I went to Guatemala for a few days while Kim went to San Juan del Sur with Mikayla. I originally wanted to come here to see the Mayan ruins. Also I had booked my return flight from Guatemala City to Rio while in Burnie, so I had locked in coming here. Some of the research I had done in the weeks before I arrived, indicated that Guatemala City was a very dangerous place to be in. In 2008 there were over 6000 murders in Guatemala (in a population of 13 million people). I was reading stories of muggings, car-jackings, indiscriminate violence, lawlessness and ineffective, inexperienced, corrupt police.
So I found some accommodation not far from the airport that had a reputation for security. Kim booked me a flight from Nicaragua. I decided to fly because there had been a military coup in Honduras recently, and a bus trip would have taken me through there, and that might have put me in still more danger. I didn't feel scared, perhaps more cautious, that I couldn't be bothered by the inconvenience of a robbery. Most people would probably not notice much difference I thought.
The flight was excellent - business class as it turned out. I didn't know that until I checked in. The food was good, the service was just as good. I was the first off the plane and almost the first person to get my luggage. The people from the hostel picked me up at the airport .. all good.
On the way in I asked the driver if this part of Guatemala City was safe and he said no, not really. I had heard of car-jackers targeting tourists in taxis and buses coming from the airport. Anyway, we arrived at the hostel in about 10 minutes and all the houses in the area had high walls with razor wire on top. It looked like some sort of suburban prison.
On the first night I met a bloke from El Salvador that was a travelling salesman. He was a nice bloke. He spoke English well and was really interested in Australia. The next day when I got up for breakfast he was in the TV room looking really worried. Overnight his car had been stolen from out the front. It was not a company car, it was his, and he knew that he would have little prospect of ever seeing it again. He needed it for his work. Pretty sad really.
Another bloke I met here was a huge negro from California. Another nice bloke, a gentle giant. He was a wharfie that handled freight so probably was not easily intimidated. A few days earlier he had been robbed at gunpoint, (two people with guns at once). He had his money, cards and all his documentation stolen including his passport. He couldn't travel anywhere without money or documents, so he was staying here and ringing his Mum in the States, to help him sort it out. Pretty sad really.
The last sad story is about how live bullets came into the hostel a few weeks before I got here. On the office wall inside the hostel is a map of Guatemala with a hole in it. When I asked how it got there the manager told me it was a bullet hole. It came trough the wall, missing the reception desk by about 60 cm. Then the manager showed me the other bullet damage, to the wall outside and the steel door on the front - see picture above. Apparently a few weeks earlier a bride and groom to be were driving around delivering their wedding invites, when they were set upon by a group of armed car-jackers. However, the groom had his own gun and when he produced it there was a gun fight leaving the groom and two car-jackers dead. Stray bullets from the gun fight just 200 meters away came into the hostel. The groom was shot dead in front of his bride to be and son. Pretty sad really.
The people here seem to live in a state of paranoia. The manager tells me that he hits the deck in his own lounge room when he hears a bang outside. You start to get the impression that they wear the danger as a badge of honour and almost brag about it.
Needless to say I became apprehensive about doing much here and mostly stayed inside and I got to catch up on the blog and watch heaps of telly. The ruins were another hour flight away and Antigua, where I had heard was worth a look way about an 8 hour bus ride. So, I am not really in a position to recommend Guatemala City to anyone as a tourist destination.
