Guatemala City

Greetings from Guatemala City, The Armpit Of The Americas. Well, maybe it isn't so bad in the ritzier parts of the city - there's always a nice enclave of the wealthy in any post-colonial impoverished country - but for the most part I'm told this is one giant crime-infested sprawl, best avoided by the wise traveller. Which is what I plan to do right after Elie lands at the airport and we can head straight to the much nicer Antigua, about an hour away.
But before I go on, I'd like to thank you for clicking on the link to this blog. And I want to advise you that I have absolutely no control over what the software puts below my signature. I am not exhorting you to create your own TravelBlog site. And I certainly am NOT suggesting that the way to reply to me is through the tortuous link they offered. Want to comment on the blog? - go ahead in the space provided. But if you want to write to us personally, then you know our email address and you should use that.
Further to my comment about crime (above): Several folks, on hearing that Elie and I were heading for Guatemala, remarked "isn't it dangerous down there?" So, for your quick history lesson, I'll point out that the decades-long guerilla war by the armed rebel groups, coupled with the near-genocidal repression of Mayan villages and human-rights workers by the government-backed militias, largely came to an end with the peace accords of 1996. This place is hardly a model of the Just Society, but at least refugees have been moving back from Chiapas and Belize and restarting their lives without threat of military repression. Crime, however, is another story. Gangs, murders, robberies, etc are common - and the statistics for Guatemala City are alarming. But a few days ago ten people were shot nine blocks from my house in Vancouver. So, yeah, "it's dangerous down there." But....
Flight down went smoothly. I was braced for the bumbling Neanderthals at security - and was readying my arguments why I would go for the full invasive patdown rather than the questionable carcinogens of the scanner - and for the petty tyrannical officialdom at US immigration. But I got nothing but friendly efficiency all the way through, and nobody touched my junk.
On the flight my limited universe was richly enlarged by sitting beside an aviation consultant who seems to spend his free time on charter boats searching out delicious endangered species to eat with his buddies and who assured me the world was floating in oil, there is no crisis. Made me feel much better about my carbon footprint. The next flight made me feel better still - they served rum & coke mixes from the juice cart.
By evening I was here. I'd booked into the "safe" zone of the city. Which is to say I'm in the area where young people in flashy cars drive down to go to thumping discos and glittering restaurants, while outside on the street young children sell lighters on the sidewalk and old men stand by curbside, trying to flag down some motorist who will park on "his" block and pay to have the car watched. I've never been here before, but it's all so depressingly familiar! So I drop into a local taco joint and do the other familiar thing - try to get a meal without pork. Bienvenidos a Guatemala.

Avi