So, at about 10.30,pm last night,  a family moved in to the room next door to me. They had at least two over excited children who shouted for at least an hour and a half. Little beggars! And why did their parents allow this, one may ask. 

At 5am my upstairs neighbour decided to don a pair of stilettos and proceed to walk a half marathon around her room, well, I assume it was a she? Quien sabe?  See my Spanish is getting better!!

So, not a great night's sleep. My wake up call was 6.30am by which time I was already showered and dressed ,thanks mostly to Mrs Jimmy Choo upstairs. Cow! 

Breakfast starts at 7am, so I wreaked a small vengeful victory over the noisy family and banged the wardrobe doors, flushed the loo several times and made sure I slammed the door on the way to breakfast. Hah! 

Breakfast was a buffet, hot and cold. I chose an omelette as usual. The remaining hot stuff was those pesky little fried banana plantain thingies and a load of slop which looked like the dog had had a bit of an upset tum during the night, in various shades from burgundy to black. 

We were originally scheduled to go to visit a school that is sponsored by the charity side of this travel company, the Grand Circle Foundation. However, school was finished for the year and not in session, so we had to be rescheduled. 

We have been joined by Walter, another OAT guide, in order for the two guides to pass on their ideas of best practice to each other. He will be with us through to the end of the main trip. He is a very nice man and speaks good English. 

Hmmm, and so it was that, when we boarded the bus, we had all been allocated seats. 

Previously we just got on and sat down. Bad news for me as I had been allocated the back seat and I get car sick. However, today was a series of short drives along straight roads, so I felt able to cope. This was Walter's idea, and not a popular one, I'm afraid.

Our first stop was to be a very small archaeological site called Kaminaljuyu. This small dig was being undertaken on land that had been saved from the encroaching city of Guatemala. There would not be a lot to see as the dig was in its infancy. 

To our surprise, when we got there, there was a huge crowd of women dancing around a fire that was billowing out the smell of sweet incense, cinnamon and various other intoxicating aromas. They were all dressed in their native costumes and were from all over the world. This was a women's empowerment movement. There was a Shaman who was the one who was tending the fire and deciding which woods, incense etc would be added. We were asked not to take any photos from close by as they felt the cameras would weaken the power of their prayers and attending spirits. We complied and stood a way off. 

The colours of the costumes were so vibrant and the music being played was infectious. There were TV cameras up on the hill, away from the ceremony but these had been allowed by the Shaman and the women. 

There is now a strong movement among the Native American and Central American women, to encourage them to take more of a leading role in the running of their communities, hence this ceremony for empowerment. 

When the dance finished, each person present gave their name and where they were from. There were of course, the local representatives but others hailed from Canada, Native Americans from the Apache, Cherokee and Sioux tribes, some from Mexico, El Salvador and even Bulgaria .

We left them to it and walked up to the dig. 

Compared to Copan this is a very young dig. There is very little carving evident on any of the structures but they did find some carved stellae. These are the huge chunks of stone that they decorate with carvings and hieroglyphics. 

Once again, they had built structure upon structure, each one taller than the last. Archaeologists have identified numerous mounds around the area that they know are structures from this city. Many of these are scattered throughout this area of Guatemala City and have not yet been excavated. 

Meanwhile, the women's ceremony was winding down and we managed to photograph and talk to several of them. We felt very privileged to have been able to see this, as our guides had no idea that this would be taking place when they rescheduled the day. 

It was wonderful to see their bright traditional clothing but really weird to see them suddenly whip out their i-phones and start taking pictures of each other. The old and the new working together in harmony!!

Next was to be a bus tour of the city. 

Guatemala City is divided into zones which are numbered. The first one we visited was the notorious rubbish dump. It covers something like 15 football fields and every day, lorry after lorry dumps rubbish from the different zones of the city. It is easily found, just look for the vultures flying overhead, the sky is black with them.

Living and working in this fetid pile of rotting rubbish are families who sort through the stinking mass of other people's detritus, looking for anything that they can sell or even eat. All the time competing with this enormous flock of evil looking vultures. 

What they find is taken back to their 'homes' to be stored and eventually sold. These homes are little more than sheets of corrugated iron, enclosing a small space, mot much bigger than a garden shed. The whole family lives together, mostly in one room. 

A few years ago an American lady called Hanley Denning was in the city and saw the horrendous life that these people were living and was horrified to see that even small children were engaged in the scavenging. 

She immediately sold all her property in the US and came to Guatemala City to set up a school for these young children. She opened the school in 1999 and she called it Safe Passage. 

