We arrived at La Aurora Airport around noon today. I was pleased to discover that the weather is mild and pleasant here even though it's officially winter. Away from the cold, everyone around here walks around in T-shirts like in Egypt. The scenery of this country seems beautiful, with a mountainous terrain circulating Guatemala City. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the city itself that’s very impressive. Overall, most of the districts are run-down and shabby. The city itself has nothing indigenous about it, with billboards displaying every major Western fast-food brand that could spring to mind. Globalization has left no trace of anything indigenous about Guatemala.
Guatemala City's La Aurora Airport (where we arrived today)
The effect of globalization on Guatemala: corporate billboards everywhere
Our hostel is located in a heavily fortified and guarded compound. Apparently the rich in this country live a very comfortable life, while the rest of the population is just getting by, but the locals seem content with life and are friendly. The locals are separated between the Ladinos, who view themselves as more modern and Westernized citizens of Guatemala. On the other hand, the Mayan population seems much more vibrant in their traditional clothes. The only thing in the streets that seems distinctly Guatemalan is their colorful buses.
A traditional Guatemalan "Chicken Bus"
This must have been the first country where English is almost completely non-existent, which poses a problem considering that none of our group members speak Spanish. This led to a very interesting incident today. Our group of five was interested in visiting an arts and craft market, which we thought would be a traditional open fair bazaar. After asking around, we were told that there were several markets in Guatemala City. After we boarded a cab that took us 20 minutes away from our hostel, the cab dropped us off at a modern steel and glass building. We were sure that the driver had misunderstood us, but what actually happened was that the Guatemalans interpreted the world “market” for “mall.” This was a very shabby mall, worse than Cairo’s Tiba mall. We strolled around for a bit, but there was nothing outstanding.
The Guatemalans don’t seem to care that there are foreigners amongst us. Even though the locals are all very short and dark skinned, they are not surprised to see foreigners even though we hadn’t seen any other foreigners all day long. This is comforting considering I don’t like drawing attention as a foreigner.
Some Guatemalans going about their own business
Here I sit in the hostel amongst the team as we chat about random topics. I think I’m going to call it a day and hit the hay considering we have to be up by 6am tomorrow morning.
Adios Amigo!
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