An extremely skinny lady was tending to her 2-day old baby in a hammock as we went out in search of “El Siglo Laundromat” (Lavandería El Siglo) which we were told was just around the corner on 6A Avenida. We had breakfast while our clothes were washing. It was a great morale boost to have clean, dry clothes to wear again.
It was a hot sunny day at last and we spent the rest of the morning in search of an illusive bookshop selling English books. Again, we got lost. We walked past the Presidential Palace which was heavily guarded by troops in camouflaged uniforms as well as regular Police clad in blue. A trooper with a heavy machine gun looked down on us from a neighbouring rooftop.
In celebration of the first century of independence in 1919, President Manuel Estrada Cabrera placed the first stone for a future palace next to the Plaza de Armas. The Italian architect Guido Albani was charged with designing the palace, but it never came to pass due to the collapse of the government soon thereafter.
Two years later, in 1921, President Carlos Herrera, with the Centenary very close, ordered the Palacio del Centenario to be built in only three months time with a small budget and few resources. It became popularly known as the Palacio de Cartón (Cardboard Palace). However, in 1925 it was destroyed by a fire.
In 1927 President Lazaro Chacón declared a contest for the design of a new palace. The contest was won by the artist Agustín Iriarte, but this project again never came to be. Finally, in 1932, President General Jorge Ubico published the basis for the design and construction of the palace, and on July 4, 1937, the first stone was placed. The National Palace was built between January 1939 and 1943. On November 10 of that year, the birthday of President Ubico, the present-day Palace was opened.
Known as Palacio Nacional de la Cultura (National Palace of Culture) also known colloquially as "Palacio Verde", it is identified as Guatemala City's symbol in its architectural context. It was the most important building in Guatemala and was the headquarters of the President of Guatemala. The building is the origin of all the roads in the Republic and has a spot known as Kilometro Cero (Zero Kilometre). It is now actually a museum and is also used for important acts of the government.
We gave up looking for the bookshop and I went off to the Post Office. The impressive Guatemala Post Office Building is the management centre of postal services in Guatemala. It was constructed between 1937 and 1940. The characteristic archway of the building was inspired by the Santa Catalina Arch in Antigua Guatemala.
Basically, it was a maze of rooms in a huge old building, each with a different function or service. I eventually found the small kiosk which sold postage stamps and was able to dispatch my cards and letters.
There are 100 centavos to a Guatemalan Quetzal and there were 5 x 7 centavo stamps for each postcard. Luckily, from past experience I knew to leave plenty of space for stamps when writing the address on a postcard. However, it was still difficult to get seven stamps on without obscuring the address or any of the writing.
Back at the hotel we sat in the sun in the garden and pored over our guidebooks, the South American Handbook and Lonely Planet. Out on the streets there is a strange mixture of expensive consumer good shops, pavement stalls, and small-time pedlars and beggars. The exhaust fumes from passing buses is black and choking.
We spent the afternoon in the cinema after a surprising free snack of soup and a piece of chicken opposite the Colon Cinema on Avenida 12/Calle 7. The first film that we saw was “Beverly Hills Cop” rather than “Beverly Hills Cop II” as advertised outside. The soundtrack was atrocious, so it was lucky that we had both seen it before.
In “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984) a freewheeling Detroit cop, played by wisecracking Eddie Murphy, pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.
Likewise, with the second movie, “The Untouchables” which I had also seen before and Declan was able to pick up enough to enjoy it. In “The Untouchables” is a 1987 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Art Linson, written by David Mamet, and based on the book of the same name (1957).
The film stars Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy García, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery. During the era of Prohibition in the United States, Federal Agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone and, because of rampant corruption, assembles a small, hand-picked team to help him.
From the cinema we went to Ruby’s for a huge chicken Chow Mein and Monte Carlo beer. A review I found online says “Monte Carlo from Guatamala City is pale and fizzy with little to recommend it. The watery beer has a flavour profile reminiscent of damp wall board and unlit charcoal. Guzzled directly from a very cold ice chest, it could get the job done of slaking a sweaty thirst. But let this beer warm up even just a bit and you will be sorry.” We found it O.K.
The streets were virtually deserted when we returned to our lodgings at 21:00 hrs. Before going to bed we sat outside in a hammock for an hour or so and I finished off a quarter of a litre of a mysterious white spirit with coke.
I doubt that it was Zacapa Centenario rum which is an expensive premium rum produced in Guatemala by Rum Creation and Products, a subsidiary of Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala, and distributed and marketed by Diageo. It was created in 1976 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Zacapa, a town in eastern Guatemala. It was the result of the blending, stabilization, and maturing processes of long-aged rums by doctor and chemist named Alejandro Burgaleta.
It could have been Guaro which is a favourite liquor distilled from sugar cane. Guaro is fiery with a slightly sweet taste and can be served as a shot or in a cocktail. Or Quetzalteca, which is an aguardiente, which means it's between 29 percent and 60 percent alcohol by volume. This potent raw cane liquor is great when mixed with juice but can also be drunk as a shot. Varieties include Quetzalteca Rosa de Jamaica, a strong yet sweet pink moonshine, and Quetzalteca Especial, a grape-style drink.
Declan preferred to sit and smoke wacky baccy.
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