I can see why tourists do not go here.

There was only one road, although I could have tried going offroad, going to Guatemala city and it was busy with cars. It was manageable, until I had to merge onto the Pan-American Highway (there was no alternative) which was crazy initially, and it only got crazier the more I approached the city. So busy most traffic was standing still at least half of the time, and I was going in between cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, even around 10 or 11 am for about 5 kilometers. It probably is not as bad as cities in India, but the amount of traffic and amount of malls (and fast-food signs) everywhere I had not seen for a long time or ever: it was way worse than Tuxtla or Oaxaca by a long shot.

After having found my way off from the worse traffic, I actually found a cycling path (welcome, because there is traffic everywhere) through the city and also arrived in what was clearly the richer part of the city. Just (mini-) malls, security, restaurants, big hotels and shopping centres everywhere. It felt like Nairobi, with the big difference that here the inequality between the people going to these places and cheaper places downtown (zona 1) was not of ethnicity, and rich Guatemalan people went to these venues all over. When cycling through Zona 1, the city center, you got to a more "normal" area, although this was definitely not a poor or dangerous zone. More food stalls on the street, more markets; the Mercado central being the biggest one, quite touristic, and huge with multiple floors offering different foods, crafts, souvenirs, and groceries.

However, the worst thing is finding food in the evening, around the hostel. Restaurants are very, very expensive (more expensive than Austria by some), luxurious, and also frequently close at 6 or 7. Some also have way too much staff. The first night I went for takeaway pizza because other affordable places were closed, the second night I actually went for a run to go to a vegan burger places 2 km out, which then also turned out to have closed an hour early; I ended up cooking myself. Joining the upscale evening joggers and runners, and ending up in an area where the expats live (big apartment complexes with lots of security). It is just not a nice area to stay, but the city center was too far or go to at night (and presumably not all too safe).

In the end, the total vibe of the place is just big inequality and lots of luxury in some places, with crime being forced to other areas of the city.

The only thing it has going for tourism is museums, with Popol Vuh offering an excellent display of Mayan relics, and Miraflores, situated on the location of the ancient, but perished, huge Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu. Kaminaljuyu used to be (one of the?) biggest mayan cities in the highlands, but has completely faded away under the construction of the city of Guatemala. They still find old archeological remains under the city constantly, and a lot of it is on display in the Museum Miraflores. That did make the stay worth it and were very good museums.

There were other museums around but they had ridiculous opening hours (closing at 3pm, opening at 10am), so "opening hours" is the thing I will remember of this place. Plus, being sent all over looking for something like an Ikea bag: I should have gone to a street market straight away.

In the end Canada nearly made me unable to catch my flight because the ETA system did not work properly, and you need a visa even for connecting flights. But it got approved after paying four times, after presumably the people started working in Toronto and realized the system was down. Fuck them, this visa system is broken.Read more