No one is reading this blog, but I won't stop!

You know what was good, War and Peace and you know what's better? THIS BLOG Jerk-wad. Despite the reality that I am now writing to no one I will...Not...Stop! Why? I am very bored and find this entertaining (up to a point) More entertaining...?

(Dancing with Cats.)

In other news I will be spending the summer in Kansas City, KA which combined with Kansas City, MO is damn famous for BBQ, particularly beef brisket, don't know for sure I will have time to sample that or Stroud's famous fried chicken.

In recent developments I went to the Purple Pig in Chicago the other night with my Aunt who is a big fan, it was my second visit with her. It is a very good small plates restaurant, basically Mediterranean tapas. Everything here is simple and good and while not cheap  it is far from expensive especially given its Magnificent Mile location.  We had some really nice vegetable salads including fava beans with hard boiled egg and fried prosciutto. (I discovered in Guatemala fava beans are essentially the greatest food ever, wonderful earthy complicated flavor all on its lonesome) But a dish that really caught my attention that evening was an eggplant tapanada, chunks of marinated roasted eggplant with green olives, capers, and probably some other stuff in a vinaigrette served on toast pre spread with goat cheese. The contrast between the rich cheese and the acidity of the eggplant was not only really delicious but also really interesting.

Back in The USA!!!!

Back in the USA, Sing it now, back in the USA. MMM I can smell the apple pie. I can hear the band now.

So I've been back a couple weeks and update this blog occasionally if anyone still cares. Events that could provoke me blogging:

1. Eating BBQ

2. Getting Bored.

3. Eating something delicous

4. A Narcasistic apreciation for my own Cooking.

5. A Camera (B-day is July 15th)

6. Somehting exciting happens.

With this in mind you should know we stopped down at Dreamland BBQ in Alabama. It was quite an adventure. Dreamland is an Alabama instituition with several locations through out the state. We meant to stop in Montgemory but I had bad directions so we ended up having lunch at 3:30pm in the Birmingham location. This was fitting as it is the location I have visited on many rides through the state with my father and brother.

Now many, including my father belive dreamland has the best ribs (period). This was my first visit since Memphis which in retrospect lives up to its reputation as a serious BBQ meca. (time will tell if it is the best, I'm heading to Kansas City this summer). So the verdict:

As easily as people claim one rib is the best or pork but or whatever, I find it is often difficult to compare BBQ. The key to any good dish of any kind is a balance between diffrent flavors that leave the eater with a complex and satisifing experience, yet what those flavors or textures may be can be widely diffrent. For example what I loved so much about cozy Corner in memphis was the balance between the crispy texture, rich smoke flavor, the sauce, and then the subtle natural flavor of the pork itself. While I can say I prefer Cozy Corner, Dreamland has some great qualities that have a distinctly diffrent character.

Like I said Smoke, texture and spice were the Kings in Memphis, the main characters at Dreamland was the pig and the sauce. While not the best, these were the meatiest both in quantity anbd flavor of any rib. In Guatemala I noticed how much more flavorful pork was (though the beef was gross) and lamented the widely discussed blandness of American pork. These ribs were an exception they had a lot of that mellow bacony porkyness that is often overpowered by smoke in BBQ. At the same time smoke was definetly on the back burner for these ribs, the flavor was present but always in the background.

Now the Sauce at Dreamland is a perfect sauce for me. it's spicy, and by that I mean it has a bite, it's thin which I always prefer, tomato paste and corn syrup can go fu*k themselves when it comes to BBQ. The combo of the spicy thin sauce with the heavy meaty ribs defenitly elevates Dreamland beyond any average joint and surly has contributed to it's fame.

Though for the record I believe Hogly Wogly in St. petersburg is just as good despite not being famous.

P.P.S. Dreamland didn't used to have sides, just meat and potato chips. They should probably go back to this formula, the slaw was good but the mac n cheese was distinctly velveetaish.

Wrap it up

We have been realxing liberally this past week back in San Pedro on Lago de Atilan which is still quite nice.

I have found San Pedro is an excellent place to get coffee which grows in the streets and all over the mountains. In the tourist establishments one can even find a good french press.

We also noticed a lot more men whereing traditional dress which is not common here and fairly nonexisitent most places.  The exception being Solola the capital of the department surrounding the lake. We visited the friday market in Solola where men where colorful red embroidered pants and insanely colored and woven cowboy jackets.

