The closet I'm sleeping in (not really a closet, but it feels that way) has the noisiest bed ever; its metal and creeks noisily at my slightest movement. The toilet, which is literally 3 feet from where I lay my head, makes loud sounds every few hours. The room has white walls and a sheet as a makeshift curtain.
Anyways, I got up around ten or eleven and I had breakfast waiting for me when I walked out of the closet. Frosted Flakes! Yay! And orange juice. The guy working here still doesn't seem to be able to get the credit card machine to work so I told him that I'd pay him later today when he gets it working.
I took a walk, more or less backtracked last night's taxi, to where the bus station is because I thought I saw a large mall near there. I was wrong but I found another taxi at the bus station that brought me to a couple book stores. The first wasn't even really a book store at all, more like an Office Max. The second place, Sophos, in a seemingly posh part of town, I actually found the guide book I was looking for! Central America on a Shoestring, by Lonely Planet. I read it in the coffee shop that was attached to the bookstore and served a mean Cappuccino.
I sat there for about an hour reading up on Guatemala City realizing how ripped off I got on accommodation and how little there is to do in this city. On Sundays, like today, Parque Central is where most of the activity goes down. I was near a main road and I took a bus to the more central part of town called Zone 1.
The bus was actually quite fun. The buses are old American style school buses and are vibrantly colored. A teenage kid hangs out of the door hustling people onto the bus while another teen collects the money. Luckily a non prepubescent was driving the vehicle. The loud and un-environmental bus seemed like it would die at any moment. The windows were down so we could all catch a cool breeze and, I assume, to annihilate the stench of those on board.
The bus driver let me know when to get off for the Central Park and where to walk from there. It was only three blocks away from the stop and it really wasn't what I was expecting. It was a fairly large square with two main buildings; a church and a huge, albeit ugly, greenish color palace that's been turned into a museum of sorts.
The square was very lively and full of people selling the crap you'd see at the flee market. It was still fun to be in the hustle and bustle of things. The palace was closed and the church really didn't interest me. The side streets were also quite fun and Closter phobic, selling anything from ripped off DVDs of movies that are still in theatres to fresh, and I mean fresh, goats' milk. Quite weird if you ask me.
There really wasn't anywhere else in the city that was open on a Sunday so I decided to read my guide book a little more and plan my trip back to the hostel. All I knew was that the hostel was south, near the King Quality bus terminal, and not on the map on my guide book. So I headed south on the bus from Zone 1. I got off about ten minutes later and decided to take a taxi from there. The driver, who was quite weird and kept confirming my destination every thirty seconds, didn't know my hostel's location, so I told him to drop me off at the bus terminal. From there it was only a ten or fifteen minute walk back.
The credit card machine still wasn't working so I just paid in cash. I really wanted to plan out the rest of my Guatemalan trip so I turned on the TV and sat down in dining room. I found that the AFC championship game was on. Patriots verse the Cults. I was going for the Cults, who were trying to catch up during the whole game but ended up winning in the end.
A French lady staying here at the hostel offered to give me some of her food that she had left over. I accepted and it was quite delicious. It was the tail of a cow, rice, and some kind of vegetable I don't believe I have ever had before that tasted like squash. Her husband gave me a Guatemalan beer, it was good but warm.
While watching the game I highlighted a few things in my guide book that I want to check out. Guatemala City really doesn't have anything of interest to me so I think I'll be moving on to Antigua tomorrow. |
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