We had another relatively leisurely morning on Monday, March 30, 2009, as we set out to tour Guatemala City. Since this is the city in which we were staying it didn’t require that we left too terribly early, so Bob and I were able to enjoy another one of those gigantic breakfast buffets with the eggs, sausages, bacon, omelettes, guacamole, lunchmeat sandwiches, gourmet cheeses, traditional mexican dishes, toast, and array of juices. I love describing these meals. We met our bus at 9am and embarked on the tour.
Decorative bread from the breakfast buffet
Guatemala City is by far the largest in the country, housing over two million with another million living in the outskirts, with a net of one-fourth of the country’s population residing there. Although we were staying in a section of Guatemala City, this didn’t mean that it wasn’t quite a drive to see different parts of the thirteen ‘zones’ that the city is divided into.
We started our driving down the Avenue Los Americas, with our tour guide Antonio pointing out the numerous monuments within the huge boulevard down the road. This avenue was located just a block behind our hotel. In the back of my head, I was wishing that we would get to see some of the monuments up close to get pictures of and with them.
Our first destination was La Cañada, which Antonio described to us as the ‘Beverly Hills of Guatemala’. It was a private neighborhood through which our bus was permitted passage, and it housed some of the elite of the country, including many of the foreign embassies. One particular house was where Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen, the former president of the country from 1996-2000 and current mayor of Guatemala City, lived.
Nearby the neighborhood, we also saw the exterior of one of the most interesting and ornate churches that I’ve ever seen. It was simply known as the Yurrita church and had been built by the Yurrita family who was spared from one of the erupting volcanoes, and had been their thanks to God. (1902 eruption, 1942 built)
Check out the architecture of the Yurrita Church
The first time of the day when we actually unboarded the bus was when we reached the Guatemala City Civic Center complex. As was the case in Antigua, the formal capital of the country, the government building was adjacent to the church. We did a walk through of the Metropolitan Cathedral, an ornate church built in 1868 and noted for its 12 pillars supporting it, each engraved with the names of hundreds who died or went missing during the Guatemalan Civil War.
Outside the entrance to the Metropolitan Cathedral
Inside the cathedral. They had everything but animatronics.
We walked over to the National Palace, all the while being followed by ladies who desperately wanted to sell us hats, but we were not able to go inside. There were demonstrations going on in the city square, so the palace was operating under limited hours. Plenty of armed guards stood in front of it, which was a very common site all through Guatemala, even in small businesses across the city.
Outside the National Palace
A typical Mayan hatmonger. I quickly noted that these people never smile for pictures. In fact, some believe that cameras steal their soul.
After another one of Antonio’s patented ‘biological stops’ (at the unlikely location of Wendy’s!) , we also did a walking tour of the ornate La Merced de Guatemala Church (not to be confused with the more famous La Merced church in Antigua). The Catholic churches in Guatemala, while ornate, are often filled with what I consider to be rather gaudy figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. Obviously the local people do not feel this way, as you often see them gathered around them, prostrate, praying, or even weeping.
La Merced de Guatemala Church
Tourist-friendly pigeons outside the church
Virgin Mary figure in La Merced
It was with a somewhat guilty conscience that we headed to lunch as we drove through the most poverty-stricken area of the Guatemala City where thousands of ‘hill invaders’ had set up homes that amounted to nothing more than small shacks or sheds constructed from what appeared to be scrap metal.
Some of the asentamiento shanty housing in poorer areas of Guatemala. This is bad…but far from the worst that one might find in Guatemala.
Still lunch at a very nice restaurant called Kacao was enjoyed by all as we arrived around noon. It was here – and only here – that we had the opportunity to try some authentic Guatemalan dishes. My choice was the Tapado, which was a creamy seafood soup prepared with plantains and coconut milk. Try finding that here. It was quite different but very good, with some of the seafood still in its oyster shells! Naturally with coconut and plantains in the mix, it had a rather sweet flavor.
A gentleman lights the lunchtime candles at Kacao. The pom-pom looking things on each candle is actually the melted wax.
Bob and I enjoy our traditional Guatemalan cuisine. Bob is eating a rooster. Translate that into street language if you must.
After lunch, our final stop of the day was at a pair of museums on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquin: The Ixchel Museum of Mayan Costumes and the Popol Vuh Museum. The Ixchel was dedicated to Mayan textiles and tapestries. Not exactly my cup of tea, but was fun to browse for a while. Ixchel, by the way, was the Mayan Goddess of fertility and weaving. The most entertaining moment was when we were all put into a room to watch a video, which never started. So we went and told them and it still never started. Finally it started and Bob went to sleep.
Outside the Ixchel Museum
Feigning interest in these pleasant tapestries
Bob naps during a film screening – Take 14
Next door to the Ixchel was the Popol Vuh Museum. Named after the holy book of the Mayans, this one contained a vast collection of Mayan artwork. This one I enjoyed much more than the other. We were supposed to pay an extra fee to take photos inside, but we weren’t told (at least in English) until I had already taken some…enough as luck would have it. We departed the museums about 3:30 and ended up back at our hotel by 4pm.
In the Popol Vuh Museum
A rose between two thorns. Ancient Mesoamerican art.
Figura Decapitada
With not a lot to do inside to keep us occupied, Bob and I cautiously ventured off the property so that Bob could mail some postcards at the local post office. We walked there and by the time we got there, our fears about walking the streets of Guatemala City were slowly fading away. In fact, we ended up taking a long walk – which in fact lasted about two hours!
Bob mails postcards
This gave us the opportunity to get photos of and with a slew of the monuments down the Avenue las Americas. Our ultimate goal was to reach the Christopher Columbus monument, which we did. The only other monument that we would have liked to have seen was the tribute to Pope John Paul II’s visit to Guatemala – but it would have required much more walking…and I wasn’t going to be able to carry Bob back. (The monument at the top of the page was dedicated to man’s ‘vacations’. How appropriate.)
Mother’s Day monument
Monument honoring the Guatemalan war of independence
Monument dedicated to Simon Bolivar
Enjoying the city park, although cement is not that slippery on the tush
Bob’s turn to sit at the bottom of the slide and pretend he went down it
My worst fear realized: trapped behind bars in Guatemala
Guatemala’s monument to Argentina
Our final destination: the Christopher Columbus monument. Now to walk back…
Bob always likes to visit the grocery stores in different cultures and I too being a Kroger boy like to see what they have to offer. So we stopped at an Econo Super, which was a small supermarket, and we browsed. Bob bought us ice cream bars.
Tried as I did, I could not picture Tony the Tiger saying “Zuuuucaritas”
Enjoying an ice cream bar with our hotel in the background
After the ice cream and the two giant meals earlier in the day, we decided not to eat any dinner that night. I had plenty of time to play around on the internet in our ‘secret’ crew room chatting and sending Guatemalan greetings to my Facebook friends, and then dined on some of Bob’s crackers before turning in early and catching the end of Flags of Our Fathers, which Bob had been watching. The first two days had been pretty easy on us, but we would be getting much earlier starts from here on out.
Guatemala will continue…
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