Guatemala - 2010

Day 6 - July 25 - Fiesta

From the roof of Elsa's house. This is also where I have learned to put hand my towel for a little while to dry it in the sun. Otherwise, it never completely dries, due to the omnipresent moisture.

Elsa's house on the left (white). The panaderia (bread store) is next to the white house.

Every fiesta I've seen in Guatemala has a book fair (mostly old and used). This one takes up one whole side of the park.

And look who I found, even in Spanish: Isaac Asimov, the only author to have a book in every section of the Dewey Decimal System. Mostly, though, he write science fiction. I've read about 30 of his books.

My first time seeing chess in the park. Chess is a universal language of its own.

Central fountain.

Examples of traditional Mayan clothes. Supposedly these a bit expensive and can be hot, but they are very popular. It is also funny to see one of them on a cell phone.

The Bodegon - supermarket. And it is all of the blue part and all the way back to the next road.

The Bagel Barn, where I had breakfast/lunch, which was a bagel with egg salad.

Notice how short the chicas are. The one on the right can barely see over the counter. I actually brought Maria here to prove to her that there was someone shorter than her.

My pina colada smoothy. Some people drink to forget. I drink to connect (Internet wise).

The mercado, which just across the western-most street of Antigua proper. Notice ferris wheel in the background (it moves very fast).

There are the normal touristy things and the normal housewares + clothes. There are also booth for cell phones. I found a microphone/headphone set for skyping for about $10.

One thing I found interesting was the booths that have four or five landline phones on a table for people to rent.

 

Known as the arch in Antigua. I thought that the road was closed because of the fiesta, but it turns out that they close this road every Sunday.

Pollo Campero is on this road.

I've actually never walked past the arch:
never had a reason to.

Street performers. You can see then in the previous picture if you look closely.

A marimba group. There are many bands during the festival, if the weather holds.

OK - finally, Maria made it to Elsa's house. I thought I was ready, but the ladies decided that I had to iron my shirt. (Women!?!) In the meantime it started to rain harder and harder and harder. We waited for a while, but finally had to brave it.

In this photo, the rain has stopped, obviously, but while it was pouring, the road was a river, probably 5 or 6 inches deep. For me it was ankle high. For Maria it was waist high. Most walkers were waiting next the walls under the very narrow roof edges for the rivers to go down, but Yoli was waiting for us at the resturant. We walked back and forth a while looking for someplace shallower, but as I expected it was bad everywhere and Maria was getting more and more worried about the time. So, in the end, I picked her up and carried her across like a small child.

Fire works in front of the cathedral. They are definitely less safety conscious about these things. Maria and I stayed around the corner. Now that I think of it, it would have been interesting to see how or even if they were keeping people away.

Dinner at Casa Escobar with Maria and Yoli.

Yoli and I had rib-eyes while Maria had Sirloin and shrimp. I had a drink called Jaimaica (hybiscus flower), which is now my favorite: sweet (but not sugary) and spicy (but not hot). The ladies had wine. Little did I know that Maria is a light weight. One cup and she was goofy for the rest of the night. I'm very glad Yoli was here to take her home. Yoli and I had to cut her off. And the portions where normal for the US, which, here is huge and especially for these little ladies.

Dinner was a bit pricey I thought, at first: about $30 per person, but during dinner I learned some sobering facts about salaries in Guatemala. An unmarried girl only makes around $200US per MONTH! So, this meal is the equivalent of a half a month's salary for one of them - completely out of the question. For me it was half a day's pay OR 1 set of physics worksheets sold on my website. I was later told that families tell their kids not to even look at resturants like this because they can't afford it.

This information has completely changed the way I see things for them.

 

 

The cathedral and fountain at the central park. Click picture for a bigger (and very beautiful) picture of the cathedral.