guatemalan food

so, guatemalans don´t like spicy food. ¿strange, right? it took a while to figure out, as i´m a total puss with spicy stuff, so i was ordering blander stuff, being careful. eventually we realized they dont like hot stuff. if it´s hot, it´s "mexican". and, there´s not a whole lot of traditional food, either. we found a few traditional curries, and that was mostly it. oh, and they mash black beans into paste. not much else. and, they seem to love fried chicken (convenient, i do too. not been on the cancer diet, but screw it, i´m on vacation). the closest thing we found to local specialties was pollo campero. basically kfc for central america. oh, yes, we tried it. super good.

we´ve been up in some cool traiditonal towns around lake atitlan the last four days and it´s been cool seeing all the locals dressed in traditional garb. we took some pics. basically really patterny stuff, and patterns one everything the ladies wear. some men, too. the scenery is super amazing (mtns surrounding blue water), and the weather nice and cool come the afternoon rains. it´s rainy season, so it pretty much rains every afternoon. sunny in the mornings, tho, and amazing to wake up to.

we kayaked over to san marcos la leguna yesterday and had lunch. was really fun, but i can barely lift my shoulders today. so sore. today we woke up and had a nice breafast on the shore, then hit a boat across to panajachel, the larger of the towns around the lake. we´ll hang here tonight, then shuttle it thru the mtns to antigua tomorrow for one last night there then to the port. bout to go set up our shuttles then have some tacos and a brew.

while i´m always bummed to have a trip wind ùp, i´m feeling like we really had a long time away. strangely, i´m not so sad to go home. kinda looking forward to my bed, my dogs, my other clothes. we got to see a lot here- beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, jungles, locals, ruins, animals and plants galore. it was truly a blast and super refreshing. i will now enter into my life again with a new found appreciation for the lovely things i have and sometimes take for granted.

oh, and before i ever come to a spanish speaking country again i´m taking an espanol class. i have managed over the years to pick some up, but screw not being able to talk to people. it´s for the birds. next time i will learn before i come.