Guatemala City: 19th - 24th August 2025
20th August – Wednesday
Yesterday was emotionally draining. I woke to a photo of Aunt Nessa, Angela sent it, and I broke down crying. It was so hard to look at her, it saddens me immensely that she is leaving this world in the same painful, wasteful way that dad did. She is now in a hospice and not receiving any treatment bar morphine for the pain and antibiotics. She is on borrowed time. All I could think about was going back to the UK to see her, tell her how much I love her, and give her a hug. I even started to look at flights. But Justine stopped me in my tracks, how the hell did she know I would need her is beyond me, but her missed call couldn’t have come at a better time. I called her back and it was like I was in the chair opposite her in her office – she had all the right things to say and advised me to do a video call with Nessa and see if Titus will attend the funeral for me. Thank you, Justine, and wow are you looking good!
Ange gave me Nessa’s niece, Verena, phone number and I arranged a call for this morning through her. Verena is an angel in disguise; she has been looking after Nessa for the last couple of months and is now staying at the hospice with her. I know first hand how emotionally stressful and painful this is to do – she truly is an angel – god bless her. I also had a good chat with mum, I just needed my mum and she was fantastic, loving and understanding and supported Justine’s idea. So, I woke at 4 am this morning, made coffee and video called Nessa. I managed to hold my cool, but like an idiot asked her how she was, I quickly changed the topic of conversation and rambled on about my travels. It is so hard to know what to say to someone in her position, but I feel a sense of relief that I spoke to her. It is not goodbye yet, I will call again in a couple of days’ time. I also spoke to T tonight and he will go to the funeral. It’s good to know that one of us will be there.
Before I left Antigua yesterday I tried my two new fruits, the house keeper laughed when she saw me trying to open the yellow prickly one, which is called a kiwano. I finally realised that she was telling me it wasn’t good to eat and needed cooking with salt, she was right. However, the other one, a mamey sapote, was delicious and tasted like a vanilla peach. It’s a shame as there was not much flesh to it and 4 very large stones in it. I’ll definitely be buying the later again.
The trip to Guatemala City yesterday, although hazardous due to our manic driver, was not long. There were 6 of us in mini-van, there was supposed to be more, but they were a no-show, which was a relief as it meant more space. The girl in front of me kept turning around and giving me the evil eye. I got the feeling she was paranoid about her boyfriend, who was also sitting behind her and only one seat away from me, she had no reason to be and I just ignored her. It took just under an hour before we reached the city traffic and then a good hour to get to the airport where everyone else got off. The driver pulled a pissed off face when I informed him that I had bought a ticket to Tequela Hostel, but he honoured the ticket and dropped me off a 1-minute walk from my apartment. I got lost! I’m not sure how but I ended up having to buy a coffee and use the shops wi-fi to work out where I was, I was 8 minutes away – this seems to be an ongoing scenario since I have arrived in Latin America – lol. Today I bought mobile data – I decided getting lost once is more than enough in a city this size.
My studio room is perfect, clean and spacious. I have a fridge, microwave, 2 ring cooker and a coffee maker, so today I bought some eggs, bacon, sausages and tortilla wraps. The only downside, and this kept waking me last night, is that I am directly under the flight path. And the planes run every hour all night – I might as well be camping on the runway it’s that loud. I initially thought the planes were taking off but I saw one as I was coming back from the supermarket, it was landing and it was so low and so close to a tower block I really couldn’t believe my eyes. I must get a photo of one before I leave.
I went for a stroll last night. I’m in zone 4, which is suppose to up-coming and trendy. I felt like I was in an American version of Canary Wharf. Undercover shops with seats outside and all the restaurants were either expensive coffee bars, burger or pizza joints, so I had a slice of pizza and returned to my room. I am very pleased to say that this afternoon, when I went out to the supermarket I found a far nicer area, just as close but in the opposite direction. Still trendy and pedestrianised but with more bars and local food shops, more bohemian. I’m exhausted tonight but I will head down there tomorrow night.
