Guatemala City

So far I´ve been to Guatemal City twice, on the night I arrived and the night before Marsha arrived. I´ll probably go there one more time, to leave. Poor poor Guatemala City. It has a very bad reputation and seems to just be an annoyance for travelers. But is it as bad as advertized? From my very brief time there and my conversations with people, it seems Guatemala City is pretty peligroso. At my first hotel I arrived hungry and walked a couple of blocks to get food. Before I left, the manager quickly ran and got a girl who had also been interested in eating. She had been to Guatemala about 4 different times and as we walked the barren streets she told me how this was really a bad idea. You want to tell me that on the way home maybe? Before my second time there, all the Guatemalans from the town I was in made me promise to get a cab upon my arrival. And after my second time, I got into a conversation with a local who said, "Guatemala City is not so bad. I just make sure I´m inside by six so I don´t end up as a posting in the newspaper."

All that being said, it seemed fine during the day. Both times I went on meandering walks to the Parque Centrale and people paid me little to no mind. There were a few old colonial buildings and an incredible post office (seriously). As a reminder though of the high incidence of crime, there were numerous armed guards. I found myself playing a new version of Where´s Waldo called Where´s The Guy With The Shot Gun. The problem with this game was that it was too easy. Every block had at least one armed guy and they didn´t only guard banks. As I waited for my bus I noticed 3 guys, one guarding a toy store and two guarding a paint store.

Which, in my endless compulsive need to quantify, leads me to the question, where does Guatemala City rank with the worst capitals in the world? From the places I've been I would rank it third behind Bucharest (which was fascinatingly currupt) and Lima (where my opinion might be skewed by the kids on glue we met).