we have been coming to Antigua for three years yet never spent more then a night in a hotel in Guatemala City. It was time to spend a little time in the capital although we had heard so many warnings about the dangers and perils of being in the city. I am a New York City girl so very little scares me. And my friend Adriana has traveled the world and has lived in LA.
We hired a local driver to take us in and we got an early start at 9. It took almost two hours getting into the city with the traffic.
I couldn’t believe how congested it was. And for the most part, it looked rundown and not very impressive. We decided to stay in one zone so we chose zone one where the National Palace is located.
It is located on a park. We took a tour of the palace. It was in Spanish and Adriana interpreted for us.
The palace’s architecture Spanish style but the ceiling on one floor is Arabic andthe chandeliers are European crystal.
The floors on each floor are different styles as well.
The murals depicted the beginning of the Mayan culture and the introduction of the Spanish into Guatemalan history as well as the battles that occurred.
The main entrance room houses the peace statue where the Peace Acoord was signed in 1996, after 36 years of Civil War.
After we left the palace we went to La Merced, Guatemala City, a Baroque style church built from 1780 to 1813.
The church is to the left of the palace on the Central Park. The inside of the church was not overly interesting although it supposedly houses some of the artwork from its sister church La Merced in Antigua.
We were ready for lunch but it was really difficult finding a place to eat. There was McDonals, KFC, Burger King! And Taco Bell.
Finally we found a little cafe inside a building. I ordered chicken.
We had to drive about 25 minutes to the train museum, even though that was still in the same zone. This was the highlight of the trip.
It was virtually a train graveyard but was so interesting how Guatemala had once had a fairly large train infrastructure in place. It was baffling that it has all disappeared.
Does anyone remember this one?
The museum also had a large display of safes.
It was a lot of fun looking at these old trains but it was time to head out of Guatemala City. Heading to our car, we passed this interesting idea of how they repurpose items.
Our ride back to Antigua took only an hour this afternoon. We stopped to have an afternoon cup of coffee. I had macadamia pie and Bruce and Adriana had a blackberry cake. What a great way to end our day!
#GuatemalaCity#nationalpalace#lamerced#trainmuseum
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