Guatemala City - A Day in the Towns, A Day in the City

Adventures around Guatemala City 

My host, Nelly works at her family business. It seems that the entire family does, and she is one of 10 children. They manage a distribution company. They import and source products for grocery store chains. It seems like the whole family is involved in various areas of the business and Nelly, who studied accounting, processes payments and receipts.

On her day off she offered to take me to some of the towns around the city. Of course, I always go along with such offers. She drove. But first, we stopped by a plot of land that her family has been developing. They are building a restaurant as well as a residence on the site. It had a gorgeous view of the city, located high up in the hills outside the city. This is a dense area, the population extends into the hills in every direction. After visiting the lot, we took a bus to see some towns.

The view from the family lot

The Buses

The municipal transport around Guatemala City (referred to as Guate) is handled by a fleet of buses, nicknamed “chicken buses.” They are actually old Bluebird yellow school buses from the United States, some even with the “School Bus” decal visible on the back door and on the sides. 

A chicken bus in San Pedro

The outside of the buses has been completely redone. They are painted in bright colors with logos, route names, and fitted with aftermarket light kits, bouncy antennae and custom horns. They are extravagant, to say the least. It seems like if the entire genre of reggaeton was expressed as a mode of public transportation. They go over speed bumps to the syncopated rhythm of a J Balvin song. The bus drivers show a reckless abandon for human life as they rev the engine on the steep hills, or fly past slower traffic in the opposite lane going around a curve on a downhill. There is nothing safe about the operation of these buses, and there are thousands of them. 

What I hear in my head when a chicken bus rolls up.

I had a serious moment of nostalgia when we got on the first bus. It’s the same one I rode to school, starting when I was 6 years old. The interiors have been left untouched (except for the giant custom gearbox shifters that double as armrests for the drivers). I immediately recalled the seats, the rumble of the idling motor underneath me, the smell of the exhaust that wafted through the aisles and the window mechanisms that would always stick, making it a huge chore to move them up and down. It was a wonderful bus ride, to say the least!

The Towns

Our first stop was San Pedro Sacatepéquez. We went to the central plaza and market and saw the church. I also got a granizata, a delicious shaved ice treat with tamarind and pineapple and a lime squeezed over it. It was really hot, and even hotter on the bus, so I just wanted cold things. We walked around the market briefly, Nelly was looking for something specific, but did not find it.

Delicious frozen granizata, shaved ice with lemon and tamarind 

Making the granizata

Our second stop was in San Juan Sacatepéquez. If you look up San Juan or San Pedro around Guate, you will find that most locations in every direction appear to be called either San Pedro, San Juan or San Miguel. When someone says they are in San Juan, you cannot simply go there, a lot more specification is needed. 

The scene at the market

What struck me about both markets were the bright colors. Everything from the food stands to people’s clothes seemed so vibrant and loud. We ate our way around the San Juan market, every Guatemalan specialty - whether it was a piece of fruit, frozen corn, or a twist on a tamale or chili relleno - she pretty much had me sample everything. This is one of my favorite perks of bike touring, I have no remorse about doing nothing but eating all day on my days off. We capped off our grazing session with a Gallo beer and some Quezalteca liqueur.

Very nice clothes and fabrics on display at the market. Many women wear these kinds of clothes every day. It is part of what makes the market so colorful.

Sharing some beers in San Pedro

Guatemalan Liqueur (I believe it’s a type of arranged brandy)

Sampling some delicious fried food at the market

After the towns, we went back and had some lunch at her place. We had further ambitious plans for the afternoon and took another bus to Antigua, a quaint old town known for its views and it’s surrounding volcanoes. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, one of the hilltop views that Nelly wanted to take me to was closed. So we walked around the town and went to some parks before going home. 

Covered volcano from Antigua

Since it was Friday night, we went out in the city. When going out in Guate, it’s recommended to take Ubers only. The locals deem the taxis unsafe and apparently there is a lot of gang/cartel activities at night. In fact, the military is partially deployed on the street at night and you can see militia in fatigues and automatic rifles standing on street corners as a response to the gang activity. However driving around in the Uber did not give me any sense of unease. 

