Barred Up In Guate
Day 39
We were aboard the Monja Blanca company’s “luxury” bus to Guatemala city or as everyone here refers to it, Guate. It sounded luxurious, the White Orchid bus company, and on the luxury bus no less. In reality it was probably a luxury ride 30 years ago. No complaining here though, we had assigned seats and could open the windows. This was luxury in Guatemala and we didn’t mind.
Leaving Coban we drove through some beautiful scenery with lush green mountains surrounding us. Then quickly the scenery changed and it looked like we were back in central Mexico. Dry scrub vegetation and cacti littered the landscape. The road was mostly in good shape and in the parts it wasn’t construction was prevalent. The signs read that Taiwan was helping build the highway. I’m not quite sure what they got out of it. About 30 minutes outside of Guatemala City we picked up what seemed to be an entire village, good thing we had our assigned seats.
Guatemala City is the most populated city in Central America, 3.1 million inhabitants. As our bus drove through the suburbs at times it looked like suburban Florida. Upscale malls, McDonalds and tons of traffic. Other times it looked like a complete shithole, sorry there is just no other way to describe it. Yep, I believe my first words to Jordana as we arrived in the city outskirts, “what a shithole!” Besides being ugly our Lonely Planet guide did little to improve our first impressions. They stated people either said the city was “big, dirty, dangerous and utterly forgettable”. Or, “big dirty, dangerous and fascinating”. No doubt it was fascinating but for the wrong reasons. On their top 5 things to do number 5 was leaving!
We pulled through the eerily empty afternoon streets of the downtown. I wondered if this really was downtown? The buildings were 5-6 stories, everything was barred up and the sidewalks nearly deserted at 2pm. We arrived at the barbed wire fenced in bus station and sure enough it was downtown. I had picked a hotel that was supposedly secure and very close by so we could easily walk. The walk was easy and with huge barred doors that were always locked (you had to ring to enter) it was secure. It even had some colonial charm and cable tv.
We spent the rest of the day walking the busy streets that resembled a giant market. Cd’s, clothes, watches and just about every other cheap product from china was here. I got a needed belt out of it, $2. We also found a surprisingly good vegetarian restaurant. After some good coffee at a trendy cafe we scurried back to our hotel before dark. After reading all the warnings being out in the darkness felt like certain robbery. We were safely back at our secure hotel and watched a bad Jeff Goldblum movie from the ’80’s.
What can I say about Guate? It was only one day and I’m glad we came, it is after all the capital and by far the largest city in Guatemala. It would have felt wrong to travel the country and not come here. But its not a pretty place. I only saw one park in the city, the rest of the greenspace that surrounds the city has been transformed into huge shanty towns. Poor from the countryside who lost everything during the civil war and searched for a better life in the big city. The crime, pollution, ugly buildings and lack of green space it truly is not what a city should look like. We went to bed that night and Jordana asked what sights we should see tomorrow? My reply, “The bus station on the way out of town”.
Tags: crime, Guatemala, Guatemala City
Michael Coroneos
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.