Guatemala - Sticking to the Safe Zones

 February 17-18

Hello everyone!

Still without a car and not wanting to spend a lot of money, I pondered what to do during a week-long February vacation. Without flying, options were limited. With that in mind, I decided to go old school and book myself on a bus to Guatemala City for two nights. 

In front of Palacio Nacional

My mango man near the main plaza

Why visit Guatemala’s capital? I wondered the same question, so asked a few of my colleagues for their advice. Those who had been to ‘Guate’ recommended…shopping malls. Not my usual reason for visiting a place, particularly one that does have history - it’s been the capital city since 1776, almost 50 years before Guatemala gained independence from the Spanish Empire.

One of many, many malls

Oakland Mall is actually quite nice, with lots of
greenery, bowling alleys and trampoline parks

I did a bit of research during the bus ride from San Salvador. Getting to the bus station on time relied on waiting over 20 minutes for an Uber biker and then relying on that man’s weaving skills to navigate the intense morning traffic. 

This was the 'economico' bus - my return bus, a
'diamante', was purple and really comfortable

The bus is scheduled to take five hours. This became six due to a hold-up for one of our passengers at the El Salvador border. 

The Chinamas border crossing

Though I’d read a little bit about Guatemala City before arriving, I asked a few people in the hostel what they had done whilst in the city. “Nothing,” was the common reply. Most people in the hostel were ending their Guatemala travels in the capital, solely so they could go to the airport.

Most visitors won't see the Torre del Reformador, a Guate
version of the Eiffel Tower which straddles a major road

That airport is incredibly close to the city. I’ve stayed in airport hotels which are further away from the terminal than this hostel, which is very much in one of the city’s safer zones.

This dual carriageway, Avenida Las Americas,
is only 200 metres or so from the airport

Mentioning ‘safe zones’ gives you an idea of why many avoid the capital. The fact that the hostel workers immediately told me that its surrounding area, Zone 10, is safe for walking suggested that many of the 21 zones were not safe for this pastime.

Plaza España

This image, created by another blogger, suggests which zones
are safe (green), not safe (orange) and downright dangerous (red)

This is a shame as the traffic, much like San Salvador, is ridiculously bad. Not wanting to spend my 36 hours or so sitting in traffic jams, I worked out a safe route to the places I wanted to visit, put on my trainers, and got walking.

Bumper to bumper

Yep, I made it up to 46,000 steps on that day

My first stop, an approximately 3 km walk from the hostel, was the bohemian area of Zone 4. This is one of Guate’s up-and-coming neighbourhoods, described as its equivalent to Brooklyn in New York City. It has a lot of graffiti and a large number of coffee shops.

Being quite early in the morning, most places were closed

A mural of indigenous people

From there it was another three kilometres or so to the capital’s Centro Historico. A lot of this was down a pedestrianised street called 6th Avenue: Avenida Sexta. Being mid-morning on a Tuesday, it was quieter than I imagine it would be on a busting Saturday or Sunday.

There are some government buildings on this street

This was the residence of Mariano Beltranena
y Llanos, who signed the Act of Independence

There are many similarities with San Salvador, and Guatemala City’s main plaza is certainly not unique. It has an old cathedral, an ornate palace…and a square which is heavily populated by pigeons. One thing that was different was seeing a man being arrested by Guatemalan police. Not sure why.

The library is also somewhat different. The story behind it is a window into the country’s troubled history of the past century. The building project was started by President Juan Jose Arevalo. After surviving 25 coup attempts, he was deposed and the project was abandoned. A later, successful, USA-backed coup was led by Colonel Castillo Armas. He restarted the building of the library. He never saw it opened, however; he was assassinated two months before its inauguration. 

I think this building was opened in 1959 

This is a sort of protest - it is missing a leg

Like San Salvador, this area is surrounded by markets of varying quality. Guate’s Mercado Central is surprisingly clean and well-organised, with souvenirs on the higher floor and foodstuffs in the basement. I tried a sweet which had something resembling marzipan as a top layer and zapote (like fig) on the bottom. That experiment doesn’t need to be repeated.

Lots of colourful handicrafts

Sweets in the basement

Further north (a little over 2 km, if you’re counting) is one of the city’s quirkier sights: a relief map of the country. This map of Guatemala’s physical topography has recently been refurbished, and shows the country’s numerous volcanoes, lakes and coastlines.

View from one of the towers beside the map

View from 'sea level' - this is the Pacific side

What makes this pretty special is that it was created well over a century ago, in 1904-5 - a long time before cartographical technology would have made this an easier task. It was made with over 60,000 bricks and enough cement to equate to the weight of four elephants.

The brown splodges are the settlements
of Guatemala City and Antigua

The perimeter of the surrounding wall is 215 metres

The country’s history spans far further back than the beginning of the twentieth century, of course. This timeline can be traced in the Popol Vuh Museum. I’d never heard of Popol Vuh until researching what to see and do in Guate. Essentially, it’s a book that told the stories of the K'iche people, one of the predominant Maya tribes in Guatemala. A replica of the text is in the museum, as well as many interesting artefacts.

It roughly translates to 'Book of the Community'

The text was probably written around 1550

The reason for the museum’s existence is also intriguing. A married couple, Jorge and Ella Castillo, had spent years collecting pre-Columbian and Colonial art. In 1978, they decided to leave their collection to one of the city’s universities. This has blossomed to include a wide variety of artefacts, all of which help to explain and visualise elements written about in the Popol Vuh.

Jaguars are commonly seen in Maya art due to
their connection with power and the underworld

The delightfully-named 'Grotesque Head'
has indigenous writing on the skull

Of course, San Salvador has its own version of this museum: MUNA. It struck me how similar these places were: terrible traffic, an overt Americanisation of brands and interests like shopping malls, similar historical elements. I guess it makes sense, both being capital cities in a region whose countries are often lumped together. I did find some different things, the main one being a delightful Greek restaurant.

Iglesia Yurrita, a pretty Gothic church

Greek lomito pizza at Del Griego - sublime

No car? Well, not ‘no problem’. It did lead me to visiting a little-seen and intriguing nearby capital, at least. I understand why people skip Guatemala City when travelling around Central America, but it does have enough to interest and occupy a visitor for a day or so.

Enjoying the Relief Map from up high

I wouldn't describe my feelings about Guate as
'love', but I am happy I visited

Love you all,

Matt