We also ate this fruit at the market. I do not know what it is called. it contains slimey sweet seeds that togther look like human brains. Tastes kind of like pomegranite but less tart.








Hell yes I am a cowboy, just do not tell my buttocks which were feeling the pain after a pleasent jaunt in the country.












We have also been sleeping alot because we are kind of bored and drinking a lot of licuados, smoothies, because they are delicous. Also I got stung by a bee on my face and I look like I got into a fight, which i did with a bee.

The Verapazes

The Verapazes are in the center of Guatemala and feature some of the greenest mountains I have ever seen. They are paticularly striking as you aproach them from the flat lowlands of Petan.

We fist headed to Semuc Champey, one of Guatemala{s most discussed tourist atracktions. We stayed in a annoying hostel but that was ok because it was just a few meters from the secluded Semuc Champey. Semuc is a series of crystal clear pools formed by a river that apear perfectly turqoise because they are in lime stone. After an afternoon of relaxing we headed to the major city of the area, Coban.

Coban is not a major tourist atraction but we found it perfectly charming. At night there is a choice of about 10 vendors who all serve chrassco, grilled meat. There is a veryn interesting church here above the city where in the typical maya catholic fashion people perform ceramonies at alters outside the church.

In Coban we also visited a  Coffee Finca owned by the Diseldorff family. I did not ask how the Diseldorff family avoided  the expulsion of Germans from Guatemala during World War II.  Turns out raw coffee beans are quite sweet, who knew.

And ofcourse no trip anywhere would not be complete without the CIRCUS! The trapeeze artist is also the tick taker, and the rope dance sells churros. The circus was great fun with tigers and horses and xenophobic clowns. The place probably seats 500 and there were about 15 people there, giving the evening a certain David Lynch feeling.

We also saw this in Coban

Tikal, el corazon del mundo maya

Yes Tikal is that awesome, and our guide said they filmed than one scene in star wars here.

Livingston

 

 Leaving Honduras we amazingle made it all the way to Livingston in Guatemala in one day. Livingston is one of only two towns on Guatemala small Caribean coast. It is only reachable by boat, which is awesome, and is home to the only black commuity, the Garifuina, in the country.  It is not paradise but the scruffy town full of people willing to sell you most anything has a certain charm. Also, I drank out of a cocanut there. I also fell in love with the local Garifuina specialty tepado:

 

Tepado is a soup with a soup with a whole grilled fish, shrimp, and maybe crab and maybe conch, and definetly sweet and savory plantains in a cocanut milk broth. It´s excersise to finish a gigantic bowl and is more beautiful than the white sand beaches Livingston does not have.

Leaving livingston we took a jungle cruise down the rio dulce where we saw tons of birds and generally had a good time.

On to Tikal...

Copan and the Bay Islands

Ok this is the final post in my lightning real catch up round.

Following Antigua we crossed the border into Honnduras. We were waiting to meet our friend, Kiyomi from Xela who is joining us on part of our trip. It turns out the town of Copan Ruianas is not the best place to wait as we were with out power for a day and a half and the market was rather pathetic and the laundry more exspensive than NYC drop off service. However we stayed at a very clean hostel and when we finally got going we had a great time at the ruins.

The ruins at Copan are home to the best preserved examples of carving from the Maya classic period, Most engravings at the site were from 700c.e. to 800c.e.

On from Copan we spent a night in la Ceiba, a town on the northern coast of Honduras, which we barely saw before getting on a boat to Utila in the Bay Islands off the coast. Only reachable by boat or plane the Bay Islands are three Islands amid the second largest barrier reef in the world. Despite planning on only snorkling we immediatly became tempted by the ubiquitous diving oppurtunities on the island. Enchanted by the opputunity I was ready to sign up when I discovered following a questioaire and quick trip to Dr. John the half shirted doctor that I am not fit for diving due to possible excercise induced asthma. So that sucked a lot but I have had a lovely time snorkling and exploring this strange place where caribbean english is the prevelent language, As you can see it is not the worst place to be stuck with little to do.

Tomorrow we move on, returning to Guatemala and soon I will treat you to salavating descriptions of Tikal the grandest mayan ruins, and some other places. Only little more than two weeks left but there is still plenty more I am excited to see.

Also as I am reminded of the brevity of my time here, I just want everyone to know I am read and able for any spring-summer employment. ANY...

