Maria, the saleslady

---

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 to teach me how! Today we're still sick so we just planned on staying around our little Avenida, but decided we should go to the market today instead of trying to battle weekend crowds tomorrow. We didn't need much (toilet paper! We went through 2 rolls just with our runny noses already!) and some more postcards. If I ever find out how to mail these postcards, my nanny families are going to get a handful haha

We did meet up with a woman named Maria. Maria is Guatemalan and sells handmade scarves, table cloths, wall hangings, etc on the street. Her and her daughters make everything by hand, taking usually 4 weeks on a single project. This is actually the 3rd time we've met her and we told her many times, "Friday we will buy from you!" So today, Friday, she was right outside the school connected to our apartment building! She's a very nice woman, very willing to teach us words we don't know and talk slowly so we understand everything, but also very persistent. We bought what we want (after being shown everything at least twice) and are very happy with our purchases. I bought, for myself, a wall hanging. I'm including pictures. It's of a quetzal (the national bird of guatemala) and a peacock, and the colors are so gorgeous, I really just had to have it. Maria says she used "colores fuertes" or "strong colors" in this work. She told us on Tuesday she'll be outside working on a new piece and invited Roger and I to go watch her. As long as she doesn't talk us into buying anything, I think it'll be super fun. I'll ask her if I can take pictures with her then.

To help us get rid of our sickness, we went on a hunt for brandy. Unfortunately, we only found Whiskey. And that's really not unfortunate at all. A 750 of guatemalan whiskey is much cheaper than a bottle of red wine, so until we find a cheaper bottle of wine, we might be drinking a bit more whiskey than normal 😊 It's good for a sickness, right?

Well, we're going to try to venture out to see a band play at a local cafe tonight. They're called Plan Beta, and are described as Latin Blues. It'll be our first time out at night - I'm a tiny bit nervous, but mostly excited. This is our first Friday in Xela and looking out our windows, it's a busy night! There's people everywhere and we can hear a lot of different types of music being played (I can also hear a damn rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing every so often...)

Roger just served me dinner (rough life I have, I know 😉 ) SO I'll add those photos and then scarf down some homemade chicken soup--nothing better when you're sick!

Besos mis amigos!!



PS - I added pictures of some flowers I bought at the market-- the old school 7UP bottle is the only way we can buy pop down here; our calendar full of Jade pictures that our lovely (old) roommate Jason made us for Christmas this past year; the contents of our freezer (whiskey, ice cream, coffee and shrimp) which cracks me up, and the fridge for good measure.

---