Guatemala City: Been, Saw Nothing, Left

So Day 2 started with my body waking up at it's usual 6am (even though it was 6am Guatemala time and 4am US time) and staring at the underside of my hostel bunk wondering why I couldn't sleep longer.

I wandered down to the communial chill out/diningroom/kitchen area around 8am and meet up with the owners and some other fellow travelers. The hostel includes breakfast in it's daily price, which is nice. The thing is you never know what you're going to get. It's kinda up to the whim of Joe, the owner. This morning her decided that eggs were on order, which jarlsburg cheese, immitation crab, onions, and red peppers. Added to that was homemade jam and homemade bread. If breakfast is like this everyday, Joe can forever make up stuff on the spot. It was really good.

At breakfast, I meet two Kiwis, Bex (short for Rebecca) and Michelle, that are teachers in London. They were interested in exploring the city today and so I invited myself along (cause I'm crafty like that).

Our first order of business was locating a bank or ATM, seeing as all of us lacked cash in the local currency. We were given some round-about directions that took us to a trucking/shipping company that had an ATM in their cafeteria. The only problem was that it wouldn't accept any of our cards. So then we consulted the Loney Planet and the Rough Guide, 20 locals, and some random street signs, wandered in circles a bit, and then looked up and there was a bank. It was a little like those people that divine where water is by holding a twig in front of them until divine inspiration tells them to stop.

Money in hand, we set out for the Zoo and the museums. Bex and Michelle didn't really want to go into any of the museums, so we wandered past and looked at all of the school children playing soccer outside of them. The museums look really neat in the fact that they're older buildings with impressive signs and a few eye-catching statues, but according to the guide books, they're supposively very chaotically organized on the inside. Maybe I'll get back to see them before I head home. There was a pretty nice sculpture garden outside them though that we got to wander around.

The wierdest thing about the museums is they they don't seem to be that kept up. THe sidewalks and parking lots were all cracked asphalt and the grass was overgrown and brown. It was kind of sad.

We eventually made it to the zoo, which was very cool. It's not very big, but has a nice selection of animals, including a few that I've never seen before. There was something that looked like the harrier cousin of a slogh or a mangy monkey/cat/ant-eater that got genetically mutated together. There was also a bunch of overly spastic colorful birds and a ginea pig on steriods (not sure what it really was, but looked like a 5' X 3' ginea pig). Michelle, Bex, and I were running around taking pictures of everything and the local kids were taking pictures of us cause they found us more exotic than the animals. Bex was debating on whether she should start doing tricks to entertain the masses.

There are 14 zones in Guatemala City and they each house different things. The most popular zones are 13 (airport, our hostel, the zoo, and museums), Zones 1 and 4 (old churches,Parliments, Central Park, and the giant Central Market), and Zone 10 (the richer, more touristy area with good food and night clubs).

From the zoo, we decided to head to Zone 1. We decided to attempt to walk to the bus station to get a bus there and follows our Loney Planet the wrong direction and evenutally ended up back at the airport. Deciding that it might just be easier, we hailed a taxi, negociated a still over the top price and set out in Friday afternoon rush hour. The cab driver was very chatty and very nice and informed us that since it was after 6pm, everything would be closed and that we were crazy tourist for wanting to go there. After much pigeon spanish exchange, I convinced the cabbie to take us to Zone 10 (aka Zona Vida) which was about the only area that still had things open.

Apparently, the entire country closes down in the evenings around 6 pm. It's so weird cause I"m used to foreign countries being awake till 3 or 4 am and here it's like: "Well it's 7 and I don't exactly want to go to bed rigth now."

Using our trusty Loney Planent again we went in serach of a resturant that was not where it should have been, turned around and wandered into what appeared to be a local joint. Thinking we were going to get some authentic Guatemalan fare, we ordered and then realized that we were going to be getting some Turkish food that tasted surprisingly like Peruvian pollo y papas fritas.

From dinner it was back to the hotel. We decided that it might be easier to walk then take a cab due to their outrageous fares and the fact that the map in the guide book made it look pretty close. So we started walking and locals kept telling us to grab a cab, that it was too far and that it was dangerous. After being stopped by yet another local after once again consulting the ever not helpful Loney Planet, we finally were persuaded to hail a cab for the last 3 blocks (this is what we were told, but it turned out to be about 20 blocks and through some wierd streets and turns).

The cab driver was very patient with us (read the sarcasm between the lines) as we told him we think you need to go right here, wait, no left, yeah left, wait, right...until we stumbled upon the right area. This is what happens when you don't actually carry the address of where you're staying on you and you just have a vague idea of where it is.

So a day and a half into the trip and I've seen the inside of my hostel, the zoo, a few cabs, and random streets. Not too promising on the country site-seeing front, but I've made about 6 new friends and Joe's wife Ana trust me enough to lead her 7 month old with me (not sure where she decided that was a good idea).

Tomorrow it's off to Antigua with my Kiwi friends.

Guatemala - Arrival

Here's the intro entry to my Guatemala trip. This is mainly to let everyone know that I've arrived safety and that I'm in one piece (physically at least, the mental component was always fractured).

So the Scholarly Professor is at it again. Another trip into the unknown. This time I'm not accompanied by the Raunchy Truck Driver (she had to finally find work the week before departure and as a result couldn't come). But not to fear, I am going to be traveling with Mustacheio PigBunny and my trusty friend Christie, who we shall have to devise a nickname for as soon as she arrives.

So I left LAX last night at the bewitching hour, after spending 2.5 hours twiddling my thumbs cause Em was afraid that I would miss the plane if I didn't get there 3 hours early. It turned out to only take 25 minutes to get through all the security.

The first flight was fine, pretty much slept through the whole thing. I arrived in Mexico City at 4am (LA time) and 6am (Mexico time). The country makes you go through immigration and customs, exit the terminal, and then re-enter, all for a connecting flight. They also gave me all the forms in Spanish to fill out and since I could read the necessary parts, I didn't bother trying to track down an English copy. As a result, everyone talked to me in rapid fire Spanish all through immigration, customs, and security. I just smiled and nodded and deduced that I was doing what they wanted cause they didn't single me out for special inspection. They did take my fruit though (I really wanted that apple).

The other thing about the Mexico City airport is that they have the terminal section and then they have a whole other section with duty free shops and small resturants and the usual major airport attractions. The thing is that you can only get to this other section, with it's more options and cheaper prices by exiting customs. They don't tell you that once you re-enter the terminal you can never get back out of it. I must have walked the terminal loop about 10 times trying to figure out how to get to the food options just on the other side of the metal detectors. I'm pretty sure that by the 5th or 6th pass, people were starting to wonder weather I was casing the joint. It killed time though, which was nice.

About 16 hours after I set off, I arrived in Guatemala City, the capital of the country and the largest metropolis in Central America (there are close to 3 million people here).

I'm staying at a Hostel called GuateFriends which is run by a Floridan named Joe and his Guatemalan wife. The wife opened the place after she was fired from the Crown Plaza Hotel for dating Joe when they first met 5 years ago. Kind of a romatical story.

Also currently stating here is a girl named Kate, that's been living here for 10 weeks as she prepares for a Law degree, Kate's childhood friend, Austin, and two Brits. They're all pretty nice, but going their own ways. Don't think I'll be attaching myself to any of them in the next day or so. Guess it's a solo journey till Christie gets here.

So you all know the drill, drop me a line, comment, greivence, etc. so that I know someone is reading this. Also, if you have any places you think I should hit up or things I need to try, let me know.