Guatemala City is a horrid city.
There is few other ways to describe it, it smells bad, with an atmosphere of looming peril, people on the street stare at us with hate and suspicion.. It is easily the dirtiest and gloomiest city I have ever had the misfortune to visit. We decide to skip the sightseeing, not even sure if there are any sights to see in the wretched place, and go to Angelicas friends house, who kindly lets us in and offers us her couch and a smoke. I stare at the books and posters scattered through the cosey homestead while we make small talk.
We are hungry from travelling and after a short while go to a corner shop to buy some Tlayudas.
The restaurant is to the same standard as the city. Filthy and run by a transsexual with a thick moustache and grease stained shirt. The beers are flat, and plastic crates full of drinks are being unloaded onto the floor from a truck. Bangs like gunshots every minute from the crates make it hard to hold a conversation. But we somehow manage and talk about our plans from here. Angelica and I share a burger. We have a mutual attraction but don't know how to show it. I hope she stays with us. But after a nervous walk next to her to our hostel she kisses me goodbye and goes back to her friends. I am dissappointed. I should have said something, made some sort of move.. I was so nervous. I sigh at my stupidity as we enter the hostel.
The beds are clean and there are hot showers which is plenty. I play sublime from my speaker, as we lie onn our beds to read and relax. Emmanuel is in a bad mood. We are all in a bad mood really, but Jenny and I hide it better. I blame it on the city and its depressing vibes.
Guatemala has only recently come out of a brutal civil war (funded by the CIA to stop the revolutionary independant movements attempts to turn the country self sufficient) and as such still bears the scars of a suspicious and fearful nation. This is the reason the city is the way it is, it helps to understand this. I still wouldn't go there again however.