Guatemala City

We spent 2 nights in the capital city of Guatemala on the 4th and 5th, and it was definitely different than the villages we have been visiting. The other towns we have been in were filled with indigenous Mayans wearing traditional clothing. Guatemala City has a population of over a million, and has a wide mixture of people, more ethnicities with varying skin tones and features. There were still a few traditional Mayans, but there were many more people who dressed more typical of back home. Also, people seemed to speak a lot faster in the city, especially at the fast food venues.

We walked down 6 avenue in zone 1, which is closed off to cars and has some traditional colonial buildings, which was enjoyable.  I am not sure of the politics in Guatemala, but it seems like there is a lot of unrest. There was grafiti everywhere talking about how the poor and children are starving or about women's rights. The only other highlight of Guatemala City that we found was their huge indoor mall, and not just because it was reminiscent of home. The air in the capital is horrible. There are so many buses that are billowing out clouds of black smoke, after spending an hour outside you can feel it in your lungs. The mall felt like a safe haven with fresh air. We also got to see a couple of movies in English that had Spanish subtitles, which was fun and took care of some of the homesickness. We saw Taken 2 the first night, and the second I was able to drag Nate to see the last Twilight movie. The movie theater was huge and comfortable like back home, but only half the price! Also, when you bought your tickets you pick out your seats on the screen ahead of time because they do assigned seating, which is different.

View from our room!

 
From here we took multiple buses to get to Lago de Atitlan. The last bus we were on was crammed full, I only had about 2" to try to squeeze onto on the corner of a row next to an older couple, and then the driver proceeded to fly down the mountain down twists and turns. I had to hang on in order to not be flung down the aisle. After this was a more calming boat ride to the other side of the lake, to San Pedro, literally a breath of fresh air from the city. It's a quiet town filled with travelers with a beautiful view of the lake.