We walked to town on the little dirt road behind our property that eventually meets up with the paved road. It was just after 5 p.m., and apparently working hours don't differ too much as we saw lots of folks walking both directions. The people walking during this time seemed more likely to look up and say buenas, buenas tardes, or simply tardes in one case. I also noticed that if they were men they tended to look at Ken with a greeting, rather than me.
When we got to town, we immediately heard some live music in the distance. We walked toward the sounds and passed the church where there was a small gathering with candles, past the covered concrete soccer arena where there was a game going on, and on to an outdoor amphitheater where it looked like the local high school band was practicing. I have to say, their drum line was the strongest part of the ensemble, but the horns were nice too. I would have liked to share some video, but it would had felt intrusive to pull out my phone, so my description will have to do. ;-)
We were firmly in the Guatemalan side of the town, and I have to say, I felt it was more comfortable. I didn't know the language - in fact most of the people here speak Kaqchiquel, a Mayan language that pre-dates Spanish colonization of the area. Despite the language barrier, it has all the makings of a small, hardworking town. It is active and busy in the evenings, alive with families taking care of their weekday business.
After walking around town a bit, we decided to head toward the "ex-pat" side of town for one of the three restaurants we found recommended online - Restaurant Fe, Blind Lemon, and Tul y Sol. We found Blind Lemon immediately, off the main road and before you have to turn off into one of the small paths leading to the docks/ex-pat area. Looked like a great place, unfortunately for us, it wasn't open. :(
Down the paths we went in search of one of the other two restaurants. We knew where Tul y Sol was from an earlier wandering, but the recommendations were highest for Fe, so we tried really hard to find it. I can't begin to convey how confusing it is to try to get around in this town. The paths are narrow, haphazard passageways with minimal signage. You have to be bold and adventurous. We finally gave in and walked into Tul Y Sol just as the skies opened up - great timing. The place normally has wonderful balcony seating on the lake, but you can see from the photo below, it wasn't the night for that.
We were the only diners tonight, and felt very taken care of. Ken ordered roasted chicken with a coke (much less sweet here than in the US) and I got the tofu curry with a cuba libre- yes, tofu. The area is actually mostly vegetarian. (Lots of yoga, mediation, and kombucha too.)
After a few minutes, one of the two Mayan women working there came to the table with our salads - shredded carrots, beets, and cucumbers with a hot mustard or wasabi dressing and some hot yeasty bread - both delicious. Yes, I said the beets were delicious and that is the only time you will hear that from me. They normally taste like dirt.
A little into our salads, a gringo with long hair appeared with my cuba libre. He didn't appear to speak English though. As we were finishing our salads, he walked out with our dinners. They were every bit as good. Ken devoured his entire plate and then the potatoes from mine. My red curry was a little on the hot side, just the way I like it. The side of green beans was really good too.
After dinner we realized we may be too late to try to catch a boat home and it was too dark to walk back without a light (which we forgot.) So, since we were going to have to hire a tuk-tuk, we figured we would do a little grocery shopping. Walking back on those little paths - no bueno. It was so dark I pulled my phone out and had to keep pushing the button to somewhat light up the path in front of us - definitely felt like I was pushing my personal limits of comfort on that walk.
Thankfully, we made it to the main street again and stopped at a small store to pick up honey, tortillas, eggs, and jelly and were lucky enough to run into a tuk-tuk driver. He agreed to take us back to Pasaj-Cap for 10Q each, about $1.30. While we were waiting, a few boys (8-10?) walked up and one said pretty aggressively to Ken "para mi" while pointing to the eggs. It was very strange, not a question, definitely a command. Ken took it in stride and joked back, "no, para mi" with a smile. Talking later, we both felt oddly threatened by the exchange and wished it had gone a little differently - we would have gladly handed over some eggs if he had asked. With Spanish as a likely second language, we did wonder if he knew how to ask. A Bimbo bakery driver overheard the conversation and said something to the kids that sounded like leave the gringos alone, but I couldn't be sure.
The tuk-tuk ride more than made up for the strangeness of the egg situation. If you ever have the opportunity to ride in one of these - do! A tuk-tuk is a scooter thingy with...heck, I'll just show you:
The guy blasted some great Spanish language music and headed up the very rough dirt road leading to our place. It was so worth the paltry fee he charged, in fact I felt a little bad considering the road was in such bad condition it could have hurt his vehicle. Luckily, we arrived with the tuk-tuk and our eggs in good shape. It was really fun and we're looking forward to more tuk-tuk adventures!
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