Guatemala City makes me miss the countryside

On the bus to Guatemala City I checked the location of a cheap hotel close to where my bus would drop me off and kept my fingers crossed they would have free beds even though it was semana santa, Easter week, and the whole country was on holiday. I figured that since it was only 6pm, not dark yet and the distance to the hotel only six blocks it would be fine to walk there alone with my backpack. And well, nothing happened and I made it to the hotel safe and sound but after my local CS friends heard that I didn't take a taxi, I was very firmly told NEVER to do that again. A girl, especially a gringa, walking alone with her big backpack reads to many people as = tourist carrying all of her valuables, stuff for free. Some of the looks people gave me on the streets and hasty signals of an old lady urging me to take off quickly made me pick up my paste and walk right behind a well-dressed gentleman so that it would look like I was with him.

Pension Meza where I stayed from Monday to Thursday is a nice place; a bed in a room for three was 35 GTQ (3,5€) per night, little gardens besides to rooms charming, wifi for free and service friendly.

Beds might have bed bugs cause I woke up with quite a few bite marks and showers and toilets were perhaps less charming, but you can't be too demanding. Quite surprisingly the place was very quiet, so I didn't make many new friends and felt a bit lonely, especially since walking alone on the streets after 5pm was not adviced.

That was probably what bugged me about Guatemala City in general; I didn't feel safe. Besides a few walks in the middle of the day with lots of people around and two times that local CSers took me out to have lunch or some drinks in the evening with them, I couldn't really explore the city too much, not as a female travelling alone.

CSer called Jonathan took me for a ride in the different neighbourhoods of the city to show how different groups of local people live and work and the differences were indeed huge with only one thing in common: fear. The rich people had their own, locked neigbourhoods looking more like castles with guards checking IDs, middle class their barbwire fences and poor people waited for the next rain shower hoping their little homes wouldn't fall down from the sides of the hill where they had build their shacks. Some areas were beautiful, views from the top of the hill magnificent and some areas were extremely sad places to see.

Luis, Specks in CS, not only took my out on Tuesday but also gave me a lift to Antigua on Thursday – how nice can a person be! He said he was bored and didn't have anything else to do, so I accepted gladly.

My first bargaining experience was very easy with the seller doing all the bargaining for me: I looked at a gorgeous bag and asked for the price but simply put it back when he said the price was 140 GTQ. I started walking away and he shouted after me: “120... 100... 80... 70.... 60... 50” and gave up saying “the gringa didn't want it after all” to his collegues. I walked back and bought the beautiful handmade bag for 50 GTQ (5€). Well done, me.

Another good deed of the day was going through my backpack and selecting clothes to throw away after I've used them once. I'm carrying WAY too much stuff, my backpacks weigh nearly 20kg and I have enough clean clothes for over three weeks – completely unnecessary. Most travellers don't seem to see any reason to even change their clothes every day, perhaps more like once a week, and even though I'm not planning to take it that far, I can definitely do with less clothes and for example do laundry every two weeks.

I spend most of my days troubling my little head with too many thoughts, like I usually do... The cultural differences and reasons behind them have always been a passion of mine and here they seem to jump on my face everywhere I go. One issue I've given a lot of thought to during this trip and discussed it with locals and travellers is poverty. Reasons behind it; its effects on the people, the society and the environment; the future of the situation; how it makes me feel; and what should be done about it.

None of these questions have black and white answers and some of the effects for example are quite indirect. Let's take for example the environmental crisis this beautiful country with such magnificent nature is heading towards. Nobody seems to care and my immediate reaction to seeing everyone throwing their rubbish on the streets, people polluting the crystal clear waters already on their way down from the mountains by doing their laundry in them and most toilets and all other polluted water going straight into the rivers was anger. But it's not that simple. If you have to worry about not having enough to eat every day or how to avoid being robbed or assaulted on your way to work, preserving the environment is probably not your top priority. And if you can't afford to go to school just like you parents weren't able to before you, how to get the education about nature issues?

The Canadian Andrea I met in Río Dulce was giving free courses to local children showing them how their choices effect their surroundings; a bottle you write your name on and throw on the street will disappear as the streets are cleaned my nightly rain, but if you take a walk on the beach to next day, you'll find your bottle there for sure, together with hundreds of others...


Now it's time to stop pondering and take off to celebrating Easter Antigua style. I'll make sure to download some cool videos for you as soon as I get to somewhere with a better internet connection!

HAPPY EASTER!
Enjoy the eggs!