I usually take the family out the last day and it is expensive. This time I took everyone out to D'Marta for good traditional Guatemalan food and it wasn't that expensive!
Only one person missing from our group.
Many of the plane tickets I looked at had me flying back to the US on my birthday and I decided that would be very unfun. |
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I usually take the family out the last day and it is expensive. This time I took everyone out to D'Marta for good traditional Guatemalan food and it wasn't that expensive! |
Only one person missing from our group. |
And there she is: Hugo's wife. She made it a little late.l |
Juanito and Maria Elsa. |
After lunch Conchita had to return to work. So Hugo, his wife, Maria Elsa, Juanito, and I went to the park to sit, talk, and prepare for the next place I wanted to go. While in the park I got to see how they trim the trees: a worker on a ladder uses a machete. Very simple. |
Birthday celebration part II: Casa Escobar for Jaimaica. Some got Horchata, instead (a sweet rice/milk drink). While we were here Hugo's wife (can't recall her name) sang me a couple of birthday songs. Very special. |
I LOVE this picture. Juanito doesn't smile profusely often, but here he is laughing because he is protecting Maria Elsa's purse. |
While we were there they heard the wait staff sing "Happy Birthday" to another customer, so they tried so hard to sneak a message to the staff about me. They aren't very sneaky. |
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On the way back to the house Hugo pointed out this house. It is under repair because a helicopter fell on it. No joke! No one was injured in the crash. Hugo said this is why they look up everytime they hear a helicopter. Let's also hear it for the great construction of the roofs of these old houses. |
Manuel working on a new painting. |
And some work already done on this one. |
Closer to dinner Maria Elsa made Conchita take me to get tortillas as pretense to get me out of the house. Again - not so tricky, but very touching. |
They were going to serve me chocolate cake, but inquired about that at lunch. So here is Guatemalan apple pie. It is very good, since it is heavy on the apples and light on the sugar: just the way I like it. |
Juanito also bought a chocolate cheese cake (I think). Don't quite remember the gag, but after I blew out my one candle they started to try to get pictures of everyone blowing out the candle. |
Even Conchita. |
The meal was fajita meat, homemade guacamole, salad, corn, chips (known as, yup: nachos), coke, pototaes, refried beans, etc. It was quite a spread. Here is a picture that Manuel painted for me. |
And where there are balloons there must be balloon fights! |
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Not really a part of my birthday, but the one picture I got at the airport the following moring. Here is McDonald's answer to the traditional Guatemalan breakfast: eggs, tortillas, beans, fried plantains (like bananas), and cream. Not bad, really. As always, I spoke in Spanish all the way to the airport with the driver. Then as soon as I get to the ticket counter the airline worker refused to speak in Spanish with me. This year, I relented almost immediately. There is no reason to fight the inevitable: even though I am still in Guatemala, I am now nothing but an English speaking Gringo. :( |
The End