Semana Santa in Antigua

Semana Santa, Holy Week, is the week of easter, starting on Palma Sunday and ending on Easter. In Guatemala the main event is Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. The main events of the week our large processions. Diffrent Chuches in and around Antigua organize the processions where hundreds of men and woman carry floats depicting Jesus and Mary. The processions last 8 to ten hours and people switch off carring the floats which weigh several tons. On firday morning, like 2am to 4am roman soliders parade the town and the first procession starts at 4am. For the goof friday processions and after people make elaborate carpets of colored saw dust, pines, flowers, and sometimes household objects which are promptly destroyed by the procession. Holy Week is a major tourist event for Antigua, a tourist city, and by friday the streets were packed. It was quite fun and something special to see, but I have to admit after the 4th procession I was ready for something new.

More spectacular is the fact that I ran into my supervising attorney from my days as a paralegal just a few doors down from my hostel. 

Many travellers I have met have a low opinion of Antigua because it is very touristy and its colonial facades lack the scruffy authenticness of some other towns. I can not share their sentiment. It may be a little bit make belive but it is a very relaxing place to pass a couple of days. And as inauthentic as some aspects of the city may be other places share and celebrate the feelings and culture that make Guatemala a wonderful place to visit. The market in Antigua is my favorite. The prices are anything but touristy, and it is massive for the size of the city.

Ok, On to Honduras...

Nebaj

So moving on from Xela Molly and I spend the better part of a week in Nebaj. Nebaj is a small city in the tallest mountain range in Guatemala and an excellent place to do some hikes. It is also the part of the country that experienced some of the worst violence in the civil war. We did a day trip and then a two day hike. The two day hike was amazing, we seemed to pass through several micrp climates as the mountains changed from dusty to pines to tropical to bamboo forests and on and on. We were guided by Nicholas a quiet man who enjoys sleeping quite a bit. We also stopped for some amazing bread from a brick oven that would put camp tavor to shame. We also spent the night in the guest house of a really creepy family who threw a bean at Molly and stared at us way too much, but we still managed to have an amazing time.

In Nebaj we enjoyed the fantastic licuados, fruit drinks, at the local tourist cafe and got some amazing textiles. We also met the woman who is on the first page of the rough guide, she also says she did not know she was going to be in the book, she also sold us some awesome stuff. 

We also tried boxboles (pronounced boshboweles) a specialty of the Ixil region, the samll area including nebaj where the Izil is spoken. Bozboles are leaves of wiskil or i think achote is mexico, a starch gourd, wrapped around tamale filling and topped with peanut sauce and hot sauce. they were ok, the leaves have a hint of artichoke taste, and the sauce is nice. I think the at home version might be a bit better than our plate was. 

From Nebaj we stopped in the tourist market town of Chichicastenango for a night before making our way to Antigua for its famed Semana Santa celebration.

More on Xela

I must start this post with a discussion of the most important instituition in Xela, XelaPan. Xela Pan is a chain bakery that sells super awesome baked goods at top rate prices. The preferred bakery of the spanish school set is the bake shop, a menonite owned place open only twice a week, but fyi the bake shop sucks and xelapan is super awesome.  we had many great things usualy involving bread or pastery stuffed with pudding, and the tres leches cake is quite good, but the all time best xelapan is pictured above. the bottem is kind of like a cookie but kind of like pie crust, the top is simple milk chocalye and the filling is real whip cream and a touch of pudding. it is intensly good.

The next thing we must discuss is bajo de la luna,

our favorite bar in xela, we went every week. It is  a wine and cheese bar with awesome ambiance, it it dark and kind of like being in a wine cellar, and while I am far from an expert we quite enjoyed the wine. The place is run by the two of the sons of the owners of  a cafe above the bar, la luna, which specializes in hot choclate made from the family factory. The brothers love to have a good time and introduced me to an great new drink. I am not sure of the name but it is beer with a twist of lime topped off with clamato served in a salted glass. The brothers also pointed us towards the best cevicheria in Xela, inbetween a park dedicated to the UN and a park with a japanese motiff. The ceviche came in a thich limey sauce and it was seriously good. Ceviche is seafood cured with lime juice and is not cooked with heat. It is super tasty.

I ate that pig, and it was awesome. The closest thing to a taco I have had, and way better than the common tres por diez tacos.

Molly and I are now also super fanaticos por los super chivos. We are super fans of the Xela Super Goats. We took in a couple games. Aparently futbol can end in a tie, lame. However the real super fanaticos are awesome and bring ample fire works. Based on the referring I think other teams must have a lot more money for the officials who probably actually needed their escort of riot police.

