Country #32 Is Now in the Books and It Is Guatemala

Plaza España is only a short walk from my hotel, which was a short cab ride from the aeropuerto

I can now add Guatemala to the list of countries I've visited because that's where I find myself tonight. By design, of course.

This begins a very, very much, much needed vacation holiday. This is my first international trip of the COVID era. I have two nights, but only one day, in the Guatemalan capital, then it is off to the Petén, to traipse through the Mayan ruins at Tikal, then it is a few days of R&R in Antigua, Guatemala.

But, first, it is time to enjoy Guatemala, Guatemala, Guatemala, the city so nice they named it thrice. Yes, they did. Guatemala City in Guatemala state in the Republic of Guatemala. Top that New York, New York. 

That's the view from my room. If the sky clear and not completely cloudy, I could see a volcano from my room. But the clouds are thick so, alas, I see only a parking lot.

This is my hotel in Guatemala City, the Hotel Barceló:

It's late and the sun is going down, so I only had time for a short walk around the neighborhood of the hotel. First observation: Guatemala City is a very green city, with lots of trees. It is not unmitigated concrete.

This is evening rush hour traffic in Guatemala City. Not bad at all, anyone would say. Except the people in Guatemala City, who are apologizing for (and complaining about) the "bad" traffic infesting their city. I'm guessing everybody everyplace thinks their traffic is the worst. And only people in D.C., or Bogota, Colombia, or Lima, Peru, would be right. Well, yes, New York and Boston, too, but why would anyone be in a passenger vehicle in either of those places?

Then I reached the nearby Plaza España, which has those big letter things happening that are all the rage in all the cool places:

It has a monument in the middle, with horses perched on exercise balls spitting water out of their mouths.

The big snake on the west side likewise was spitting water, but the big snake on the east side was dry-mouthed.

I did learn one thing about Guatemala City that really makes a lot of the horror stories you may have heard about this city ring true:

Hawaiian pizza (the kind with pineapple on it) is HUGE here. It's everywhere. People think it's actual pizza. And for awhile this seemed like such a nice city.