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Guatemala City Overnight 4/15 – 4/16/08
By Milt Abel | May 24, 2008
| May 24, 2008We arrived into the Guatemala City airport at 7:55pm, a few minutes ahead of schedule. The American Airlines flight was only a quarter full so it took less time than usual to get everyone aboard in Dallas and we had departed early. What made the difference was the lack of arguing for overhead bin space. We avoided the confrontations that often erupt when passengers try to store, alongside essentials, items like their complete replicas of Columbus’ three ships, “Hey Bub, why don’t you put your Santa Maria down by your feet so I can have room for my taxidermy project?”
Airlines have become brutally efficient about having planes fly with no seats to spare. I can’t help but wonder if at route planning meetings the carriers show old news footage of the evacuation of Saigon at the very end of the America’s Vietnam War. People were hanging from the landing skids as already overweight ‘copters lumbered up from the crowded building top. “That’s what we’re shooting for people… eh, maybe I shouldn’t say ‘shooting’ but you get the idea.”
My contact was waiting just outside customs holding a standard piece of paper sideways, printed with my name correctly spelled. (Emailing ahead makes such a difference). And lickity-split we were driving to the hotel, except for the short delay when Achim, my contact and driver, pulled over and asked for directions of how to get out of the airport. “So much construction. It’s different than last month,” he explained to me over his shoulder as we threaded through recently, apparently, placed barricades. He told me the Guatemala airport was brand new, just two years old. And already it was under construction, again. Typical.
This was my first time in Guatemala City so I made an effort to let my eyes wander beyond the car’s windows as we raced through the evening city. I hate to come off as oblivious and jaded but it seemed like a hundred other cities I’ve been driven through; traffic and business advertisements. Achim explained, as we drove pass an expansive and modern looking plaza with a lit fountain, there were two million people living in the city, “They come here thinking it will be a better life…” He paused a moment after that statement. I don’t know if he expected me to snort in a condescending U.S. citizen tone a “Yeah, right!” or if he was remembering why he had moved here himself.
I stayed at the Radisson Hotel and Suites, located in Zone 10. Besides having numbered and alphabetized roads, the city was divided into zones as well. Guatemalans may be more anal than first blush would suggest. The hotel was wonderful. My room was spacious, complimentary internet and a bed that I wanted to bring home with me. My only complaint was the room had been cleaned by someone with an attention span disorder. There was an airline ticket on the desk, cheap airline headphones and a paperclip on the couch, and used soap and shampoo in the bathroom. The linens and carpeting were immaculate, but these few items sat in plan sight like clues in a mystery. If that bed wasn’t so good I might have been kept up trying to solve it.
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