Guatemala Guide
Guatemala City
GUATEMALA CITY is not a place to visit for its beauty or architectural charm. If you arrive in the central area, your first impressions are grim, as a depressing vision of urban blight unfolds: potholed streets choked by fumes from rasping buses, thoroughfares blocked by street stalls and many of the city's fine buildings in a state of advanced decay. Understandably, few travellers take to la capital, and many avoid it completely.
But if you decide to spend a day or two in the city, it does offer some metropolitan pleasures that you won't find elsewhere in the country. There are two first-rate museums devoted to the ancient Maya and another to the country's terrific textile tradition. Culturally, a hip artistic scene is emerging in Cuatro Grados Norte, a vibrant barrio where you might catch an alternative rock band or find a DJ spinning progressive electronic mixes. The swankiest commercial part of town is the Zona Viva, centred around 10 Calle and 3 Avenida, a tight bunch of expensive hotels, office blocks, restaurants, nightclubs and boutiques. Guatemala City's climate is also benign: the city's altitude means that the heat here never gets too oppressive, and when you escape the pollution of the central area, the lush greenery of the outer suburbs lends a certain appeal. Its setting is certainly dramatic, positioned in a massive highland bowl split by plunging ravines.
That said, the disparities of life in the city are extreme, with glass skyscrapers towering over sprawling slums and shoeless widows peddling cigarettes to designer-clad nightclubbers. You should take a little extra care in the capital as street crime is a problem, mainly involving bag snatching – be particularly careful at transport terminals.
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