Guatemala City

I've really only been within walking distance of the Hostel I chose to stay at.  Anyway it's a big city with plenty of familiar franchise presence.  The hostel recommended a couple places with good and inexpensive food.  I only tried the one but it's only a breakfast and lunch place and on my first day I arrived 10 minutes after 3 and they stop serving lunch at 3.  I walked further to a big fancy modern mall and mistakenly chose to eat at a restaurant called Skillets.  It was a total of Q 104 which is about $13.65.  A typical lunch or dinner price back home.  The next day I had lunch at the recommended place and it was Q 25 or $3.35 US.  After that good inexpensive lunch I decided to walk over to the grocery store to get a few things for later rather than going out somewhere.  I stopped at that same mall and was going to get a coffee but since just a cup of coffee small was over half the cost of my lunch I changed my mind...it was a Starbucks.  The mall had many familiar brand stores and a few unknown to me.  Quite the display of consumerism out of control.  I then proceeded to the grocery store and was thinkng just some bread and peanut butter and snack bars.. The bread and snack bars were a good value but the tiny size peanut butter like not even a cup..more like a 6 oz jar was Q 57... which is about $7.58??? I opted for a little 6 oz tub of cream cheese for Q 4.45 or 60 cents.   The only other guests here that were staying more than a night before a flight home or having just arrived about to head off to the various tourist destinations were a couple woman applying for work visas at a hostel in Mexico.. They met there and have been working there under the radar but now both want to make it official and eventually obtain a Mexican residency.  One was from Argentina and the other from Sweden.  You can not apply for a work visa within the country you seek to work at hence they have been doing a bit of traveling here finishing off with a few days in 'The City' with visits to the Mexican Embassy.

My excuse for not doing some sight seeing like visiting La Antigua is I've been traveling in a sailboat since December 2 and am focused on getting to Bryson City to visit a good friend from highschool I've not seen in a very long time and looking forward to spending 5 days with he and his wife.  Perhaps someday I'll be back to Rio Dulce with a sailboat of my own and have plenty of time to check things out.

$3.35 US