Back to Latam with Guatemala
A more chilled version of Mexico? Òrale
I really enjoyed Mexico in the 3 months I spent there, and I think I'd like to go back. Being so close to Mexico and being linked in history, Guatemala will obviously have some similarities to Mexico, and that's true in my opinion.
We chose to visit Guatemala mainly because the flight from New York was at a good time, good price and it's a country we've never visited before. With the need for exit tickets in most countries, we try to use these to visit new countries. As a full time traveller, I don't have a return ticket, so I need an exit ticket to another country, and then another one for that country and so on...
We spent 4 days in Guatemala city in the Reforma area of the city, which is where all of the bad boy hotels are like the Westin, Holiday Inn, Hilton and so on. There are a lot of American influences here too, as the streets are full of brands like Applebees, McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell and so on.
It feels pretty safe, but most places have an armed guard outside - so that says a lot.
Right check this out. In Mexico, it's very, very difficult to walk down the street without somebody trying to sell you something, and they're relentless, but they pass it off with humour so it's pretty entertaining. I noticed very quickly that here in Guatemala, the street sellers wait for you to approach them, then they try to sell to you - which is great. Even better, if you're not interested, they just leave you alone - how considerate. This attitude needs to be spread across the world, instead of harassing tourists, trying to squeeze every penny out of them. Shout out Guatemala and the people here.
I'll tell you something else too. We were the only tourists that we seen walking around the streets here, and we walked from the Palace of Culture, all the way down to Zona 10, with the hotels, which took maybe like 45 mins as we stopped to check stuff out. Nobody caused us any issues, nobody shouted at us, nobody followed us, nobody attacked us - and we stand out. Tanya has huge blonde curly hair, and we're both pretty white - and I'm taller than everybody in Guatemala it seems. We stand out. These guys here in Guatemala city seem kind and considerate. We even noticed that some guys who you'd think may look a bit dodgy, just were not interested in causing us any issues - a lot of them just said hello and carried on walking past.
There's not a lot to do in the city and we were only there for a few days, but apparently the volcano hiking stuff is pretty cool.
I'd return to Guatemala with more time and a plan to see some towns and volcanos and stuff.
Guatemala is cool.