After my call with Nessa, I headed to a laundry shop and put all my clothes in. I was quite surprised when she told me to come back at 3 pm and that it would cost 35q. So quick and so cheap. I then decided to take a walk to see some of the near-by sights. I started off at the Torre del Reformador, which is a 71.85-meter steel tower, Guatemala’s version of the Eifel Tower, but not as striking. In fact, it was very ugly. It was built in 1935 to honor the former President Justo Rufino Barrios. From there I continued down the main road to the Plaza Espana, it has a central fountain with no water a playground and landscaped gardens, I didn’t think that much of it but stayed for 10 minutes to catch my breath. I was going to head to the zoo but due to time I changed my plans and headed to the Plaza Obelisco instead. This was also built in 1935 and also had a dormant water fountain. However, the surrounding court area was very beautiful with a circle of pagodas and plenty of shaded seating. For my route back I walked down the Avenida La Reforma, which was beautiful and showcased several statues of famous people and animals. I didn’t take many photos as I was now 45 minutes from my room, exhausted and just wanted to get back. However, on route I stopped to buy an ice lolly and as I came out of the shop a fight between two grown men broke out, I darted out of the way but stood and watched from a safe distance, it was a proper fist fight with a lot of dirty tactic thrown in. Both men were covered in blood, it actually became quite concerning as it went on for quite a while before someone decided to step in and break it up. Considering the amount of armed guards around I’m surprised they weren’t arrested.
I was quite exhausted by the time I got back but still had to head out to get my laundry. On the way home from that I got caught in a thunder storm, which even my rain mac couldn’t hold back, my trainers are now soaked threw and beginning to smell really nasty. I’m thinking it may be time for a new pair. Once the rain stopped, I popped out to the supermarket in my black cut off jeans which now fit – yeah, I’ve lost a lot of weight recently and am almost back down to my SE Asian size. It’s not surprising really what with all of the walking I’ve been doing and eating decent home cooked food at my San Pedro homestays. Today I have done 18,064 steps so far and still need to out one more time to buy a vape. I also cooked – lol – the last time I did that must have been at Manu’s house.
21st August – Thursday
I only went to one place today, the Botanical Gardens; they are only 8-minutes from my room and my trainers were still wet from the rain yesterday so I had to wear my plastic shoes, which are not good for walking long distances in. The gardens were not in bloom, but that was to expected as it is winter here, but they were still very beautiful, with lots of tropical plants and also a few that I had back in Clapham and Morden. There was also a museum and the first display I looked at was pretty gruesome but also very interesting, it contained preserved human foetuses ranging from 4 weeks to 24 weeks gestation. I didn’t realise that babies are so fully formed from so early on in the pregnancy, well I did but seeing it in real life is very different from seeing it in a book. That same room also contained a lot of animal skeletons and stuffed animals, including bird’s feet and heads – ug. Thinking about it the museum was like a mini version of the Natural History Museum in London. It had an evolution display, some really beautiful rocks and crystals, thousands of insects and lots of stuffed animals and their skeletons. It was very interesting but at the same time quite gruesome – lol.
Although I had a cooked breakfast, well I peeled an avocado, boiled some eggs and heated up 3 tortillas, I was starving after the Botanical Gardens, so I went to the Canary Warf area and had a very tasty chicken wrap and a beer. I then went back to my room and slept for 4 hours! I didn’t mean to, it was supposed to be a cat nap but I must have needed it. Other than that, all I have done is go to the shops in the more bohemian area, I did have a little walk around, the restaurants and bars look good, but expensive and there are a couple of night clubs, but I won’t be going. The guy in the shop was quite impressed, I asked him to repeat the price of my goods slowly, he got his calculator out to show me and I said no, and asked him again to repeat it, when I put the correct money on the counter he was astonished and said ‘oh, you understand Spanish’. After yesterday and the help I got from another customer, he must have thought I had no Spanish – lol.
