Guatemala City, Guatemala

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We entered Guatemala, the 6th country of our journey, unshowered, unshaven, and slightly unannounced. The change in our timeline that resulted from the short stopover in El Salvador caused us to be in Guatemala City a bit prematurely. Our intention was to stay with family but I had made little contact with them because of the last-second change of plans. We lingered in an internet cafe for a few hours before finally uniting with my incredibly hospitable family.

So try and follow; We stayed with my mom´s brother´s wife´s cousin´s family. Basically, my amazing aunt in California put us in contact with her close cousin who lives in a beautiful suburb of Guatemala City.

I really hope I did not scare the family initially. Had I used the shower in the last hotel I might have exited more dirty than upon entry. Needless to say, we both needed to shower . Also, I made a futile attempt to grow a beard in order to scare away any gang members in El Salvador; The only thing it accomplished was me being mistaken for max´s father. So after the initial greeting, we headed straight into our guestroom and cleaned up. Hedged, scrubbed, and dressed we all departed for a filling fondue dinner complete with pitchers of gallo beer.

Over the next two days Max and I discovered the many ¨Zonas¨ of ¨Guate.¨ The city is divided into distinct Zonas or districts that help inhabitants to coordinate themselves in the gigantic city. Overall, Guate has been the second best city next to Panama City. I really don´t understand why tourists fear the place. I do understand it has a high crime rate, but Max and I never once felt uneasy.

Our first stops in Zona 13, were two small museums located on a university campus dedicated to the Mayans. The population of Guatemala is half mayan and half latin american; It is refreshing that the country takes pride in both its heritages. The Museo Ixchel was dedicated specifically to the current lives of the Mayan people. Exhibits expressed the importance of ritual and traditions. The displays of the ornate and multi-colored clothing of the indigenous were especially interesting. The second museum displayed artifacts of the Maya, including: pottery, writings, urns, jewelery, and tools. The Mayans used to place a deceased person´s entire body inside a trash can sized urn. I told Max this might be how I want to be stored into eternity. I´m still debating.


Again, like in other cities, Max and I wandered around for hours in hopes that luck would be our tour guide. It worked. We encountered interesting graffiti art and even more interesting people. We were most surprised by the goat herder who decided to lay his flock down to pasture on a street median.

My new legal focus has somehow urged me to take pictures in front of courthouses, so I modeled in front of the Supreme Court of Guatemala. We saw the famous palace in the plaza and eventually found the city´s best mall. The evening steadily approached while we sipped coffe and watched the Guatemantecas go about their everyday lives.

The following morning we plunged ourselves back down into the city to see the large relief map of Guatemala that we had missed the previous day. Maybe we should have thought about it a little bit more before departing. A map can only excite one to a certain level. Regardless, it was a monument type of which I had never seen. We quickly left underwhelmed and hungry.


For lunch we feasted on ¨Pollo Campero,¨ the pride and joy chicken fast-food joint of Guatemala and most of Central America. We would have never considered dining at the establishment if it had not been for us learning some interesting aspects of the company. It is Guatemalan owned and incredibly popular. Also, the company grows its own chickens, packages, transports, cooks, and serves them. Most fast food company purchase supplies or services from outside vendors - this company does not. The food was good was good but the conversations we had, over the greasy lunch, about starting our own similar business was better.

Midday we caught a bus headed straight for the cobble-stone paved town of Antigua. We planned to return to Guate to visit our family´s vacation home on the beach so we did not say offical good-byes.