Guatemala City

Arrival in Guatemala City

On the routes of Columbus, we fly at over 10,000 meters for 12 hours and reach Central America as well. Flights on time, as indicated on the tickets, even ahead of schedule: we are in Guatemala City with half an hour's advantage over the planned arrival time. The operation wasn’t ideal and forced us to stay overnight at a hotel in Madrid, which allowed us to visit the Jardin de las Tres Culturas, not far from the Madrid airport. In an environment of extreme order and cleanliness, on the hills of Barajas, amidst fields and rows of olive trees, sculptures and monuments related to the cultures that have permeated the Iberian Peninsula are scattered: Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish. In fact, no other region in Europe has seen such a mix of religions – often armed – meet and clash on its territory. The thousand years of Moorish rule contrast with the reconquest and what today would be called the Jewish "soft power" of the Sephardic Jews. But our final destination this time is on the other side of the Atlantic, where two cultures have nevertheless clashed: that of the Maya, opposed to the Catholic one. Twelve hours by plane and seven hours of time difference, plus the transition from winter to summer, represent a significant change in itself. But there is a new world for us to discover in the New World, so we need to be active and responsive.

We arrive at La Aurora, a neat and straightforward stopover. Guatemala City, with only a few shops dedicated exclusively to dining and local products and souvenirs.

We exchange some USD for GTQ at favorable rates and, without the ability to purchase a SIM card, take a taxi for the short trip to the hotel, which is located just a short distance from the airport. A view from the terrace, right as the sun is setting, gives us a first overview. In heavy traffic, we walk for 700 meters towards the bus terminal of Transportes del Sol, located inside the Las Americas Hotel, from where we will depart tomorrow morning to San Salvador. Having verified this important detail, along the way we find a nice shopping center where we can purchase the Guatemalan SIM card with Claro — 6 GB of data — and have our first dinner in a Mexican restaurant (tortillas and burritos), where I try the local beer Gallo for the first time. It gets dark shortly after 18:00, and when we return it is already night; for today, that's enough, it's better to go to sleep, as we leave at 6:00 tomorrow morning.