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categories: Fiestas, Travel
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So Rodalfo and his friend Christian invited me to go to Puerto San Jose this past  weekend.

Puerto is a small beach town.  Everybody seems to know eachother.  Christian took me around town on the back of his motorcycle and was waving to pretty much every other person…

There was alot of time spent on the beach (in the shade of course) and hanging around in Rodalfo’s family’s restaurant eating seafood.  We also drove around a four wheeler for a bit on the beach which was really fun.

And unfortunately I somehow lost mi sombrero chilero…

Beach

Beach

View from the Restaurant

View from the Restaurant

Fishing

Fishing

We spent Saturday at Christian’s family’s restaraunt drinking, eating, and listening to mariachi.  Mariachi is no joke here, people get really into it.  Rodalfo enjoys singing (/yelling) along to the music and shouting out to friends that drive by (usually making fun of them).

Saturday night we went to a discoteca in town.  There has been a marked improvement in my dance skills due to the constant need to practice on the weekends.  I got a shoutout from the DJ as being a “buen honda from las estados unidos”.  We stayed up late just talking and hanging out.

Christian and his family at their restaurant (Christian's cousin Erik wanted to be sure that the "Gallo" label on his beer was visible in this photo)

Christian and his family at their restaurant (Christian's cousin Erik wanted to be sure that the "Gallo" label on his beer was visible in this photo)

The weekend was great excercise for both my Spanish and my liver.  Sunday was spent drinking and hanging out in Christian’s restaurant with his family.  Since we all had slight hangovers, I was told that the best way to remedy the situation was to drink more beer (and we’re talking early… like 8:30am  …when in Rome…)  and to eat “levante el morio” (wake the dead).  Levante el morio is a soup with tomatoes, eggs, and other spices… famous for curing hangovers.

Oh and my Spanish is getting better.   Christian’s cousin had me *roughly* translate “November Rain” by Guns n’ Roses and various Bob Marely songs…

So on Wednesday I went on a field trip through the school.  It was to a neighboring pueblo named San Mateo.  We were visiting a very small elementry school that supported itself by demostrating how to make tortillas and other typical Guatemalan food to tourists. 

We met in the park near my house a little before 8:00 to wait for our ride.  We were going to take a camionete (bus), but in typical Guatemalan fashion, we ended up taking a peekop (pickup)

Everybody in (all 10 of you)

Everybody in (all 10 of you... seriously)

 The ride was great and ended up taking about a half an hour or so.  We ended up doing pretty well.  In all we had 10 people.  Luckily, the truck was an extended cab, so we were able to fit quite a few people inside.   We weren´t so lucky on the way back and had to cram 12 people (including 2 local farmers).

When we got there we went on a hike around the town.  The landscape was beautiful.

San Mateo

San Mateo

Local construction

Local construction

Wind

Wind

Carrying water.  This is a daily climb of probably .5 miles each way

Carrying water. This is a daily climb of probably .5 miles (each way)

The niña with the Spongebob Squarepants backpack has spanish that is far superior than my own

I quickly came to the conclusion that the niña with the Spongebob Squarepants backpack has spanish that is far superior (in comparison to my own)

 After hiking it was time to eat…

Grinding the corn for the tortillas

Grinding the corn for the tortillas

Rolling the dough

Rolling the dough

Yes

Yes

Pipian, pollo, arroz, y tortilla

Pipian, pollo, arroz, y tortilla

category: Uncategorized
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So the other night I met up with Rodalfo´s friend Carlos.  He was with 2 guys from France who have been couch-surfing across Central America for 3 months.   They had been staying with him for a few days and he wanted to show them Antigua. 

We basically just hung out at their hostel and spoke bastardized Spanish (everybody except Carlos).   Spanish was the only language that all 4 of us knew.  The other two could speak pretty well, but it was a bit hard to understand since they were speaking with a serious accent.  We ate jail food (pasta, stale cookies, and artificial fruit punch).

The two French kids (whose names I don´t remember) started talking about a recently invented language called Esperanto.  According to them, it is supposed to be the up and coming international language since it so easy to learn by design.  Carlos then started talking about a “language” that he called “pirate language” which is basically like the pig-latin of spanish except it´s more complex.   He could speak it perfectly… and it sounds crazy. 

Jail food and artificial fruit punch

Jail food and artificial fruit punch

categories: Blog Maintenance, Family Life
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I´m gonna have to think about making a page specifically for “family life”

So I went back to Guatemala City for the weekend. Marti and Carlos took me to market.

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Its for the pineapples (the knife)

Its for the pineapples (the knife)

Marti in the process of haggling

Marti in the process of haggling

An inevitably successful negotiation. Marti is no slouch when it comes to beating down the price.

An inevitably successful negotiation. Marti is no slouch when it comes to beating down the price.

Check the “Photos de Antigua” page for more market photos… (even though the market was in Guatemala city)