Life on the street in Guatemala

James Stone

Having spent a few wonderful days enjoying all that Guatemala's most picturesque city, Antigua, had to offer, I and my travelling companion for this central American adventure, Sid, thought a day or two in the country's capital, Guatemala City, might be time well spent. UK Net Guide's Flight Search has Cheap Flights and Holidays to South America, as well as Travel Insurance!

The bus ride was thankfully short and we quickly found ourselves in a quite different place to the tourist orientated town of Antigua. This was busy, noisy and not at all tourist friendly.

The city is laid out in a complex and completely bewildering grid system. The bus had dropped us off in zone ten, the main area for hotels. Having gained a room at one of the more unassuming places we thought about making the walk over to zone one, the historical centre. We didn't get far. Guatemala City is no friend to the pedestrian and we received a number of funny looks as we attempted to cross some busy roads. My guide book later told me that nobody but tourists and madmen walk anywhere in the city.

A bus got us in to zone one and much to our amazement, we found a number of other British-looking travellers already there, nosing around the sites. "I thought you said no tourists bother with this place," Sid said. Having been in central America for a couple of months we were quickly becoming tired of the tourists and were looking for some "real life" experiences. The large square known as Parque Central was a fine sight and it was swarming with people who, unless I'm very much mistaken, had nothing better to do that afternoon than mill around talking loudly. The nearby cathedral and national palace were also good fun and the free guided tour around the palace showed us a variety of function rooms, courtyards and paintings to pass the time.

The city sprung up on the site of the old Mayan settlement of Kaminaljuyu, which, we found, was not in the historical centre at all but out in zone seven. What is was doing here was a mystery and the remains were somewhat disappointing, as along with much of the city's rich archaeological heritage, a large proportion of it lay under 20th century buildings.

Having made an unsuccessful detour to zone 13 in an attempt to find the Archaeology and Ethnology Museum, we returned to our hotel, which appeared to have been moved in to the epicentre of the city's nightlife. Upon further inspection, I discovered that we were based slap bang in the middle of zone ten's Zona Viva, with its live music bars and sweaty discos. This was just what we needed but only after we had dined at a small cafe on a Guatemalan dish that I was attempting to enjoy at every opportunity, that of tortillas, fried plantains, beans and eggs - a perfect dish ahead of a night on the town.