Pausing Here and There

Hola todos! Soooo much has happened in the past week that I´m beginning to loose track of it all. Let´s see: On Tuesday night Trika and I made dinner for our group of friends and had quite the exciting adventure in La Democracia, the big market. We made a giant stirfry with beet greens and there was delicious canteloupe for desert. At the same time I was creating a chile quile cassy for lunch club on Wed. Wednesday, Sharon, my housemate, had her birthday and so I was able to partake of the DELICIOUS food she and her friend and other housemate, Molly made. There was gypsy soup a la moosewood cookbook, veggie potpie, salad, homemade challa with real butter, and cheesecake for desert. If you think that I couldn´t possibly be having any more adventures with food you are wrong…for on Thursday I made potato soup and sold it to El Cuartito for 50Q. I promptly spent it that night at Blue Angel on a chicken burito. Score. The eating and cooking did not slow for on Friday, Sarah, Darcy and I got on a bus, ate some tortilla, queso fresco, avocado sandwhiches, and sang our way to San Marcos. The bus ride took forever and ever and ever because of road construction, but we were blessed with some beautiful views, and also, with ingenuity. Sarah told us the riddle of the albatross and the canibal which amused us for at least half an hour. We then commenced creating new song lyrics to songs we already knew about the chicken bus, about how hungry we were, how squashed we were, how my left butt cheek was fully asleep. Darcy wins the prize for the most inspired:”In the chicken bus, the bumpy chicken bus the Mayans sleep tonight” and indeed, there was a Mayan women next to him, sleeping on him.

When we arrived at San Marcos Sarah and I were terrified that Darcy was going to eat us because he took us on a dark and windy path to a hotel he knew. Imagine the movie the labyrinth with all the crazy bushes growing everywhere, stone paths, no light, and a hungry anthropologist from new zealand who says he knows a place. But, when we finally did arrive it was not in vain, because we stayed in THE MOST BEAUTIFUL hotel ever ever. Everything was crafted from recycled glass and wood and holy shite was it increible. We spent way too much money on a delicious dinner that included wild rice and chard and olives and red rum. We spent way too much on the hotel that included the best shower I´ve taken in Guatemala and the most comfortable bed I´ve slept in here and spiders. The view was not bad either (actually I am being 100 percent sarcastic, the view was absolutely incredible and I couldn´t feast my eyes, or belly, enough). We ate a lot more (including organic fresh roasted coffee, delicious lago chocolate, and the best tofu burito ever), napped a lot, lay in the sun, chatted, repeated and on Sunday afternoon took a terrifying boat ride to Panajachel and then a bus back to Xela. On the bus back to Xela, which only took 2.5 hours instead of 5, we heard a song that told us that Jesus is more of a verb than a noun: Jesus es mas de un verbo de un sustantivo. Es la verdad, no? Also, apparently, there was an earthquake yesterday…but I didn´t feel it. I completed the week of eating by eating a cheese papusa from the market. Who knows if this need for food will continue or if it will wane, but regardless I am enjoying it!

In other news, I quit the volunteer gig (tant pis), finally have some hours working at the cafe, finally talked on the phone for the first time in 5 weeks, and am making exciting travel plans life plans world plans. Yay plans. Love to all.