FEBRUARY, 2005
February 24 & March 1 - 2, 2005
Guatemala City was not originally on the itinerary, but we needed to make a stop because it was the only place remotely close that had a Brazilian Consulate so we could obtain our Visas for later that week. Unfortunately we had to take an overnight bus from flores, but at least we slept, and got to watch ¨White Chicks.¨
We arrived in G City at 5:30 am and of course had nothing to do until 8:30 when the consulate opened. It was pretty funny, being half asleep, really hungry and having no idea what to do for 3 hours. Luckily we found some sort of gas station/7 eleven type of thing, with a fast food coffee shop type of thing that was open. We were happy to have it. So after eating twice, watching some bad American wannabe X Files movie with Lou Gossett Jr at about 1000 decibles, and twittling our thumbs 400 times, 8:30 rolled around and we hit the embassy.
At first the staff at the embassy was downright rude, like we have not yet encountered. It was pretty funny. The woman said she would be right back with the application and never came out again. After 15 minutes of listening to their sowing circle banter one room away we got a little agitated and at the suggestion of the security guard knocked on the counter. The women in back started laughing and started knocking back on the wall. This was of course whenRuthie nearly went ape shit. It was pretty funny, but the woman did come out and take our application after a lot of threatening to write letter to her superiors etc. Problem was, we needed the VISA´s by the next day, so we were pretty sure they would make sure we didn´t have them. However, unbelievably, we came back that afternoon and they were done. Definitely a pleasant surprise.
With that out of the way we explored the city, which is a very cool, and generally modern city with a lot to do. It is divided into Zonas (14 we believe) which makes it pretty easy to get around. We got the chance to check out a lot of beautiful old government and private buildings in Zona 1, as well as their beautiful national cathedral. Zona 1 is very rich in architecture, and should not be missed, however, beware that the air pollution is the worst we have ever experienced, Mexico City included. It was literally almost unbearable, and after about an hour and a half we headed through Zonas 9-10 up towards 13-14 as quickly as possible. The pollution definitely abated a lot along that route, and it also had a lot of cool architecture to see, though much of it on the more modern side.
In a funny twist, we knew we were definitely a little road weary, and starved for American culture when we ran across a Chillis and nearly tripped over each other to get in there and get Margaritas and baby back ribs. For good measure, we went and saw Ray (good movie) at the American style Mall across the street. On top of it, when we came back to the City to fly to Brazil, after taking a trip to Lake Atitlan we went straight to Chillis and the movie theatre again. Pretty funny. Anyway, its a pretty cool city.
