Good to be 'home'...posting from the road

I am Canadian, a fact I share on almost an hourly basis with just about anyone who will listen. But I have called the United States of America home for the past few years, and despite their unhealthy love of deadly weapons and the Kardashians, it hasn't been a bad ride. The country that I have visited the most, outside of Canada and the US is now officially Guatemala.

Stepping off the plane today into the humid chaos felt oddly satisfying. As our driver barrelled through the streets, death seemingly chasing us down - it seemed right. I am here this time with my friend Leila (from the Africa trip) and as it was her first trip to my third homeland, I felt a sense of duty when it came to showing some true Guatemala. So we went to Pollo Campero.

Those unfamiliar with the place maybe the lucky ones. This is latin America KFC except with butter customer service. The chicken is piping hot and oozing artery clogging grease. As Leila is a fellow zoo-fanatic, we enjoyed our delicious specialty at the Guatemala city zoo. (Getting the zoo is not easy...zoo apparently is a different word in Spanish - I had to resort to drawing a picture of a giraffe and elephant on a piece of paper. I am just glad the driver figured out what I meant by that, I would hate to have had to charade it out!)

I, being a self professed zoo snob was pleasantly surpirsed at this place. Granted there was a definate lack of "you are here" maps and an almost schizoprenic organization to the place but the animals all appeared healthy and had roomy enclosures. Ironically the best show of the day was two large Canadian grizzly bears who got into an all out brawl.


There is also a large collection of house-sized wild cats and birds (house seperately of course) at this zoo. All and all a fairly uneventful day...apologies for the general boring nature of this post - quite fatigued and tomorrow promises to be a busy day. Just writing a bit as we will be away from internet for about a week or so - but made it safe and sound, crawling into bed now!

Buenos noches!
(p.s. top photo is the view from our hotel room)