Guate is what the locals call Guatemala city, for short. I really didn't know what to expect after the craziness of Honduras and Tegucigalpa. I guess i was expecting a dangerous city where many muggings and bad things happen. The reality of it is though is that they seem to take the security situation a little more seriously. For example there are secure bus lines the green metro and the blue bus that everyone takes because you have to go through check points where there are police and turn styles and the blue bus only let's you on with a card. This significantly reduces the chances of bus robberies like what i experienced in Honduras. There are of course still problems but this seems to happen on the red buses that are the hop on hop off style that allows anyone.
Guate's streets and buildings look old and worn out. Like no one has really bothered to upkeep them for years, probably because they haven't! There is an old disused train running through the city that is overgrown with grass and there is a museum with the train that used to run on those lines in a train Depot in the centre of the city.
The couch surfers i met in Guate all had cars though, it's just the way you get around there. The public transport isn't that great, doesn't run late so if you want to be able to get around easily you need a car. The problem with this is though when on a night out. Most people seem to drink and drive. Some people i met here seem to think it makes them better drivers. It is a crazy mentality, if what i have been brought up to believe about drinking and driving is true.
The most interesting part of Guate for me was 6th Street. Here loads of entertainers come to perform and make money. We saw these amazing break dancers. There also seems like there is a really cool underground party scene.
I was fortunate enough to meet some amazing people in Guate specifically Kevin and his two friends Ana and Mariela. I had a good night out with them on the Saturday and then got to stay in Mariella's amazing house. It was beautiful. She had her own part to the house and then there was this amazing garden with a yoga/meditation tree house. Kevin also took me and Ana up the Volcano Pacaya on the Saturday, which was a bit of a disappointment because we had to pay the guide 20 dollars, but all he did was take us on a walk that we could easily have gone on...
The other guy i met in Guate, who i couch surfed with for the first few days was the bloke called Raul. He was just a bit weird really. His house was empty, no food or furniture, in a gated community on the outskirts of the city, so not really close to anything. He was hardly there so quite a few nights i was just left sitting in the house on my own not sure what to do. He was clearly gay but for some reason he felt he needed to tell me. I kinda realized by the end he was not really my friend either. He just wanted me to teach in his English school as it looked good to his pupils. Also i basically ended up taking the lessons, it was weird because for some reason Raul didn't want to and was texting on his phone all the time... It made me appreciate how shit it is actually when you are with someone and they are on their phone the whole time. The final straw with him was was when he offered to give me a lift to Antigua. I thought he was going to show me around but it turned out to be a family foto shoot in the town, which i wasn't invited to, and then as soon as this became apparent he just dropped in the park with all my stuff, and said bye! He was just a pretty crappy host really.
However i did enjoy taking his English lessons, even if maybe he was just using me for free teaching! I wouldn't mind doing more English teaching.
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