A weekend

Where to start... Early yesterday morning we left Casasito and met our friend Ganzalo at a coffee shop. Gonzalo was an exchange student who stayed with my friends in Hood River a couple or few years ago. We started the day off with a beautiful drive from Antigua to the coastal region. Gonzo stopped and took us to a big water park/amusement park (we opted for the water). We spent a few hours doing all of the big slides there and then started back on our way through a bunch of villages I had read about in books before coming down here. He showed us the city where he goes to school (Xela, pronounced 'shayla') and then we proceeded on to his home town of San Pedro Sacatepequez in the San Marco province. It is not in the 'highlands' but it is at about 6000' elevation. He introduced us to his Mom (his dad is running a race this weekend), his sisters, aunt, grandma and grandpa. A very welcoming family served us food and water and then Gonzalo took us out to get Pupusas, an El Salvadorian dish which is essentially a delicious filling of meat and beans and other things fried inside of a big tortilla! Very yummy. We spent the night at his house which is right downtown San Pedro.

This morning we were fed a delicious traditional breakfast and then made our way back to Antigua. After about 3 hours of passing road-side stands selling things I realized that these goods must be cheaper than in Antigua, so I asked Gonzalo and he confirmed and so we stopped and had a little shopping spree up in the highlands in a beautiful little hillside market. An hour later we stopped in a little food paradise that resembled a logging camp in the old west (of the States). We were served a delicious and huge lunch with the traditionally made tortillas which I was stoked to have because as I was bummed to find out, the traditional tortillas are no longer the norm here due to the cheap price and labor-nonintensive corn flour available in stores. A couple more hours and here we are! Back in Antigua. Both Hilary and I agree it feels like we left Casasito some time last week, not yesterday morning. It is a peculiar feeling. Annndd... pictures!


Group photo


A little post-lunch teeter tottering



Some cute little girls at the road-side market