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Published: November 8th 2013
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Villa Esthela
The hostel we stayed at (at the end of this alley) Last Thursday was Halloween! In Xela it's really not celebrated and the local's seem to view it as a Devil's holiday of sorts. There are bars that cater to students and offer a free shot or something if dressed up. Roger and I ended up going out last minute the night before to meet up with some friends. We obviously didn't bring costumes with us so we had to improvise. We ran to a secondhand store, a
paca, and found a red and white striped winter hat.... obviously that would be a perfect Waldo costume. Roger claimed it and bought a white shirt to go with it that he later colored with red stripes (via red Sharpie). We made some cardboard cat ears at home and I attached them to a headband, dressed all in black and drew some whiskers on my face (yay eyeliner!) and presto! 2 very cheap, very quick homemade costumes.
The next morning (Halloween), we actually were on our way to Antigua, a town about 4 hours away from Xela. It's a very touristy town - a lot of retirees from Europe and the U.S. live there. We knew that going into this trip; we did
not realize that would mean that everyone would speak English! We were in Antigua for 6 days and I don't think we spoke Spanish at all!
When we first got to Antigua we were asking people for directions to our hostel. NO ONE had any idea where it was and the few times we did get directions, they ended up being totally incorrect. AND multiple times people came up to us asking if we "smoke good weed" because they wanted to sell to us! That was a first for us down here haha We pretty much just said "No... we need directions. No weed. Directions." Our first day in Antigua we were pretty tired from going out the night before and waking up early for the buses. It was Halloween though so we wanted to go out and wear our costumes (we totally brought them with us to Antigua). We ended up meeting 2 girls from Minneapolis in our hostel before we for sure decided to go out. We talked for awhile and they mentioned wanting to go to a costume party but not having costumes - so... Minnesota Nice and all... we gave them ours. It helped us
because we really were too tired to go out but we didn't want our costumes to go to waste! Win-win! We actually met up with the girls the next morning to go to a Kite Festival in a nearby town with them.
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is the day after Halloween (Nov. 1st and 2nd). It's a day where people typically decorate their family tombs, cemeteries, etc, and leave out gits for the spirits of their loved ones. We learned that the first day is for spirits of children and the second day is for spirits of adults. The kite festival is a way to welcome spirits back to Earth, apparently. It's so they know where to go and know that they are welcome. Anyways - the festival we went to had kites the size of houses! They were insanely huge. It was a stadium type area and in the middle would be people flying their kites while all the spectators cheer and clap. It was a really energizing crowd and actually a lot of fun to watch. I felt like a little kid, just staring up at all these kites and smiling! In the
cemetery, little kids jump all over the tombs to get their kites in the air. I hope the pictures do it justice! Unfortunately, there was pretty much NO wind, so none of the kites were exactly successful. It was still a fun time though. We ate a bit of street food too. One thing we got is called
elote loco, or crazy corn-on-the-cob. It's basically a cob of corn covered in mayo, ketchup, mustard, spicy sauce, and a crumbly cheese. It sounds horrible, and it really didn't look that good but it was SO tasty! I might or might not be drooling a bit thinking about it.
When we got back to Antigua we decided to go out and get some Fiambre, which we're told, is a dish only made for dia de los muertos. The Fiambre we got was crazy expensive, but also crazy good. It's basically a mix of meats (steak, chicken, sausages) and veggies (beets, lima beans, brussel sprouts, peas, potatoes, asparagus, etc) in a lemony type thin sauce. It's basically impossible to describe, but we ate every little bit. We're actually hoping we can find a good recipe so we can perfect it down here
Cemetery
So many people! and make it back home for everyone!
The next day we went out to get Shawarma- a gyro/greek/arab type of burrito almost. I used to eat them in Spain and LOVED them so when I saw a place that sold them, we went as soon as they opened. The guy who ran the place was originally from Holland. He was a bit... eccentric, one might say. He started off by pouring himself a beer and asking if we wanted to try it (we obviously did), and later on casually mentioned that he was kicked out of Venezuela...THE COUNTRY... 14 years ago... he basically said it wasn't his fault, but we never learned what he did that got him kicked out of an entire country. A man from Estonia came in wanting to play chess and Roger's ears perked right up. For an HOUR I sat there while Roger and weird guy from Estonia played chess. Oh wait - why was the guy from Estonia weird, you ask? He swears that drinking Moza beer while pregnant will improve lactation. AND TOLD US ALL ABOUT IT. While in front of guatemalan women who were drinking Moza beer. And then proceeded to
talk about how big boobs get while full of milk. It was strange.
Luckily Roger beat him!! I may or may not have cheered out loud when I heard Rog say "Checkmate!" 😊 (The Shawarma was good, btw, but not as good as the ones in Spain.) We walked all around the town for the rest of the day, enjoying the beauty in Antigua that we don't get to see as much in Xela. There's a lot more nature and green all around in Antigua.
OK- this is getting long enough. I'll throw in some pictures and finish up our Antigua trip tomorrow! Just 2 more days to talk about (one of which is the whole reason we went to Antigua!)
Besos mis amigos!!
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love it!!!!!!!!