There doesn’t seem to be as many planes landing today, and last night I slept through them all. Perhaps I am just not noticing them as much, but I did see another today. I know it is the angle I am seeing them from but they really do look like they are flying far too close to the surrounding buildings, it really does look like an accident waiting to happen 
My trainers will be fully dry by the morning so tomorrow I’ll go on another ‘proper’ adventure. I think I’ll get an Uber to the Central Market, I’ve been looking at photos of it and it looks amazing, there are also a few attractions to explore in that area, so I should do as many as I can while I’m there. But first, another good night’s sleep is needed 
23rd August – Saturday
Yesterday was a disappointment. I walked to the Historical centre, which was pleasant enough. I passed a few beautiful churches and several historical buildings; one had several armed guards outside of it and what looked like a party taking place. I have tried to find the name of it on Google Maps but can’t. There was also a brass band parading through the streets but by the time I caught up with them they had stopped their music and were rushing off to somewhere else. I sat in the Plaza de Constitution for a while but it was full of down and outs as well as a few families and several school children who were enjoying the fountain. I took a few photos before having a wonder around the Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago de Guatemala, which is extremely beautiful from the outside but just another church on the inside. There was a service going on so I only took a couple of photos. From there I went to the Mercado Central. I had read such good reviews about it on the internet but I really didn’t think that much of it. Maybe I just seen one Mercado too many, as it wasn’t any different from the standard, except the food, meat and veg were on a lower floor to the touristy stuff.
I left really pissed off; my stomach was aching so I stopped for a bite to eat, why I choose the emptiest place is beyond me. There is a reason why no-one was there, and I had the soup trick played on me again (!). I ordered chicken and rice and first they brought me a bowl of soup, which I did not touch, I should have said that I didn’t order or want it but I was preoccupied. The plate of food they brought out was small, with one chicken drum stick, and they had the nerve to charge me 40q for it, when I complained, she said ‘but you had the soup as well’ – arrrggggg! I could have kicked myself, especially as some of the other canteens were serving, what looked like, delicious and large portions of food.
To top of my disappointment, I tried to get into the Palacio National de la Cultura, but they would not let me in because I did not have my passport on me and they wouldn’t accept the copy on my phone The Palacio is supposed to be magnificent inside. It was built from 1939 – 1943 and is the seat of the President of Guatemala as well as a museum. It has 340 rooms, 780 doors, 386 windows, 55 stained glass windows and 1,000 balconies! Such a shame.
I walked back to my room with a sour frown on my face and had a catnap. Guatemala City doesn’t rank high on my favourite Cities list, it feels quite drab and there seems to be so much traffic. I think, even though I prefer Guatemala to Mexico, I actually prefer Mexico City to this City, it felt more vibrant and alive and, although there are armed guards everywhere, there really aren’t as many as here, which also makes me question the safety of this City.
I woke still pissed off so stayed in and watched TV. I should have started watching Spanish TV weeks ago, it is so good for my Spanish! I had to focus but after a while I started to understand a majority of what the presenter was saying – I was watching a YouTuber in Hati, it was actually really interesting, but I am not sure I would want to go there, the piles of plastic along the beach was disgusting, it would just make me sad.
This morning was frustrating – I spent most of it trying to book my bus to Santa Ana, El Salvador, for tomorrow. All the sites I tried gave a connection failure notice and to try again later. I eventually phoned the Transporte del Sol company, the lady on the other end had no English but we managed a small conversation, in Spanish, and she informed me I could book a ticket with her. To make life easier I jumped into an Uber and went to her office in the Hotel Americanas, it was so much easier than trying to book over the phone – I left with my ticket in hand and very happy I am looking forward to leaving Guatemala. I have had a fantastic time, Guatemala is amazing, especially up in the more remote areas of the jungle, with Lake Itza and Antigua being my favourite places, but I’ve been here a good 6 weeks now and I am more than ready to explore somewhere else.
