Guatemala City Tour, Part Two, the Non-Mayan Part

Many museums may have been closed, but the giant relief map of Guatemala was open for business!

What is the most "Bob Spretnak" of all tourist sights to see in all of Guatemala City? Need you ask? The giant relief map of Guatemala!

Yes, in Guatemala City, just north of the downtown, there is a giant relief map of the entire country of Guatemala (with the independent nation of Belize being included as part of Guatemala because when they built this map a hundred years ago, that is how Guatemala viewed its neighborhood)

At the entrance is a monument to the making of the Relief Map. The map is huge:

There are viewing towers in what would be the southeast and southwest corners of Guatemala which you can get a better view of the immensity of the relief. I first ascended the southeast viewing platform, which would be the view if you were hovering high in the clouds of western El Salvador. Above is the view looking north, with the Guatemala's tiny Caribbean coast (and its only Atlantic port, Puerto Barrios) and the Republic of Belize at the top of the photo.

Below is the view looking east along the Pacific coast.

Getting back down to earth, you can appreciate just how tall those mountains are in this "to scale" map:

Guatemala City is at a point where three tectonic plates collide: the North American plate, the Caribbean plate, and the Cocos Plate. That is why Guatemala is so geologically interesting, with enormously tall volcanoes and the regular destruction of cities via earthquakes.

The Relief Map also included a mirror for straight-on selfie-taking. I could not resist.

It had everything.

Next stop, because we don't have all day, is the fortress-like Iglesia del Cerrito del Carmen. Why do I call it fortress-like?

It once was a fortress. It also had to be exorcised at one points because of the fiery orbs that encircled it many years ago.

It was not open.

But the grounds still were nice to walk.

This is the cross that was built in celebration of the exorcism. It looks much more Orthodox than Catholic, but, hey, go with what works.

A more traditional cross is visible on the grounds.

And here's St. Francis of Assisi because we all could use a little more St. Francis of Assisi in our lives.

Nice views from the back edge of the property.

And here is a statue of Juan Corz, who was instrumental in the founding of this church back in the 1600's, long before Guatemala City was a major city or national capital.

Why he appears with what appears to be a soccer ball is a mystery, despite the love for the game of soccer in Guatemala (notwithstanding the fact that Guatemala has never qualified for a World Cup). (Ever.) (They're almost as bad as Canada when it comes to international football success. As if that were fathomable.)

Enough of Cerro del Carmen. It is time for downtown.

This is the national cathedral, with its signature blue dome. Shall we go in? No. It is closed.

Tight as the proverbial drum.

This is the Plaza de la Constitucion, across the street from the Cathedral.

The Cathedral is on the east side of the Plaza. The Palacio Nacional de la Cultura is on the north.

The stone has a slightly greenish tint, which is quite distinctive.

The fountain in the middle of the Plaza de la Constitucion used to be seven segments high until, one day, someone realized, "OMG. This is earthquake country," or something similar but in Spanish, and four "floors" were removed making the structure three-level, not seven-level.

The pigeons don't mind. Of course you can't poll them because there are like a zillion of them in the Plaza.

Shall we take a look inside the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura? Let's. Shall we?

Oh. It is closed.

This time not because of the COVID. 

Apparently, there is some sort of ceremony on the schedule for today, welcoming a new ambassador from somewhere on the globe and this being the most important governmental building in the country (the country's president lives behind the building), it was closed for that.

The front door is the "zero" mile marker for the country of Guatemala. All roads zero out here.

And it is guarded by military police. 

So you can't sneak in, given that they have automatic weapons.

Here is the Cathedral again, this time with three-level fountain:

And here is a sight that is not uncommon in Guatemala but you would never see in the US of A:

A stand-alone McDonald's ice cream store. They love ice cream in Guatemala and, apparently, as I was told by my guide, they love love love McDonald's ice cream. Hence, the stand-alone ice cream-only McDonald's store.

All this walking past closed museums, closed churches, closed government buildings, but open McDonald's ice cream stores was making me famished. Time for a traditional Guatemalan lunch:

Ceviche! Ceviche con camarones, shrimp ceviche to be precise, accompanied with the local beer, Gallo. (Pronounced "guy-yo," as in "rooster"; not "gallo," as in Ernest and Julio.) How do you know it is an authentic Guatemalan ceviche? Copious amounts of avocado on top. Avocado was popular with the Mayans who were the first ones to cultivate it. So we've detoured back in the Mayan part of the day's trip courtesy of the avocado.

Time to walk around the downtown.

You can see a couple of blocks down the street an arch that is a replica of the much more famous arch in Antigua.

We were walking to the Mercado Central and I saw "Almacen El Gato,:

The name means "Warehouse of the Cat." Whether they warehouse cats here, or it is a warehouse owned by a cat, is a mystery for another trip. When all the museums and churches and government buildings are open.

And this is a wheelbarrow full of mangoes.

Because who wouldn't like that?

After a trip to the Mercado Central, which was just an endless line of shopping stalls that would be vacation paradise on earth for some people, but not for me, it was off to the Museo Nacional de Historia, the National Museum of History. Except it was -- what's the word? -- CLOSED. Even though it had been opened a few days before and my guide confirmed it was still open. But then, a miracle occurred (cue the heavenly choir):

Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago de Guatemala had re-opened, apparently after a late lunch break. Also open was the small museum on the Cathedral grounds, the Museo Arquidiocesano de Santiago de Guatemala. The museum was through the above door, but no photos were allowed inside the museum.