Her aim was to provide the children from the families at the tip, with a safe place to be whilst they also received a meal, some basic education and some care and attention, all of which was desperately needed.

She started off with 46 children and now looks after 500 from just 2 years old to 21 years old. Also a 100 or so mothers are also helped by the programme.

Hanley managed to persuade the government to make it illegal for any child under 14 to be working at the dump. She managed to start off the education programme she had dreamed about but unfortunately she was killed in a road accident before she could see how well her project has done. 

The Guatemalan government have donated some land, albeit still by the dump, and various volunteers are slowly building a new, bigger centre for the children. The Grand Circle Foundation have donated $30,000 to help with the project. 

The government are under pressure to start a more environmentally friendly processing of its huge amount of rubbish, as there is no recycling at the moment, other than these 150 families who make their living there. However, if they start recycling on a large scale, these families will lose their chance of making an income and be more destitute than they already are. So it's a bit of a chicken and egg thing but something needs to be done, It is unacceptable for people to have to live this way, in this day and age.

From here we were taken to the really posh end of town, to a gated community. Talk about contrasts!

Within the walls of this were foreign embassies and also the homes of the rich and prosperous. I was a little disappointed, as I was expecting more. The homes were really crammed in and a lot of them were just ultra modern concrete boxes. There was still yards of razor wire all along the walls and electric gates, despite the presence of armed guards. 

If you want to make a fortune, start selling razor wire in Central America, it's everywhere.

I think I had expected maybe long sweeping lawns and more Miami style homes, loads of bedrooms, land, cars, swimming pools etc. Some of them didn't look much different from a semi posh area in my home town. 

Lunch was in an upstairs dining area of a lovely bakery shop. 

Once again, loads of food, far too much, so I just had a little of everything. Mind you, the corn soup was delicious. There was time to look around the bakery which smelled amazing. I'm always fascinated by food shops in other countries and this one had some amazing cakes.

Back on the bus and off to the shopping area. This was mostly pedestrianised . We were happy to see that they allowed street performers, a trio of street dancers and a drum band, also jugglers etc. 

I think I would have liked to have spent a bit more time around the shops but it was not to be. 

From here we walked to the Civic area. 

This is where the Presidential palace was situated and the cathedral. I noticed that the Palace had a broken window in one of the wings.  Bit shabby, you wouldn't find that at Buck House!! 

This is where Mr Morales will be holding court, once he is sworn in as the new President.

In the central plaza they were busy constructing an outdoor ice rink for the Christmas period, with free skating for all. The City is actually very pretty with quite a lot of open spaces and colonial buildings and a large cathedral

All around the cathedral there were pillars filled with the names of victims of the 36 years of civil war that the country endured. Victims of torture, massacres and murder. Hundreds of names, many of them seeming to be complete families that were wiped out. Unbelievable. 

So my thoughts on Guatemala City. 

Well, I was surprised. I had not expected such culture, nor had I expected such deep poverty. We were warned that we would see people walking around with up to three guns visible. Apparently, this is legal if you are over 25 and sane!  I didn't see a single one. The armed guards everywhere with their high velocity rifles and machine guns are a little disconcerting and not always guarding businesses where you would need a guard. 

A funeral directors? A florist? A shop selling ladders? Weird! 

Overall, walking around through the streets surrounded by Guatemalans, I never felt threatened. Yes, we dressed down and didn't flash our cameras or money about, that is common sense in any city. Mostly, people were interested in us, wanting to know where we were from. It was a great cultural exchange which could not have been achieved without the help of Ivania and her amazing translating skills. 

The 36 years of Civil War have left their mark, or maybe more of a livid scar. With the arrest of the old President, who I believe is now in jail, and the dawn of a new era with Senor Morales, maybe things will start to change for the better. I still think it's odd to elect a TV comedian as your President but then, the Americans had Ronnie Regan and George W Bush, so maybe it's not a new idea after all??

We returned quite late to our hotel and Sharon and I decided to go back to the Shakespeare bar for a couple of drinks before getting something to eat. Needless to say, we never went anywhere else, once we got chatting to the owner who was from Chicago and a couple of other Americans in there. 

Ivania and Walter turned up with Louis and Kristin but we were quite happy sat at the bar chatting, so didn't join them.

Ah well, we made do with a plate of mozzarella sticks and then went back to the hotel by 9ish. Getting up so early is ok but it leaves you really tired towards the end of the day. 

Night Night xx