xelajú

quetzaltenango, aka xela (shay-la) is the 2nd biggest city in guatemala and used to be the capitol. we just arrived and haven´t really explored yet but it´s a pretty popular place. we had our first guatemalan chicken bus experience and it really wasn´t bad at all. chicken buses are old US school buses painted over and put to good use here. each bus only goes between two towns but picks up many passengers along the way. i´ve heard and seen buses being full to the brim but ours from san pedro to xela never had more than 20 passengers at a time. it was painted in bright colors and had sayings all over about jesus and cristo. there was cool red-orange-yellow pinstriping on the inside and it felt all pimped out. the ride was less than the 3 hours we were expecting so it was nice. the only bad thing was a man selling ceviche, which just smelled bad. well it kind of smelled like lomi salmon but stronger.

last night we ate dinner at a place called the buddha. it was a mix of asian, fusion and vegetarian food. there were a lot of curry options but i had to go with pad thai, of course! i got it with tofu and while it was a little different, it had a good flavor and kick. arna got phó with a side of rice because she was still feeling nauseous. there was actually a whole other part of san pedro that we hadn´t explored that i think a lot of gringos hang out by. we saw a gal we rode on a minibus with from flores to lanquin. she was staying at the same hotel as us. the 4th floor of the hotel was like most buildings in the area and used mostly for hanging clothes, but it had an awesome view of the lake so i sat up there quite a bit to relax.

it was nice to get here before noon because we got our room, got some money, ice cream (arna) and lunch (me). i had some kind of guatemalan chicken with mushroom dish. i´m not sure how to describe the taste but it was good, and there was a tiny salad of beets on a tortilla chip with onions, yummy! i also got a pineapple licuado drink, which is like a smoothie.

i write quite a bit about food but i´m trying to eat as much as i can. my spanish journaling is becoming easier and i don´t have to look up as many words. typing on these keyboards is hard because some buttons are in different places and there are other ones like the ñ. my spanish listening skills are getting better, the taxi driver was asking me if i was "japones" and said there were a lot here in xela. then he was pointing this way and tha and saying different things about restaurants and where they live. hmmm...i can seek out more good guatemalan japanese food. so far i haven´t been impressed with guatemalan food itself. i guess that´s why i´ve never come across a guatemalan restaurant before, it´s always mexican. mexican is so much more flavorful and has the picante (spicy) to it. i think we´re getting tacos tonight!

when you say "salsa" here it means sauce, so you have to ask for salsa picante if you want hot sauce. also, all the salsa so far has been smooth. it´s good to try all kinds of salsa! i´m used to the emerald valley organic salsa which is really chunky, which i love, but i´m getting used to the smooth. you really can´t go wrong with salsa! mmm...