We took in some other sights in Xela and made some good friends at my spanish school. other activities included: building a stove in a village (or at least moving some bricks around before the guy from the village did in five minutes what we had done in an hour). Visiting the municiapal museum where you can see a six legged goat, picutres of several winners of Mrs. Indiginous Woman of the year, antique office equipment and a cell phone, and a picture of  the world record holder in doing a marathon while skipping. We also visited a hot spring, saw the movie valentines day, which i have to admit was fun, and collected some textitles at wonderful markets in nearby San Francisco and San Juan.

We really enjoyed out time in Xela and it is probably the nicest place to live of anywhere we have visited thus far, but we were definitly ready to kick it into high gear for the more travel intensive final third of the trip.

Let´s Play Catch UP

Turns out finding an internet cafe that is both fast enouph to upload pictures and has a port for Molly´s camera is a serious challange. But I have found a spot so now you can enjoy a nice lenghty post to distract you from the  doldrum that is your lives.

Oh and because of the camera cards, let´s do this in reverse chrological order. Last night we had a bit of a treat. Molly has been voulenteering the last few weeks here in Xela (ofically Quetzaltenengo) at a women´s weaving cooperative. They sell Guatemala´s famous textilles from all around the region at fair trade prices. Moly works with three woman in their office and store on a number of projects. More importantly last night we stayed past offcie hours for dinner. Marta made a wonderful stewed chicken dish featuring a salsa of cilantro, parsley, mini tomatillos (called miltomates here) and something else. Tasty or Que Rico (how rich).

I finished or eneded my Spanish classes a week ago and have taken on a new interest. Comida Tipica de Guatemala, Typical Guatemalan cooking. Molly and I bought a Cook Book which in addition to hundreds of recipes also features a thank you letter to the author from the Biltmore Hotel in Guatemala city. The letter was written more than twenty years before the book, like many things I see here, I don´t really understand. But with the help of my dictionary and a bit of common sense I did make some spactacular Huevos a la Ranchera pictured above. Fried eggs, topped with a simple salsa of tomatoes and red peppers and possibly cooked in lard. It´s not in the recipe but I thought chorizo would be a nice touch as well.

You may also notice the OJ, that´s fesh squuzed. It pains me to my core to admit this, but the oranges here are simply the best I have ever had.

Well the computer stopped cooperating but stay tuned next time for exciting tales of Xela featuring Super Goats, a pig, and chickens (And none of them are cooked!)

You want it you got: a note on los judios en Guatemala

There are a fair number of Israelis that tour Guatemala and we saw plenty in Antigua and espically  around the lake. I have not seen a ton of Israelis in Xela. Interestingly I have met a fair number of Dutch and Scandanavian travellers.

As far as Jewsish Guatemalans go I have not met many or any; however, they do exist. I know there is a synagouge in Guatemala City. I had dinner with Aaron Schulman and he has met a couple including an eccentricly dressed guy on a flight who was the whitest person he had ever met, and were of European decent.

My former host family told me there are several Jewish families in Xela and I get the impression the Jewish community here is very ladino (European decent) and muy rico (very rich)

More interstingly there are many Jewish symbols in Xela, notably the star of David which I have seen in a park, as well as a decoration on vehicles and in fencs. I also have seen menorahs as well as many businesses with jerusmalem in the name. I have heard two explanations of this. One, the star is used by Jewish owned businesses. The other explination is that these symbols are widely used by evangelical groups (Guatemala has the largest non-Catholic population in Central America.)

My favorite example of this motif is Restaurante Shalom where Gringas ( quesedillas) are 3 x 20 quetzales.

Lago de Atillan

It would be fair to say that Lago de Atillan is one of the most beauteful places I have ever been. We visited two towns on the lake. First we headed to San Marcos based on a reccomendation of a fellow travler (literaly a fellow traveller not a communist). San Marcos was not our cup of tea. Like many tourist destinations in Guatemala there is much that seperates oridinary Gutemans and Tourists. In San Marcos a road seperates tourists and Guatemans. There is a clear point where the town ends and the hippie ex-pat village begins. The ex-pats that live around the lake live in complete ignorance of the customs and culture of Guatemala. They are also quite unaware how their consumption of drugs has caused serious problems for the village. However the view is spactacular and against certain advice we enjoyed swiming off the rocks here.

