The first morning we were in Guatemala, before we headed to the first village, we spent maybe an hour and a half in Guatemala City. Our main reason for visiting was Mass in the Cathedral, but it was neat to get our first glimpse of the city downtown and see the local culture.
There were police everywhere downtown, crawling the plaza and wandering the streets. Our group also had our own security men who followed us all week, even into the villages. We joked that once we came back to the states we’d feel comforted if we saw a police officer behind us while driving instead of being worried we did something wrong! 
We had a few photo ops with our guys- but I think these pictures were before we realized these guys would be with us all week!
Downtown Architecture
The Cathedral—such cool doors!
In the square we found a lot of fruit, meat and ice cream being sold. We were advised not to buy or eat any of it but it was neat to look at!
There were goats wandering around the square, waiting to have their very fresh milk sold.
A shoe-shiner
We did participate in a fun, silly thing in the square. There was a guy offering to have a parakeet pick our fortune. It cost 10Q, just a little over $1, so why not? Mine was very funny- while written in Spanish, it was translated for me and said something about not loving on my boyfriend too much. Haha… Lydia did it too but I am not sure what her fortune said!
We saw some interesting characters for sale…
And of course, we were able to catch a glimpse of some traditional bright Guatemalan colors--
Until next time…
That church looks gorgeous! Lol yup that street food would make you miserable. Hilarious re the parakeet.
ReplyDelete