4th August - 5th August 2009

We were so unsure what to expect of Guatemala so we were pleasantly surprised when a local paid for our bus fare to the city because we didn't have any quetzals (Guatemala's currency). There was also another guy on the bus who gave us a lot of advice and also his phone number in case we ran into any trouble.We were off to a good start indeed. We were loving riding around in our first 'Chicken bus' (Old American school buses that are painted brightly and used for public transport) and easily found a half decent hotel to stay at. There wasn't a whole lot to do in the city but we managed to while away a couple of nights there by just walking around and checking out the markets. We went to the 'Central Parque' which they have in a lot of the towns and there was some sort of event going on that we didn't want to get too close too but watched on with intrigue. We didn't go out too much at night because we'd been warned it was quite dangerous but we didn't find any trouble while we were there. Maybe the thousands of security guards that cover the shop fronts (including payless shoes and the ice cream parlour) had something to do with it. We were glad we checked out Guatemala City even though we were told it wasn't worth it because at least we now know why and it made us appreciate our next stop, Antigua, a lot more.