El Mercado y otras cosas

So today is mother's day in Guatemala, and I don't know if i've mention it yet, but in general Guatemala is a firecracker lovin' country. I don't think we've been here one day that we haven't heard the erie crackle of "bombas" in the distance like gunfire, usually before 8am. I asked Carlos what that was all about soon after we got here and he told me it's a way of advertising a celebration. If your family has a birthday, or graduation, wedding, whatever (usually birthday), the family sets off fireworks so that neighbors know "oh hey, that's right, that Ramirez boy is turning 14, we should stop by with some chuchitos!" Welllll, mother's day is a little popular, so right at the moment of 5:30 AM, the entire town of Xela started setting off fireworks. And it continued for the next two hours or more. Some were so close that it set off the car alarm of Claudia's truck for a couple seconds.

By the way, speaking of car alarms, they're probably the worst invention to ever make it into this whole damn country. There is perpetually a car alarm going off somewhere, sometime. It never ends. The roads here were made for carraiges, so they're not exactly smooth, not to mention... maintained. Then add a 15 seater van full of 20 people, or a flat bed truck full of empty barrels or produce, or a Gallo truck full of beer, and sometimes our walls shake from the vibration of it. Not a good combination with a street full of car alarms. Sometimes even a really loud stereo will make that truck beep a few times. Sometimes that truck starts beeping while we've been driving for 20 minutes!

But yes. Bombas in the morning. and there are also these ridiculous vehicles that go through town that have loudspeakers on top of them. It's usually a Tigo Cell Phone-painted SUV or a Gallo truck, playing random music like a moving, dancing billboard. Other times, it's a dude driving a Peugeot, a lady in the passenger seat with a microphone yelling something about Jesus and the evangelical church. The evangelicals are so noisy! Carlos complains that the two churches near his house are always blasting music at 2am, and when the cops come to silence them because the community can't sleep, they make an uproar about discrimination against the Evangelical Church! Somewhere between that, Pat Robertson's involvement, and the fact that the leader of the evangelical church in Guatemala is one of the worst human right's offenders in Guatemala's recent history, kind of make me not like them so much.

Oh anyway, there were loudspeaker trucks all over this morning. Too bad I have no idea what they were saying.

There wasn't much going on in Parque Central, which is really close to the house, so we went to the Teatro Municipal, where I had heard there was a chocolate fair. The teatro is beautiful, with greek columns and carved doors and marble statues. I have pictures which I'll probably post tomorrow. In the sidewalks behind it were a couple tents, not a whole lot of stuff, with foods and whatnot. There was one tent with apparently samples from student chefs who made different gourmet meals with chocolate... we weren't allowed to taste. bah. There was also one lady with genuine, maya chocolate for hot cocoa. It's pretty good stuff, with cinnamon. I got a big bar of that for about $2. I think I might go boil some water for that right now. I also got a chocolate covered frozen banana. Definitely got pictures of that.

We came back for a bit of a seista (which is such a great idea. America should try it.) And left again because we needed some produce from the farmers market. I had my first experience buying things from the market yesterday, and was all ready to work on my spanish buying skills. Plus we've eaten nothing but meals made out of bread, eggs, or butter for daaaaaaays. No mas! Here are some things to blow your mind. First, we've had a really hard time finding spices. You can get salt and black pepper and lime, but we kind of miss rosemary and basil. Is it too much to ask? So yesterday when I was cooking with Carlos I needed basil and he found some in the market. I went back today for rosemary or whatever else looked good, and the hut that sells it is literally a religious and, well, spell store. It was full of candles and oils and weird catholic memorabilia, and then bundles full of herbs. Rosemary, basil, chamomile, etc. All fresh, still green, still damp. A giant bundle for 3 Q, or enough to cook for a month for 1. It was kind of strange to think that we were kind of eating holy rosemary for dinner. Also, we bought 1.5 lbs potatoes, 1.5 lbs onions, 1 lb tomatoes, and the biggest head of broccoli you've ever seen, for Q14.75! If you change that to dollars, oh yes, that's a whole 2 bucks. We got plantains (I LOVE fried plantains) and 3 avocados for about $1 together, as well as homemade, whole wheat bread at Xelapan for another almost $1, and headed back home. I'd say that's a pretty successful shopping trip. There's also this place near the market called Xelac that sells homemade dairy products. yesterday I got mozerella cheese and orange yogurt, and it might be the best yogurt I've ever eaten. I've tried to consider ways to smuggle it back to the States, but I figure if I can keep it from spoiling from that long, I couldn't keep it from exploding. So oh well, no yogurt to share with you guys.

So finally, for the first time in two weeks, Hugh and I ate a meal that involved fresh clean vegetables, herbs, a minimum of pasta... and no eggs at all.

By the way, I've heard at least 6 different fireworks explosions since i"ve started this post. All from different directions.

No saying what we'll do tomorrow. I'd like to take another trip to the market to investigate the tortilla situation. Every day at around 5:00 Janice (actually, her name is spelled Yanessi, so I have to remember that in the future) disappears after she changes out of her catholic uniform, and comes back 10 minutes later with a green transparent bag full of corn tortillas, almost like what you'd see for soft tacos in the states. Occasionally they have fried tortilla chips too.. So I'd like to solve that mystery, and maybe get some cilantro to make guacamole out of our new avocados. Oh figuring out the markets makes me feel so much better. My stomach seems to be feeling halfway normal too, which is nothing short of a blessing.