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The spacious southern half of the city, with its broader streets, is, roughly speaking, divided into two by 7 Avenida. To the south of the Centro Civico, at the junction of 7 Av and 2 C, in Zona 4, is the landmark Torre del Reformador , Guatemala's answer to the Eiffel Tower. The steel structure was built in honour of President Barrios, whose liberal reforms transformed the country between 1871 and 1885. Unfortunately you can't go up it. Just to the north on the junction with Ruta 6 is the Yurrita Church , built in an outlandish neo-Gothic style more reminiscent of a horror movie set than the streets of Guatemala City. A block east from the Torre is Avenida la Reforma , the new city's main transport artery, which divides zonas 9 and 10. Many of the city's important sites and buildings are to be found on or just off this tree-lined boulevard, including the Jardin Botanico (Mon-Fri 8am-3.30pm; US$1.20) of the San Carlos University, whose entrance is on 0 C. Inside you'll find a beautiful little garden with quite a selection of species, all neatly labelled in Spanish and Latin. There's also a small and not terribly exciting natural history museum , with a collection of stuffed birds, including a quetzal and an ostrich, along with geological samples, wood types, live snakes and some horrific pickled rodents. Far more worthwhile are the two privately owned museums in the campus of the University Francisco Marroquin, reached by following 6 C Final off Av la Reforma to the east. The Museo Ixchel (Mon-Fri 8am-5.50pm, Sat 9am-12.50pm; US$2.50) is strikingly housed in its own purpose-built cultural centre. Probably the capital's best museum, the Ixchel is dedicated to Maya culture, with particular emphasis on traditional weaving. There's a stunning collection of hand-woven fabrics, including some very impressive examples of ceremonial costumes, with explanations in English, plus information about the techniques, dyes, fibres and weaving tools used and the way in which costumes have changed over the years. Don't miss the miniature huipil collection in the basement. Right next door, on the third floor of the auditorio building, is the city's other private museum, the excellent Museo Popol Vuh (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-1pm; US$2.50), home to an outstanding collection of artefacts from sites all over the country. The small museum is divided into Preclassic, Classic, Postclassic and Colonial rooms, and all the exhibits are top quality. In the Preclassic room are some stunning ceramics, stone masks and hongo zoomorfo (mushroom heads). The Classic room has an altar from Naranjo, some lovely incense burners, and a model of Tikal; the Postclassic contains a replica of the Dresden code. The colonial era is represented with some ecclesiastical relics and processional crosses. Back on Av la Reforma and heading south brings you to the smart part of town, a collection of leafy streets filled with boutiques, travel agents, banks, office blocks and sleek hotels. A little to the east, around 10 C and 3 Av, is the so-called Zona Viva , some ten small city blocks housing a bunch of upmarket hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and, at the bottom of La Reforma, the upmarket Los Proceres shopping mall. To get to Av la Reforma from Zona 1, take bus #82, which runs along 10 Av in Zona 1, past the Yurrita Church and all the way along Av la Reforma.
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