I hope you all had a happy holiday season. We don’t have connections here and Christmas is no big deal in China, so it was pretty low key for us. We don’t give each other presents, so there wasn’t even any shopping. It seems Christmas in Guatemala is just about right, not so commercial as in America. Guatemalans take the religious aspect very seriously, they do give presents, but mostly it’s a time to get together. It’s always nice to be away from the drumbeat of the buy buy buy you experience in America. The Christmas music isn’t so pervasive that you can’t enjoy it anymore.
The closest we came to getting into the swing of it was being around when Annie’s family came over to make tamales, which is traditional at Christmas. They mostly did their thing while we laid low around here, but we participated a bit.
These tamales aren’t the Mexican kind. The rice meal, instead of corn meal, is soft and they are wrapped in banana leaves. Here’s the pot of rice meal cooking over a fire out back.
These were made with a lot of love.
They were sure good, too.
We’re kind of on top of it financially now, so we’ve been out too nice places to eat a couple of times. It’s possible to spend a hundred dollars on fine dining here. We did just that, by candlelight by the fireplace one night.
There were religious and quasi-religious events everywhere during December. In one of the surrounding towns was this morality play in the plaza. The gist of it was we have temptations all around us, and we can find shelter in the presence of the Virgin Mary, whom we honor and defend.
There was also a feast day of some sort where they burned an effigy of the devil. Now, this soiree was basically an excuse to have a street party. It was sponsored by Gallo beer and was part religious and part Burning Man.
The food stalls are always good at these kinds of things, though. Not fine dining this time.
Our main activity is still walking around. Here is a farm near a town a few kilometers from Antigua. The lower peak on the left is a very active volcano which glows and puffs smoke regularly. I’ll try to capture it in a photo next time.
Here’s the pleasant central plaza.
People ask me what my New Year’s resolutions are. I can honestly say I don’t have any. I’m fine hanging around here for a while. Myung asked me, “Then, what about your bucket list?” I suppose it’s to see more places. I rattled off Bali, Iran, West Africa and Norway. It’s like I have this reputation for being a traveler. Well, I’m that, but I have lots of time, I hope. Meanwhile, this is comfy and I am enjoying this moment without needing the next big thing right now. Myung would just as soon be really settled, so she’s enjoying this while it lasts. She’s got a garden going, likes to cook a lot, likes the dog, likes shopping and walking often to the “same old places”. So, here we are, maybe resolved to just be where we are.
Until next time, be well, all of you.
