What is Guatemala City city profile?
Guatemala City - courtesy vaticanus - CC-BY
Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala and the country’s largest city.
In Spanish colonial times the city was a village with a monastery which was founded in 1629. However the settlement of the city far predates that. Within Guatemala city is the ancient city of Kaminaljuyu which had been settled in the first millenium BC. Guatemala City grew around and over the ruins before they were finally protected. It became the capital in 1775.
Guatemala City is pretty much a shapeless and swelling mass, chaotic, congested, polluted, ringed by shantytowns, and home to a quarter of Guatemala’s population. However, the city does have some excellent restaurants, shopping plazas, a couple of good museums and a metropolitan culture. While not exactly pretty, full of transportation issues, and emitting a sense of disorder, Guatemala City offers a certain Latin charm. The National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology houses the largest collection of Mayan artifacts in the country, and the Archaeological Park at Kaminaljuyu offers up remnants of one of the Maya region’s first great cities. It is not really safe to walk anywhere alone at night, and generally taxis are the safest way for getting around town, day or night. Sadly, most visitors consider Guatemala City as simply a place to catch a plane or pass through on the way to somewhere more pleasant.
The climate is mild with little seasonal variation in temperatures, and most of the rain falls between May and October.
Guatemala City is served by La Aurora International Airport. Public transportation is by bus and taxis.
Guatemala city population is 7,156,000 (2008)
+502 is international dialing code for Guatemala
22 is area code for Guatemala City
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On my visit to Guatemala a number of years ago, the only place in the country I felt unsafe was in Guatemala City. So when I go back to the country, I’ll probably be one of those you mention who sees the city as a place to pass through on the way to somewhere else.
That said, it’s still worth a daytime visit if you take reasonable precautions. If you’re staying in Antigua Guatemala (and many, many tourists do, with good reason), you can easily take a quick bus ride into the capital to see the sights.
It is sad in a way that some Western cities we think would be safe, really aren’t, and some that we (especially in the West) think would be dangerous, such as Cairo, Damascus and Hanoi, are really among the safest cities in the world to to go wandering alone in.
Even with the recent bombing in Cairo, I would still take off across that town on foot at 3AM. And feel safe doing so.