Incidents of Travel in Central and South America 2010

Our adventure in Guatemala City began with me wanting to accompany April on her Holy Day quest to find the service of the Feast of Trumpets here in Guatemala City. "The Feast of Trumpets introduces the autumn festivals—representing the culmination of the present age of man and the beginning of an incredible time during which God will play a much more direct part in world events. The previous festivals constitute personal responses to the workings of God in the people He calls and chooses. But the Day of Trumpets heralds the intervention of God in the affairs of humanity on a global basis. This Holy Day represents a dramatic turning point in world history." We had the address, we had a taxi, we had the correct time, and we were dressed for the occasion...what could go wrong? Well, it seems that a lot could go wrong as we soon found out.  Arriving at said address, the Hall of the Chamber of Commerce Zone 1 (considered one of the more dangerous parts of town), the taxi driver seemed concerned the building we were looking for was not visible and asked if we really wanted to got out here. April, unfazed by the situation, said "sure, we'll walk around and find it." But he still seemed concerned and insisted on driving around the block to try to find the building. We eventually spotted it, but the driver still asked if we were sure this is where we wanted to be. We entered the building and noted the Seimens logo everywhere and the office looking people...not the United Church of God service we were looking for. So April proceeded to ask the receptionist, but soon realised that she didn't know how to say what we were looking for in Spanish, so we just just stood there with dumb looks on our faces. It was a little arkward and we had to take a moment and step outside because we thought we were in the wrong building. So we walked up the street a bit, but then realised that there is only one Chamber of Commerce in Guatemala and we must have been at the right place, so we went back. This time before we went in we wrote on a little piece of paper that we were loking for the church service that was being held in the Hall of the Chamber of Commerce. So you can imagine us outside the building with our dictionary out, writing this note and laughing our heads off at the situation we were in. When we went back in, instead of trying to say what we had written down, April just handed the lady the note. But she still had no idea what we were doing there and said in Spanish "this is the Chamber of Commerce of Guatemala, not a church." So we accepted defeat and left the Chamber of Comerce and were confronted with a street marching band. It was so long and went down the entire street! There were drums and baton twirlers, cheerleaders and a whole troup of trumpet players. The trumpets raised our spirits so we stayed and watched the marching band play. After it was all over we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and location and explore the city. We saw many exciting things: shoe shops, bookshops, a church, shoe shops, more shoe shops and a central park that we decided to walk through. After much deliberation, we agreed that our course of direction should be diagonally accross the central plaza, so off we went with everyone staring at us because we were the only white people. As we approached the other end we had a whole bunch of guys yelling something at us,we did the normal thing and ignored them and continued on with April choosing to walk through a puddle of water and almost falling over as her thongs (flip flops) lost traction. Fortunately she recovered from this brief stumble and continued on only to find that the people were actually saying that we cant exit this way. So we had to turn around and face everybody laughing at us and walk out the other exit. Very embarassing!! We retreated to the safety of McDonals where we consulted the trusted Lonely Planet over a Happy Meal.
    After looking at the map we decided that it wasn't that far to the CBD in Zona 10 so we started walking. Now we've been informed that walking around in Guatemala City it not advised by almost everyone that we've spoken to. But we walked like we had a purpose and April had to save me a couple of times because im not that good at crossing roads apparently. We saw many fun things on this little journey, including goats walking down the street...not something you see every day.  It only took around 30 minutes and we made it unscathed. We found a mall and sat and had a much deserved coffee. We looked around for a bit and finally bought some plates and cups so we can stop stealing everyones at the lab. After this little shopping adventure in a mall that was slowly destroying our souls we thought it would be a wonderful idea to walk back the lab since we were already half way there. Unbeknownst to us there was a 4 lane road we had to cross, which happened to be accross a roundabout and in peak hour traffic. Now with my unability to safely cross roads and Aprils cant-see-just-go attitude this was quite an event. Eventually we made it accross and started walking back to the lab.
    Now i think we have discovered why people say that it is dangerous to walk around in Guatemala City...its not because it is physically dangerous (well maybe a little) it is more that if you are female, white, and walking on the side of the road with the wind blowing in your hair then there is a high chance that Guatemalan men will 1. wolf whistle, 2. beep their horns, 3. call out the only english words they know, 4. flash their car lights, or 5. do some kind of hand gesture. On the way home we decide to start to count how many times each of these things happened, and the result was very impressive. We made it safely back to the lab after a really fun adventurous day. Now i am sure that i can update the trusted Lonely Plant guide that it is in fact not that dangerous to walk from zone 1 to zone 13 in Guatemala City during the day and have an adventure that no one expected.
    I cant wait for the unexpected fun next weks feast day, the Day of Attonment will bring...