Photos were allowed inside the Cathedral, however:

It is not an old, colonial-style structure. Those churches are in Antigua. But it's not new and modern and sterile either:

Very airy, without being cold,

And an art deco cross:

And a well-decorated interior:

And a replica of the famous black Jesus.

This is a replica of "The Black Christ of Esquipulas," located in Esquipulas, about 150 miles outside of Guatemala City. The church burnt down and the only surviving sign of the church was a charred, but otherwise intact, statue of the Christ, hence "The Black Christ of Esquipulas."

From downtown we drove southward, down stately Avenida La Reforma, to Avenida Las Americas. We finally ended up at the southern edge of the city, Parque Berlin.

It has a memorial commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall:

It is a very nice way to thank the Germans for drinking so much Guatemalan coffee. Which they do.

That is just about it for the Guatemala City part of this great Guatemalan adventure. Next stop: the Petén.

Guatemala City Tour, Part One, the Mayan Part

Kaminaljuyu is an actual Mayan archaeological site, right in the city of Guatemala City

I had only one full day scheduled for Guatemala City. So I hired a guide to show me the best sights to see in Guate (as the locals supposed call it) (but I've not heard anyone call it that) (except on google). Off we went at 9:00 a.m. sharp.  First stop:  Guatemala's renowned National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, or Museo de Arqueología y Etnología.

The museum houses and excellent collection of Mayan artifacts found elsewhere in Guatemala. The building is beautiful. It also was closed.

This is going to be a theme. Museum closed. Museum closed. Church locked tight. I'm not complaining. First, no matter how many museums or churches are closed, I'm still on vacation. Second, well, do you need a second? I'm still on vacation! What was strange was that my guide called ahead yesterday and was assured that it would be open. Google Maps says it still open. But it wasn't. I guess I will just have to see the Mayan artifacts in their natural state at Tikal in the Petén.

Or we can go to the authentic, genuine, Mayan archaeological site right within the city limits of Guatemala City: Kaminaljuyu.

At one point, one Mayan tribe ended up in the city limits of the city of Guatemala City.

You can tell the stela (Mayan stone column that tells a story) pictured above is a replica. You can read it! The real ones are over a thousand years old and a barely legible. In case you are unfamiliar with the word "stela" -- don't feel guilty, I was too until I was researching this trip -- stela is defined as "an upright stone slab or column typically bearing a commemorative inscription or relief design." A tombstone is a modern American stela, for example.

Big green expanse at Kaminaljuyu. It also has a small -- very small -- museum on premises.

The collection largely consists of replicas, but there are some authentic pieces with a full certificate of authenticity, such as:

That, to me, based on my extensive research of three weeks, looks like a throne stone. The throne on which Mayan leaders sat was a flat stone that looked, sort of, use your imagination, a stone ottoman. I'm calling that a throne stone unless you've got better information on what it could be.

There are a couple of active archaeological digs on premises. 

What is fascinating is that the City of Guatemala City was built on top of these ruins ... without anyone knowing those ruins were there.

This was an important city in the Mayan years. The section that is preserved in this parks dates back to the Mayan "classic" period, which was (roughly) AD 250 to 900.

And here is an American tourist in his very own personal "classic" period.

He looks like a man quite happy to not be at work today.

The Maya are still around, you know. They didn't "disappear." The civilizational structure did. But the Maya people are the people of Guatemala (and Chiapas and the Yucatan in Mexico). Mayan languages still are spoken. Mayan religion is still practiced. Right here in the Kaminaljuyu archaeological site, por ejemplo:

These stones are for ceremonial fires. There was one such ceremony going on when we were there, at the next stone over. I don't take pictures of private religious ceremonies like that. It's one of my random arbitrary rules. And right behind those ceremonial stones are ordinary city streets. We could see the fire from the nearby ceremony still blazing after we left Kaminaljuyu headed for our next destination of the day.

But there was more Kaminaljuyu to see. Let's climb up to see what there is to see:

Off to one side are the urban neighborhoods that were built over top of the rest of Kaminaljuyu:

In other direction, more greenspace:

Which leads to the next active archaeological site in the park:

 

This one is not walk-in-able. Even though there are walkways and a guard nearby.

This stela you can tell is the real deal.

Why? You can barely see anything on it except at the very bottom. And these stelae have been eroded into almost nothing:

Authentic Maya stelae!

And authentic Maya archaeology. Right in the middle of an international capital. Or, to be more precise, right underneath the middle of an international capital.

That will conclude the Maya portion of the city tour of Guatemala City. There's a lot to see and I've only got a day. Why so little time for a city I'm obviously enjoying? I scheduled a one-day safety cushion in Guatemala City, before I head off to Tikal in the North, just in case I had problems with my flight. I thought one day would be more than enough because I had heard so many bad things about Guatemala City. These were mostly along the lines of "You will be robbed. Then you will be killed. Then your corpse will be violated." Well, not one of those three things has happened to me. Yet!