I like going out with Couchsurfer’s suggestions because they typically go to places that are off the beaten path. This place was no exception. We were apparently meeting some friends of Nelly’s at a bar. The cab dropped us off in what seemed to be a residential neighborhood, no bar in sight. She rang the bell at a residence and the gate opened for us and someone led us through the entrance through a garden and back into a nicely set up bar and lounge area - giving it a bit of a speakeasy vibe. Her friends were already there and we hung out for quite a while along with the other bar patrons. There weren’t too many people there, but everyone was friendly and just milled about for the entire night.

A Full Day In Guate

I left in the morning. Nelly’s mom served me breakfast and asked if she could say a prayer for the safe continuation of my travels. It was a very nice send off and she thanked me, saying I was the first international guest they had ever hosted in their house. I was flattered.

My host, Nelly, and her mom

I have been having some issues with my front derailleur on the trip, it doesn’t shift very well and is constantly sending the chain off the edge and onto the crank. I had it checked out in Belize and the mechanic informed me that it was for a 9-speed chain and I had a 10-speed cassette. I’ve tried adjusting it myself multiple times but it seemed like I needed some further assistance. Instead of riding to my next destination, I rode into the city and tried a couple bike repair places, including a large commercial bike store. I asked if I could get the derailleur replaced, it’s nothing fancy. But they said they don’t have anything that would fit the bike, and that Shimano does not sell those types of derailleurs in the entire country. I have no ability to dispute this claim. Well, I can make do for the rest of the trip, it’s just uncomfortable. I got the shifting cable replaced and put some WD-40 into the mechanism to hopefully ease the discomfort a little bit. It was a little late to head out of the city at that point, so I got an Airbnb in a hip neighborhood, Los 4 Grados. 

Street Art in the neighborhood 

I walked from there to the city’s historic center. This was a very interesting walk, as it took me past the seat of the Guatemalan government. I passed the Treasury, the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and some parliamentary residences. I ended up at the Plaza de la Constitucion. There, I met up with Valeria, who had also come to Guate to visit some Couchsurfing friends that she had met in Peru. At the Plaza, there were many paintings and memorials all over the place. Valeria explained that they were all from various women’s protest movements across Latin America. Some, such as “Soy Niña, No Mama” raise awareness about pregnancies from rape in little girls, an issue that she studied in Columbia while getting her degree. Another one was about the assassination of 41 girls in Guatemala, it was accompanied by 41 pots with crocheted memorials for each girl. This one struck me because of a plaque that had been installed at the base of the Guatemalan flag, describing the incident. At the bottom of the plaque, it says “Fue el Estado” or “Fault of the State”, meaning that the consensus of the movement is that the Guatemalan state is failing to properly protect children from sexual crimes.

The National Treasury

At the Plaza de la Constitucion

Memorial for victims of sexual violence

We then walked down a commercial promenade that began near the plaza. It was nighttime. But the street was crowded and closed to cars. There were police stationed on every corner and this did not seem like the type of place where gangs would be roaming at this time, at least we felt assured by the hundreds of people just going about their lives. Most of what was open were bars and restaurants. I was surprised by the number of American chains, with prominent signs, music blasting from the entrances and loaded with patrons. Chains such as Dominoes, Little Caesar’s, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Subway, McDonalds and Burger King. Some with multiple locations along this 10-block strip. And no, I was not remotely tempted to try a McPollo or whatever.

We then met up with Mynor, a Guate native who manages a couple bars and event spaces in the historical district. He told me about his journey on a motorbike from Guate to Argentina. It seemed like a similar experience to riding the bike, although not quite as physically taxing. It still requires grit and determination, a lot of figuring things out and is not particularly glamorous. He then took us from the mainstream bar where we met to an event space that had just hosted a transgender film festival. According to him, the organization wasn’t the best, but the food was good. Him and several of his friends offered us some home-brewed beer and we chatted for some time about art and music in the city and the rest of the country.

Despite not really riding, I did a huge amount in these couple of days, and mostly thanks to my connections through Couchsurfing. Tomorrow I will be skipping my planned route to Puerto San Jose. The main reason, aside from being slightly behind my planned schedule, is that I can’t tell if there are many paved routes to get to my next destination at the El Salvador border. I would like to be able to ride a bit more unencumbered, if possible. To make up for it, I will try to ride over 100 miles to get to the border.