7/13/08 - Weekend in Xela (double post)

7/12/08

To date, Kalya and I have only spent one weekend in Xela, and it was our first weekend (and it was during a tropical storm). We decided to spend this weekend enjoying the parts of Xela we had never had the chance to enjoy.

Saturday morning we headed to Almolonga, Cantel, and Zunil, three pueblitos within five or six miles of Xela. We started with a visit to this crazy glass factory named Copavic, which is apparantly world famous for hand-blown glass made from recycled materials. I spent the better part of an hour watching the workers blow glass, which was pretty incredible. The best part was that there were absolutely no barriers separating you from the workers. I was able to follow a piece of glass from furnace to finished glass ball, talking to the workers along the way. It was really cool.

Zunil proved to be fairly borning, but we had a really good time in Almolonga, which is home to a weekly market where amazingly oversized produce is sold in massive quantities. I'm talking about carrots as fat as my head. It was really amazing.

I spent the afternoon wandering around Xela soaking up the weekend atmostphere. It was nice to finally spend a weekend here, because everyone is really relaxed and enjoying themselves. I saw an electronics store that was giving away a flat-screen TV, an older man selling vitamins that could do everything from cure epilepsy to get rid of wrinkles on your face, and thousands upon thousands of avocados for sale. Good day.

We had quite an exciting night out with friends, which included wine and cheese at Bajo La Luna and liters of home-brewed beer from Fernando's bar. Another perk to staying in Xela for the weekend is getting to go out with your friends at night.

7/13/08

I woke up at 7:00am with one goal in mind - a trip to Momostenango to buy one of their legendary wool blankets from the Sunday market. The trip proved to be difficult, however, because I had promised to meet my Spanish teacher for ceviche at 12:30. Momostenango is about an hour and a half away from Xela by bus, but when all was said and done, I met Fernando and the group for lunch right on time.

It was really great to hit another market before heading home. Momostenango is very, very not touristy (I saw four gringos all day), and that makes for a fairly overwhelming market experience. Everything you can imagine is for sale - stock pots, corn on the cob, pigs, tipica, goats, chickens, dried chili peppers, spoons, and everything in between. I was on a misson for a blanket, though, which proved to be quite a challenge.

There were hundreds of blankets for sale, but most were very overpriced and decorated with hideous designs, like eagles and llamas (together in one blanket). It took most of an hour to find a reasonable vendor who had decent blankets. But I ended up snagging a queen-size handmade wool blanket in green-and-white plaid for $13.00. Pretty sweet. The first guy I asked about a blanket told me the price in dollars, in English. I was terrified. The price, by the way, was $50.00.

I rushed back to Xela to meet Fernando and several friends for ceviche at La Famosa 23, possibly Xela's best cevicheria. Little did I know that ceviche is a Sunday afternoon tradition, and is always accompanied with copious amounts of beer. So I've chalked the afternoon up to a true cultural experience - and in truth I ended up speaking Spanish with a group of Guatemalans for 4.5 hours over several litros de Cabro.

Tonight we're having Kenyan food courtesy of Alex, then heading out to play foosball at a bar called "pool and beer," another Xela tradition. We'll see how it goes...