The condo we’re staying in during this visit is just a block from the main plaza so we’re constantly walking through on our way to one place or another. Seeing as how the National Palace is now open again we decided to take a tour of it.

The President Jorge Ubico’s wife’s favorite color was green, so when he decided to finally get this palace built, he had it made green for her. Some sort of copper oxidation from the coating they put over the concrete. The building really was beautiful, and as far as tours go, it wasn’t half bad.

The plaza is a nice spot to hang out and just watch local life go on. It’s the center of everything, and is always busy. Unfortunately though, we can only last about fifteen minutes before people start to notice us and a line forms to ask us for money or to buy something. I get it, they have little choice but to ask, but it makes it impossible for us to just sit around and talk.

When we first came to Guatemala City three months ago the first thing we did was drop off our Canon 6d, and two main lenses at the Canon Service Center. Nothing was working any more. The boat and beach lifestyle is brutal on cameras. We were supposed to get them back in three weeks, but as tends to happen, they weren’t ready. After three months we finally got the call—the camera and main lens were repaired but they never received the parts to fix the fish eye lens. The Canon will probably reside in a handy spot on the boat from now on, while the new Sony does the work as our “carrying around” camera.