sarah had a miscarriage and they have become increasingly uninterested in each other since. Their