Guatemala City, Western Highlands, Guatemala
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My friend Sarah and I just spent one night in Guatemala City on arrival only to travel off to Antigua and Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, and I would advise anyone going to Guatemala to do the same. One night is about all you need here. Guatemala City is run down and quite dangerous. When we arrived at night and were hungry we were told all restaurants were closed (it was 9 PM) because there are too many dangers at night. The city was quiet and deserted. So we went to bed hungry and in the morning while Sarah still was sleeping I asked the hotel if it was ok to go out for a walk and they said it was ok in daylight. I walked out and turned the corner from our hotel and saw a dead person laying in the middle of the street. I changed my mind pretty quickly about that walk and went back to the hotel and told Sarah that we needed the first bus out of here. I was told later that the dead person had been hit by a bus, but yes still gave a bad taste in my mouth. We LOVED Guateamala and would recommend it to anyone, but skip Guatemala city! Instead opt for beautiful Antigua or lake Atitlan. We never felt unsafe there.
Comments
Terribly ignorant post. More than 99.9 percent of tourists that come to Guatemala City travel safely and without incident. Zona Viva has plenty of restaurants that are open after 9 p.m. as does zone 1. If you stayed elsewhere, I'd suggest you take issue with your guide.
This is the type of gringa criticism that unfairly paints Guatemala City as an unsafe, boring destination. If you'd bothered to talk to someone outside of your hotel desk, you'd have received a different story.
And I really have my doubts about your "dead body" story. Sounds made up.
Fair enough, we might have been in a bad area of town. The dead person was NOT made up. I have traveled a lot and I usually keep an open mind, I live in a big city and I'm not easily scared and I was ready to go out and explore Guatemala city but everybody including taxi driver and hotel personnel advised us not to do so and said it was very dangerous. So we took the locals advice!
Where did you stay? regardless of our differences of opinion, you're still hot.
Haha! Thanks. We stayed at a place called Posada Belen Museo Inn and I take responsibility for booking that. It was a really cute hotel but probably in the wrong area. Everything was completely deserted on our street and in the whole neighborhood. I suppose I shouldn't write places off so quickly but nevertheless it was MY experience that I wrote about. Had an amazing experience in Antigua and Panajachel with home stay. Granada, Nicaragua really good as well and Managua felt completely different that Guatemala City and Panama City. I'm adding short entries now because just started this blog and I have been so many places, so besides for old saved travel diaries some entries will be pretty short in past journeys. Will do a detailed account of the upcoming trip I have in August and moving beyond that.