On this Saturday morning, I went out for a walk in downtown Guatemala city. Most of the city was still sleeping. Interestingly enough, virtually every street corner was occupied by a makeshift street food stall! Reminded me of India a lot!

Check out the plane and the cloud layer

Finally came back to my room, a bit tired. Drew the curtains and that dusk view you see hit me. To give you an idea, that volcano – Volcan De Agua, I believe – whose peak is sticking out thru the clouds is almost half the size of Mount Everest. Technically, it is a stratovolcano – which means it has gained its height by many, many eruptions causing many layers of lava and ash to build upon themselves.

The last eruption happened before written history. There was a relatively newer mudslide eruption that wiped out the then capital of Guatemala.

Finished my coffee and crowd watching and hit the road again. I must have been walking for over an hour when I started feeling hungry. Started glancing at restaurants as I kept walking. Suddenly saw a small Indian restaurant. I glanced no further.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen – I came all the way to Guatemala from Atlanta to have an Indian vegetarian thali!!

And if you think your disdain is going to deter me, you have another thing coming at you. I have slyly noticed that their Desayunos (breakfast) menu sported a Chole Batura among other savories!!

Always good to realize that you can rely on some things without fail in most developing countries. That vehicle you see was standing at a traffic light. The signal turned green. Everybody started moving. Excepting this vehicle. His engine stalled.

There was a brief few seconds of honking and then everybody went around him. The driver simply stuck his head out and yelled something in Spanish. From nowhere a few good Samaritans showed up and started pushing the vehicle. Into the parking lot.

I watched while sipping my coffee from the other side of the road. (there is not point being a good Samaritan while enjoying some Guatemalan coffee, I argued with myself; plus that security guy with a double barrel gun was still hanging around 🙂 ).

Getting it out of the road was not enough. The driver yelled something else. Everybody moved to the front and started pushing it back cleanly into a parking spot. One of those guys did not even bother taking his heavy backpack off his back.

The good deed done, they nonchalantly vanished into the crowd like they were born to do this every single day.

The driver, meanwhile seemed to be surprisingly unperturbed by his situation. I now suspect he might have been simply trying to save gas!

In a nod to the high violence and crime rate in the country, even in the very safe zones in the city, you will see all sorts of cops and security folks. That particular security person standing a few yards from where I was having my coffee was carrying a double barrel gun. He can’t possibly have enough energy to hold it up. His wiry legs were thinner than the gun barrels. But he dragged it with him with the mouth of the barrel always pointing down in a very self righteous way.

By the way, if you have been following my blogs – check out that two wheeler. The driver has a helmet on? Yes. The pillion rider? Not so much!! What did I tell you? I do not understand laws!!

Dropped my suitcase and bag. Familiarized myself from the hotel staff which are the safe zones and which are not the safe zones for me to walk around. Once I got the perimeter memorized from Google maps, hit the road looking for some Guatemalan coffee.

For a country that makes so much coffee, finding a cafe was a bit of a chore. Finally, found a nice one. Made friends with the barista – Olanda who showed me her style of making cappuccino and then took a picture of me as I drank it sitting by the roadside.

Interestingly enough, you enjoy your coffee and then you pay – not the other way around that I am used to. BTW, I found Guatemalan coffee to be much sweeter and almost floral than I had expected.

Immigration in Guatemala city was remarkably fast. Unlike other Central American countries, I was in and out under one minute. There was no paperwork involved at all.

My flight was 30 minutes early. Consequently, my ride had not showed up. I just hung around outside the airport observing the people. The Mayan look on every face and physical structure was difficult to not notice. The coolest part was the the dress the womenfolk were wearing – very bright and flowery.

Somewhat apprehensive of the security situation here, I had arranged for a private car instead of taking taxis. Sure enough, I was being mobbed by a bunch of taxi drivers trying to help me. When my car finally showed up, imagine my surprise when a lady driver stepped out! I do not think I have seen that in any other developing country. Even in India.

Once on the road, you could see two wheelers all over. Funny thing is every rider had a helmet on (that is the law) but no pillion rider was wearing one (not required by law)! I just do not understand laws.

The volcanoes in the background were impressive in size – and I mean really impressive in size!!

I was in my car going from the airport to the hotel. We had stopped at a traffic light. From nowhere two guys came up to the middle of the road – with full shirt, jeans and jacket in 83 degrees and proceeded to do all sorts of acrobatic dances. And then just as the traffic signal turned green, they withdrew from the road.

Not sure what they were trying to achieve. But they were very entertaining.