Guatemala City

Sore. Very sore. That´s how Fabi and I woke up today from yesterday´s Pacaya climb. The kind of sore where it hurts to walk up or down stairs. The kind of sore where your body hurts in places you never knew could hurt. Fabi kept saying even her organs hurt.

Needless to say, it was a good thing we decided to have today be an off day - a day to just stay home and chill and enjoy family time. And eat. A lot, I may add. Lydia, Max and Ivy hung out with Lydia´s family.

My cousins made pepián today, which is kind of a stew with pork meat and vegetables and rice, with the stew/broth part made up of a thick sauce made with spices and toasted ground bread and pumpkin seeds and what not. Paired with warm home-made tortillas, lunch today was “muy delicioso.”

Then came my cousin Ruth´s home-made ice-creams. Talk about heaven. Fabi tried the jocote ones (jocote is a seasonal fruit) and I had of course the peanut ones. Yes, I said peanut ice-cream. They taste just like Nutter-Butter cookies. Divine. Later that night, we had a Hawaiiana, which has shaved ice with chunks of pineapple and lemon and cinnamon and pepita (roasted and ground pumpkin seeds) and who knows what else she puts into them but we scarfed those down as well.

Fabi has been pleasantly surprised with the food and culture - she didn´t realize how different than Mexico things would be. She´s tried so many new and different flavors of food and she´s loved everything. I´m happy to have introduced her to something new!

And in between the relaxing and eating, we took a trip to the market and a trip to visit my Tia Lina (my grandmother´s sister - so that would make her my great aunt), who is almost 90 years old and still ticking and funny and perverted as ever. She had Fabi blushing at times with the stuff she would say. God bless her.

We really needed today to recoup from the non-stop action of the past few days, as we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow that involves zip-lining in the middle of the Guatemalan rain forest and climbing pyramids and temples in 90 degree plus weather. Tikal, here we come!

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