Guatemala City has long been known as the capital of Guatemala and as a place where the true essence of the country's reality remains. The center of Guatemala City is somewhat crowded with local traders and noise and is home to the former University of San Carlos in Guatemala, which was founded in 1676 in Antigua Guatemala. Slowly, things began to change, but not for the better, according to a recent study by the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Guadalajara.
The country has been torn apart by a brutal civil war, poverty is still rampant and the wealth gap remains enormous. Guatemala City allows you to see the whole of Guatemala in a way that no tourist destination can. It gives an insight into a country that was only housed in the early 1990s under a sitting president and where poverty is still rampant.
It is not known for being a beautiful city, but you will definitely be impressed by its colonial buildings and a walk through parts of the capital will take you back to the days of the Spanish Empire. In Guatemala City you can also visit the Relief Card, a work of art and engineering dating back to 1904. Be enchanted by the colonial beauty of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and stroll through the streets of the Guatemalan capital.
The cone formation begins at the border with Mexico, about 1,000 miles east of Guatemala City, and continues eastward through Guatemala to El Salvador. Rio Dulce is also the largest river in Guatemala and the second largest in the surrounding countries. It is also the most popular tourist destination for those who want to enjoy themselves in one of Mexico's most famous tourist attractions, the Rio de la Grande.
The small airport is served by destinations such as Belize, Honduras and Guatemala City. This makes it one of the most accessible airports in the country and the only one in Central America.
East of Guatemala City is Oriente Izabal, where you can cruise the idyllic Rio Dulce and explore its spectacular gorges. There are regular tourist buses passing through San Ignacio and Xunantunich, and daily boats go to Belize.
Guatemala City also has an active cultural life, which offers you many opportunities to spend your time here. Guatemala City has excellent museums where you can learn about the history of the Maya and their culture, as well as what it feels like to experience an earthquake. The vast and impressive ancient Mayan sites are probably worth a trip to Guatemala's Tikal. El Mirador is considered the largest Mayan ruin, but that claim could be called into question by the ongoing investigation.
Be careful not to stay in a hotel, but for a night or a few days, Guatemala City will probably have a place on your itinerary.
You should be able to book a double room in the city for $15, but it will set you back a bit. If you are visiting Guatemala on a larger Central American trip, land or boat crossings are a great way to experience more of the region. Sometimes it is cheaper to take a bus to Belize or fly to Cancun and travel on an Interjet ticket to Guatemala City. You can also fly from Mexico City to Guatemala with an Interjet ticket for about $10 more than if you fly to Mexico City. Before you travel to Guatemala, make sure you have up-to-date travel advice from your local travel agent, such as the Guatemalan Tourism Authority.
In the vicinity of Guatemala City there is a large collection of hand-made ceramics from Mixco, which supplies the capital with fruit and vegetables, as well as from the ancient city of Antigua, which suffered great damage in the 1976 earthquake. Guatemala has a number of schools for children of all ages, from kindergarten to high school. We have two primary schools located just 15 minutes from AntIGua, and we will bring you together with an organization in Guatemala that requires volunteers for a fee of $270.
Guatemala City is located on three tectonic plates and is home to over two million people. It is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Latin America. The south of Guatemala is dominated by the Pacific Ocean, which stretches 40 kilometres to the east and southwest, as well as the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2012, about 900 Jews lived in Guatemala, most of them in the capital, Guatemala City. It is unclear whether this figure is immigration - that is, immigration-related detention, since it clearly refers to the mountainous regions within Guatemala. According to official sources, the largest number of detainees from 2012 to 2015 came from El Salvador, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras (1.5 million). The fertility rate in Guatemala is the highest in Latin America. An average of five children are born to a Guatemalan woman in her lifetime.