It’s lunch time and today I chose not to go back to my house for lunch (after telling my house mum Maria this morning) but to stay near the school for lunch. With the exception of the abundance of flies that are buzzing around, I am in the pleasant garden of a local restaurant. Today I chose Azteca Soup with tortillas, very yummy.
It is a type of spicy tomato soup with cottage cheese and tortillas on the side. It was to have advocado but as I don’t like it, I had them put a hold on that.
This moning in class we worked a little on the subjunctive, then read another comprehension for discussion. After break Clarita and I walked in to the town as I wanted to go to the market. To be honest, there wasn’t much of a difference between the market from the other days although Wedneday is supposed to be a little bigger. It was nice to have Clarita with me. We took a walk in to her church, the white one that I posted a picture of yesterday (I think). She is Catholic, although by her own admission doesn’t go very often. Her husband is Evangelist. He goes every day. This does not cause a problem and they respect each others beliefs and religions.
As we were walking, Clarita explained that there is a significance to the colours worn by the local women. The colour for San Pedro La Laguna is white. While every village has a colour, they all wear a multitude of colours. She had also told me yesterday the local buses, the “chicken buses” all have a colour that relates to the person that owns the buses. The local buses are privately owned and run. So, in Santiago Atitlan where the buses are all red, means that those specific ones are owned by the same person. They decorate them so extravagantly as it shows their status so to speak.
I’m not sure that the following photos reflect much different from yesterday but here are a few anyways;
Coffee drying
Coffee that has been drying in the sun
As we walked we came across a store that grinds the maize for the local women. As we were there, two very friendly local ladies came by. One explained that they used to have to grind the maize by hand but now their are machines (of sorts) to do this.
The maize start out like this:
Then is put in to the top of the machine; a little water is added and the customer collects their mazza de maize (the ground maise) from underneath. It’s cost about 1 quetzals for this bowl (about 15 cents).
We also stopped in at the post office to visit with her husband. We chatted a bit and I understand a little more the “live and let live” attitude here. The tourists bring a lot of good to the economy here in SPLL and as Clarita’s husband explained, without them, their economy would not be suffering. The main industry here used to be agriculture but now is definitely tourism.
I left Clarita at her house and wondered around a little before lunch. I have class again in a little under an hour. Tonight the school is offering salsa class, not my thing, but still a great option for many. Tomorrow night there is a conference on the Mayan culture which I shall go to. The school provides a different activity each evening with the exception of Friday when we have an afternoon excursion. I have chatted to several students at the school, mainly from USA, Canada and England. The only one negative I have to say about the school is that they permit English to be spoken during break. I get that for some students they need the break but I prefer the Guacamaya way who try to ensure that you only speak in Spanish during class time. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I have the most advanced Spanish here. Most are beginners so the few times I have tried to speak in Spanish we have had to revert to English. Oh well….with six hours a day with Clarita , it doesn’t make much difference.
Not much else to add. Hasta Tarde!
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