We got out of Guatemala City's Zona 10 after walking a bit there and in Zona 9 this morning. It's full of new mega hotels such as the Raddison, Holiday Inn, and the Intercontinental. Thusly, the resturants were either international fast food or places like Appleby's. Wide tree lined avenues split these two areas and smaller newly, cobble-stoned intersections graced the clean new area. In a word: boring! That is not our type of tourist hangout, although the taxi driver last night did a good job of finding a reasonably-priced hotel which was housed in an enormous old private villa that had been complete changed over to hotel rooms. During the morning walk around, we happened to find an old woman and kid doing take-away breakfasts from a small basement shop. She had several tables. She made great omlets with the required beans, fried banana, and some type of cheese for about $2.00 each.
We went back to the hotel and looked on Expedia for a cheap room in the Centro Historico. The Hotel Sevilla rates itself as three stars which probably is about double what I would, but it is fine for us. We needed to replace the sterile place with the type of area which we'd come to see. Zone 1 is often characterized as "scary" in some guide books. We took a taxi for about four dollars. We love it. Several blocks away is the main Municipal Cathedral and plaza area. From there, runs a twelve or more block purely pedestrian street. The Holy Week has begun in this part of the world, and folks are all around. The street was packed and we walked up and down it in the afternoon and later in the evening. The painted art animals which have appeared in so many cities of the world appear to be tigers here. I am so full! I'd say, food is about half the prices we pay in Canada. That's no excuse to overeat, but as everyone knows calories don't count during vacations.
