Travel Guide Guatemala City

Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala City or Guate, as its inhabitants call it, is a metropolis of nearly 3 million inhabitants, located in a region of high plateaus at 1,500 m altitude. Capital of the country since the end of the eighteenth century, it was founded by the Spanish in 1775, after the destruction of the former center of Guatemala's general capitite, the current Antigua. His real name is Nueva Guatemala of the Asunción. Equipped with the only international airport in the country, Guate is the first Guatemalan city where visitors lay foot and usually leave. Guatemala Ciudad does not entirely correspond to the image of Guatemala through the writings, photos and reports devoted to Guatemala.It is a modern, industrial city with dense and chaotic traffic. City of contrasts also, the most striking opulence goes along with the most glaring poverty. There is a climate of insecurity in which urban legends and foreign affairs sites are maintained. For this reason the visitors prefer him Antigua, distant from only forty kilometers. Yet this city has a real fascination with fear and fantasy about Guatemalans. It is the only real metropolis of the country and as such the only one offering certain services, particularly consular services for foreigners wishing to establish themselves or work in Guatemala.Divided into nineteen zones (similar to the Parisian arrondissements) Guatemala Ciudad presents a few tourist interests concentrated almost exclusively in zones 1 and 10, which have recently been added to Zone 4, which much has recently done not new. There are historic monuments, museums, markets, shops and hotels. Finally, taking precautions during the daytime visits, permeating the atmosphere of Guatemala, where more than one third of Guatemalans live, it is certainly a better understanding of the realities of living conditions and the challenges, social and political, facing the country.