The Lonely Planet´s 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences Guide lists Guatemala City among the ten best cities in the world to film a James Bond-style movie chase scene.
I think I know what they're saying if they mean this city's perfect backdrop for it includes the horrendous traffic and the wide variety of motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks & buses; the gridlocked grid system of numbered squalid streets & wide photogenic avenues; the modern skyscrapers next door to the two story shacks; the hustle & bustle of the Mercado Central with its shoe shine boys, CD peddlers, street food stalls, and beggars; the armed guards at the entrances of not only banks & jewelry stores but also most businesses, higher end restaurants, and even supermarkets; similarly armed guards literally "riding shotgun" in every delivery van to discourage old-fashioned highway robbery; fat cats & their entourages who exude wealth & power on the street as you've never seen it in a rich country like America while the vast majority of ordinary people--indigenous and mestizo alike--go about their ordinary, difficult everyday lives.
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