Next we headed to San Pedro for a week of Spanish class. We enjoyed the slow pace of San Pedro. San Pedro also had a gringo section of town but we found it to be less dramatic and the people more welcoming. We stayed with a family, and learned much about the economic and development issues from Senor Domingo and Snra, Rosa. Here is a funny picture of them with their daughter and grandaughter. None of them smiled.

Everyday we knew it was time to eat by the sound of Rosa smacking the tortillas into shape. Depsite owning a gas stove she cooked exclusivly on a wood stove and the results were muy delicous.

Oh, and don't worry I found what is probably the only southern BBQ in Guatemala. Those giant beef ribs were actually kind of gross because smoking joe used way too much smoke and whatever wood is avalible is too bitter, but the chicken was quite awesome. Later in the week we saw smoking Joe at a bar and it seemed after several adult beverages Joe was not very good at playing poker, understanding the rules, or operating a bathroom door. He had some choice words for his companions.




On friday night we went to see the procession. The Church puts on a procession every week during lent.  It was very intersting. It was almost exclsuivlt women in attendanc, though men carried the float. The procession stopped at various stations where people had lit prayer candles. There a prayer was said in Tzu-Tzu Jil, the local Mayan language which sounds an awful lot like Hebrew and Arabic mixed togther.

Probably  a bunch of other stuff happened too. We went kayaking which was fun but hard because I was too big for the kayak, we hung out in coffee shops and I learned the present tense of Spanish.

Next time.... Xela

Bienvanidos a Guatemala. After nearly two weeks in Guatemala I found a internet cafe that is speedy enough to upload photos. Unfortunatly we are moving on to a new town tomorrow. In the meantime be prepared to be bedazzled by my descriptions of my first impressions of  Guatemala.

Upon arival we spent a couple days in Antigua, pictured above. Antigua was the Spanish colonial capital of Guatemala and you may seem a glimmer of New Orleans in the colonial archetuecture there. Unlike New Orleans Antigua is cradled in a mountainous vally surrounded by 3 volcanoes., one of which is pictured in the street view and that we enjoyed daily. But now on to the important...

Our first meal in Guatemala. A tamale!. Tamales are popular street food here and go by many names. I often hear "Chuchita". The chuchitta pictured here was the last great thing that happened the day we left Antigua. It was spicy and delicous, unlike that day which was spicy and annoying.

On that first night we feasted in the court yard of a church on puppusas (stuffed tortillas), and tamles. It was magical to taste the local flavor and breathe in the fresh mountainous air.



We also did this!

 

That's right, we hiked Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano. Seeing rivers of lava flow down a mountain is more than a little nuts. In my continued effort to live on the cheap I refused the request of the MANY children offering to rent walking sticks, even after a percocius 6 year old nina told me "es neccecito". 15 minutes later our guide cut down a small tree with his machete and I panted out something that sounded like "gracias". 

Ok that's all there is time for today, but stay tuned for information on Lake Attilan, home of an odd hipie village, San Pedro where we studied Spanish this week, and much much more.

Lightning Round

Time to catch up so here is our week in Florida in a nutshell.

We headed to the West Palm Beach area and spent some quality time with molly's g-rents. Lobsters were consumed, movies were watched.

We headed across the rural center and stopped for BBQ, In strange territory I properly used the "no wood no good test". A tasty lunch ensued.

 We stayed on the beach in St. Pete which is awesome.

When we got into town my brother put together a small and humble Stone Crab dinner. Stone crabs are so popular that fisherman are only allowed to take one claw and then return the crab to the water. It is as rich as lobster but sweeter and textually more delicate.

I made grouper, another  Florida delicacy, for my parents and Molly. Later we had some in a restaurant and I won.

We went to Sunken Gardens an old Florida tourist trap now owned by the city. They have parrots in cages and flamingos. It was kind of boring.

We had my favorite St. Pete BBQ, Hogly Wogly, which could give some Memphis joints a run for their money. I made my own greens stewed with smoked turkey.

We also had a BBQ pork sandwich from Mr. I Got ´em

We had Chinese and ate giant oysters which were cooked and covered in black bean sauce. Yum.

The night before our adventure to Guatemala was to begin we had Ice Cream and I completed my FAFSA.

Having some technical difficulties and can´t get the photos up for this post, but I´m working on it.

UPDATE= PHOTOS