We arrived in Guatemala City at about 4pm on Mexicana Airlines and rang up a B&B from the airport. They picked us up five minutes later. Pretty darn good. We are staying near the airport in Zone 13.

Guatemala City is known for its crime and tourists are good marks. We checked this out before hand on the State Department advisory list. Zone 13 is safe for tourists, but it is still suggested that you not venture out on your own after dark.

After checking in at the B&B, our host told us there was a good restaurant a half a block down and a half a block up. We changed clothes and went to leave.

She stopped us. Best not to wear watches, she advised. My small shoulder bag that crossed over my chest was also a no-no. She told us to carry only the money we would need for dinner in our pocket.

We squirreled away our meager belongings ($20 Timex watches) and my handbag in our room and passed inspection for our one block walk. It was six o'clock. Walking along the first half block we noticed a young man in a black hoodie jacket across the avenue. He was eyeing us. We picked up our pace and crossed the street sooner than we had planned. He started following and we walked faster until we made it to the corner convenience store next door to the restaurant. We looked back. He had disappeared. Probably because an armed guard with a semi-automatic rifle was standing in the parking lot.

These people are not kidding! There was another armed guard in the restaurant parking lot.

We sat down and ordered dinner and then began wondering how we would make the short walk back if this character was still around. Dinner would take us an hour or so and it would be dark by then.

You talk about intimidating and weird. Over a couple of beers we considered our options. The best option seemed to be ask the guard to watch us until we reached the end of the block and then hot foot it out once we were around the corner and within running distance of our B&B.

We did just that and surprisingly the guard was happy to oblige like people asked him to watch them everyday. Maybe they do.

The following morning on our way to the bus station we noticed armed guards all over the place. Guatemala is a heavily fortified city. Thank heavens we decided not to rent a car here and go by bus which has a fellow literally riding shotgun.

Hopefully the little village of Copan in Honduras will be much more restful than Mexico City and Guatemala City. While Teotihuacan was wonderful, driving in Mexico City and walking in Guatemala City are not my idea of vacations.