Blogs from Quetzaltenango, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Advertisement


We have cable down here, and we've been picking up a lot of baseball games from the US, so we have very high hopes we can watch the Vikings v Steelers game today! I, personally, have very high hopes that I can just stay in and relax all day :) I want a lazy day! Especially after yesterday-- Roger dragged me to 5! different music stores so he could buy a bass guitar. Okay - drag is a bit of an over exaggeration...I even encouraged him to keep looking until he found the bass he really loved but still! I did not think it would be an all-afternoon excursion. We went to the big market again too, just to pick up a few ingredients for Ceviche. We bought fresh shrimp and spent awhile ripping off heads ... read more
Failed Ceviche
Clouds over Mtns


Yesterday, despite both of us battling some type of head cold, we ventured out to a different market. It's the biggest one around, and there are a TON of stuff. It's seriously blocks and blocks of vendors selling clothes, make ups, soaps, shoes, underwear, everything material. Then, inside, it's a congested maze of fruits, veggies, meats, rices, grains, all types of food items. We bought some basics and then also went a little crazy and bought fresh shrimp. The plan is to try and make ceviche tomorrow. Obviously pictures will go up if it's successful :) The only other time I've had ceviche is in Costa Rica, so to me it's very much a Central America thing. Roger says his mom makes a really good one, so when we get back, I'll have to ask her ... read more
Front of Peacock
Back of Peacock
Wall Hanging Front


Nothing too exciting has been happening over here. Just a lot of walking around and discovering new little things about our new home. We've been trying to get to the market as much as possible, so we can become acquainted with all the things they sell there. We bought a whole bunch of groceries yesterday and made a dish native to Guatemala (Xela, to be even more specific) called Jocon (there should be an accent over the second O, but I don't know how to type that). I'll upload some pictures of us making it. It's basically shredded chicken in a green sauce (cilantro, jalapenos, scallions, and tomatillos make the sauce green) some rice. It was super good - we both loved it. We stayed away from the market today and explored the area right around ... read more
Gato
Walking into the apt
View from right inside our door


We've been slowly trying to get the lay of the land, so we ventured out to the market today. First we had to take money out of an ATM... that took forever. Turns out, we don't know how to ask where an ATM is, and even if we did manage to ask someone correctly, we can't understand the directions we gave them. I think it was the 5th or 6th bank guard we asked before we finally each understood each other enough to get Rog and I to the nearest working ATM. *Sidenote: all banks around here have armed guards standing outside, and inside the doors. One bank, we had to go through a metal detector as well.* We each took out 1,000 Quetzales, which sounds like a lot, but really is only about $130. And ... read more
IMG_4921


WE MADE IT :) We left Minneapolis around 7pm Saturday and by 8 pmish Sunday (tonight) we were finally here. Our travels started off ridiculous. In all our superb planning, Rog and I never thought to double check the departure time for our first flight (MSP to Dallas/Fort Worth). We thought it left at 7:40, so we got to the airport right around 6 pm (btw, we had to pay $100 to check our bags, boooo). Turns out it was supposed to leave at 5:40 and really, we got crazy lucky that it was very delayed. Yikes. We land in Dallas around 9 or 10 and the airports like shut down. We were planning on staying there but realized that probably wasn't going to happen. Then we started thinking that maybe our luggage didn't go all ... read more


THE CITY If you aren't planning on studying Spanish or doing a trek in the highlands, I suppose Xela (Quetzaltenango's nickname, pronounced "Shayla") is a place you could skip. But I loved it there. There aren't many tourists aside from a few backpackers, and the city is unassuming and the people more or less ignore an outsider's existence (no touting, hassles, high prices, etc.). It's safe, pretty clean, and relatively quiet around the perimeter -- essentially the opposite of Guatemala City, which I avoided at all costs. The expat scene is sociable and the atmosphere in the nicer restaurants, bars, and clubs is lively and genuine. ACTIVITIES IN THE AREA I did two treks here through Quetzaltrekkers: a three-day walk from Xela to Lago Atitlan, and a six-day ... read more
Catedral
Mi Maestra
con Dona Esperanza y su nieta


We came to Xela (officially Quetzaltenango - pronounced Ket-zal-ten-an-go) primarily to have Spanish lessons and do some volunteer work. It's a small town (a city) in the Highlands of Guatemala (2300m elevation) and is reknowned for it's language schools and temperate climate. So this was to be our home for 5 weeks and the school started at 8am. It was wierd being back at school, meeting new people, having a routine and generally trying to avoid detention. I really enjoyed the classes and found that from the first week that I was able to have conversations with the locals. I'd acquired a rather large lexicon over the previous 6 months, but actually being able to form a coherent stream of words was not so easy and by the end I was able to have full conversations ... read more
Lakes and Volcanoes
If Heaven...
Coffee...Lava


I rose at 4.30am on Viernes Santo to see the 5am Viacruces. I was almost in doubt as to whether it would happen, as my leaflet of cultural events has proved ridiculously unreliable, but as I advanced towards the Parque Central gradually more and more people appeared. When this was just one person walking behind me in the dark, it was slightly disconcerting, but by the time I reached the Iglesia there were around fifty people there, some adding the finishing touches to the flower displays on the alfombras, some lighting candles off each other. I was expecting to observe the procession heading off down 4a Calle and the return to bed, but I found myself absorbed into one of the files of walkers in the procession. I was even asked to take a turn in ... read more


Easter (or Semana Santa) is no small thing here and this week has been a lively one. After various events for Cuarismo (Lent), the Semana Santa celebrations began last Thursday with a small children's parade which I saw in passing in the Parque Central. Things got more lively on Thursday with the Huelga de Dolores. This 115-year-old event is organised by the politically minded students at San Carlos, Guatemala's public university, which has an arm in Quetzaltenango. During the many years of conflict, the students adopted full body masks to avoid repercussions (though the death toll on university students was still high), although now in Xela at least things are taken less seriously. However, the politics was not completely forgotten, as they were dancing and skipping around floats bearing megaphones and posters with many slogans, such ... read more


One of the activities at my Spanish scool (El Mundo en EspaƱol) is chocolate making in the traditional Guatemalan style, run by Cyndi who has her own small chocolate company. But Guatemalan chocolate is very different to what you buy in bars in England, and has only two ingredients. So here's how to make your genuine Guatemalan chocolate: 1. Sort the whole cocoa beans by size and toast them on tortilla griddles until they are dark in colour and making occasional crackly noises. 2. Cocoa beans are about the size of a Brazil nut and encased in a papery brown skin. When the beans have cooled a little, this skin can be crumbled off, leaving behind the bean, which is internally divided into irregular nibs which come apart with a little pressure. 3. Drop the dry ... read more




Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 5; qc: 78; dbt: 0.0565s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb