Guatemala City

By
13 Jan 2008 5:16 pm

DesayunoGuatemala has a reputation for being dangerous. All the guidebooks, and most people, always tell you to skip Guatemala City entirely. This is easy enough to do as Antigua is just 1 hour from the airport and it’s much easier to find comfortable lodging and transport to all the major stops in Guatemala from Antigua.

Between traveling from Poptun to Montericco, on the pacific coast, I decided to spend a night in El Ciudad (the city). My 6 hour bus trip from Poptun to Guate ended up being 8.5 hours and I just couldn’t handle another hour to Antigua.

My experience in El Capital was just fine. The bus parked at the Fuente del Norte terminal, about the most chaotic bus station I have ever experienced. According to the Lonely Planet, there were about 6 perfectly fine hotels with 3 blocks. I picked up my bag and as often happens, the other gringos on my bus, a family of 4 with two young girls, and myself gravitated together to find lodging. It was dark, and not a pretty city, but I felt quite safe.

The only hassle we encountered was a man who said he was from Honduras and spoke very good English. He said he was just deported from the US and had left his 2 daughters there. He insisted on guiding us to the hotel that we were heading toward anyway and then was very pushy about getting a tip. This was the only person in Guatemala who ever asked me for money.

The hotel was quite fine. There was a TV and hot water. It was super noisy, but so was everywhere, and I had earplugs. On the way to the hotel I spotted a restaurant with big pots of great looking food. After dumping my bag, I went right back there and loaded up with a plate of beans, rice, steak with stewed tomato salsa and platanos. YUMMY! This was the best meal of my entire trip. It was a huge plate of food for less than $4US.

In the morning, I had a look around my neighborhood and picked up some supplies and more cash before heading to Montericco. Granted, I just had a look around Zona 1, but Guatemala city is just fine. It’s a bit dingy, but it’s clean, the streets are wide, and normal people are just going about their business.

After a look around and a good desayuno simple (simple breakfast) of scrambled eggs, salsa, beans, tortillas and chamomile tea, I grabbed a cab to the bus station for Montericco. I’ve very glad that I gave El Capital a look.

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One Response to “Guatemala City”

  1. Margie (May 30th, 2017 at 10:53 am)

    Apr26Karen Great job on this, lan! Good looking subjects, very natural; just like in the movies (alexis and noreen) + great video shosi/edittng = this amazing prenup vid. Seriously! I enjoyed watching it at the reception. You’re gonna take my wedding video – when I find Mr. Right heheheh! More power to MVP!!!

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