Guatemala City

Arrriving 10 at night is not so nice but luckily I was picked up by Tania, a collegue of my friend Henrik and got to stay in the commune where these 'peace watchers' live. Everything hit me as extremely exotic in Guatemala. The man lying down in the back of his pickup lifting wights with a telephone catalouge, the bus driver who gets off in the red lights to change the busnumber sign from 44 to 73, the lady combing the hair of her grown up daughter in a cafe restroom.

I guess I did not spend too much time readiung about Guateala before I came and therefoire it was a total suprise that the capital was a 8 million city. It is divided into 21 zones and some of them are alright, some wealthy and inside big walls to protect the habitants and others are strictly not to visit since they are like the wild west and ruled by the Mara gangs. They say it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world and I guess I was quite pumped up with fear. Around 17.30 when it gets dark the streets become abandoned and walking around the city is a donts. Run down houses, dim street lights, suspicious guys in groups of 2 or 3, travestis in the corner and homeless dogs acting the kings and queens of darkness.

It is a gifantic, and there is just so much to look at, it is one of these cities whre you would like to sit in a taxi all day long just being on a constant journey through town, watching its colours and chaos but still being an observer inside a bubble of imagined safety.