Pinata Heaven and Meeting the President – DON’T Skip Guatemala City

If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know I’m a huge fan of always visiting the capital, or major cities, of new countries I am visiting. Some skip these and head straight to the attractions or resorts or whatever the country is famous for. I think the capitals are where the action is and you can see how locals live. Guatemala City (GC) was no different. Some might say its dangerous, and after speaking to our guides, there definitely are dangerous areas, as in any major city on earth. However, GC is conveniently divided into zonas. Some are safer and some should be avoided. We stayed at the Hyatt Centric in Zona 10 and I never once felt unsafe. In fact, I have more unsafe in major North American cities. Zone 10 is also SPOTLESS. Clean and modern. Cool fact about GC: its the largest city in Central America. The Hyatt was good except they forgot to clean the room one day and the gym temperature was set above room temp which didn’t make sense to me. We stayed 2 nights, but I would say ONE full day is enough. If you are short on time, just skip to Day 2 below, and definitely don’t miss anything on it!

Day 1

Breakfast – We went for breakfast at a place called Saul in Zona 10. It turns out there are Sauls all over the city and they are usually some combo of cafe, restaurant, and store (clothing, food etc). The vibe was indoor/outdoor and really nice. Food and service were pretty good.

After breakfast we went to a large mall called Oakland Place. I was impressed with how big and modern it was.

Here we found a paleta cart and had to get one. It was OK but the best I’ve had are in Vegas.

After Oakland, we went to check out a newer neighborhood called Cayala. Its a planned community where the buildings are all white and there are stores and restaurants. Its interesting but you can skip this if short on time.

LUNCH – For lunch a local recommended a place called Arrin Cuan for some authentic Guatemalan food. We sat outside and ordered the kak’ik (turkey soup) and pepian (chicken stew). I was told it was rare to find kak’ik on a menu. The meal started with some sort of chicken soup which was delicious and extremely savory.

However, the kak’ik was disappointing both flavor wise, and because the turkey was dry. The pepian was ok. I would not recommend this place.

After lunch we went back to the hotel before our dinner at Flor de Lis.

Day 2

On Day 2 we hired a guide and driver. The first stop was this church that was built by a wealthy family after being inspired by the architecture in Barcelona.

After we were taken to the Relief Map of Guatemala. TIP: if you go by yourself, the place itself is not so impressive. However, if you go with a guide, you will appreciate the country more because they will tell you about the different regions.

The next part of the tour was what I was looking forward to most. Zona 1 – The Historical Area. Our driver dropped us off and we walked around to explore stopping first at Parroquia Nuestra Señora de La Merced.

As we left the church and wandered more, our guide led us to one of the best things I have ever seen. The Pinata Area! First, coming from the Philippines, I grew up with these during birthday parties. However, I have never seen such elaborate works of art in the form of a pinata. I have also never seen ones so big. They had a full range of sizes. Lastly, they had generic ones and specific characters like Mario Bros. True works of art and I would feel bad about smashing these.

Aside from pinatas the area has a ton of party supply stores. I picked up these cool Mario birthday candles made in GC (needless to say, prices are good).

After we had our fill of pinatas, our guide took us to the central market.

Where we had lunch and sampled some street food:

We had lunch at this local counter:

The food is home cooked style as with most other traditional food in the country. This place was good. After lunch, we went to the main square – The Plaza de la Constitución. This is flanked by the National Palace and Cathedral.

As we approached the cathedral, we saw a large crowd and saw the president of Guatemala leaving the cathedral! He even shook our hands:

I wanted to tour the inside of the palace but they only had tours at scheduled time. To kill time, we went to a famous bar called El Portal. The chef at Flor De Lis recommended this place to me. It has a long history and is famous because Che Guevara used to hang out there. When we walked in, I immediately took a liking to the place. It felt like I was transported to another time and place – an old tapas bar in Spain.

Eventually, it was time to tour the palace:

After the palace, we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner at Sublime.

Day 3

On this day we departed for Antigua (which I highly highly recommend), but not before having breakfast at another place recommended by the Flor de Lis chef, which is also where they get their bread – Miettes. I highly recommend this place for breakfast.