Once in La Antigua, we exited the bus and began looking around for a tuk-tuk to take us to San Francisco Church. A newspaper seller on the corner saw me trying to attract a tuk-tuk and signaled to a driver he knew who quickly pulled up. We loaded and began the bumpy ride across town to the church.
We arrived at church at 9:45 a.m., just in time for the 10:00 a.m. Mass. While we may be concerned about declining church attendance back home, at this church, at least at this particular Mass, there's no problem. It was packed and the congregation participated actively. We were able to take part, to a great extent, because of a handout that included all the readings and most of the responses.
After Mass, since we still had two hours before our lunch reservation at "Real Steak," we decided to go to to El Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, adjacent to the ruin of the Compañia de Jesús Church.
This is a library and study center jointly sponsored by the Governments of Spain and Guatemala. Entrance is free and the interior is very quiet and pleasant. While waiting, we called each of our parents to update them on what we were doing.
As the time of our reservation approached, we headed down Calle de Archos (Street of the Arch) and stepped into Nim P'ot, a crafts and textile shop cooperative. There you can purchase almost any type of Mayan art or craft, from textiles to carvings to ropa tipica (typical Mayan dress).
Just before 1:00 p.m., we walked over to our restaurant expecting it to be packed. To our amazement, it wasn't. It was also much smaller than we had expected with no more than a dozen tables spread out around and on the patio. In the middle of the patio was the requisite fountain.
The marimba band was present and started to play at about 1:08 p.m., which would be early by traditional Guatemalan standards.
The music was wonderful, as was the food. We ordered a traditional Guatemalan nacho plate (think chips with dips, i.e. guacamole, refried beans, pico de gallo and several others I couldn't recognize. After finishing our appetizer, we each ordered a different style of steak with a variety of sides (potatoes, corn on the cob, rice, refried beans, guacamole, corn tortillas and sauces). I have to admit that the steaks were some of the best that I've ever had. While we were eating, the waiter came by and presented Linda and the other women present with a single rose, since it was Valentines Day or Dia del Cariño or Day of Caring.
After finishing our meal, I asked for the bill and asked if we cold move to other seating to continue enjoying the music. At my request, the band played "Los Sandales de Hermano Pedro," and bright and upbeat tune named for the patron saint of Guatemala. Without asking, they also played two other tunes that are among my favorites: "Ferrocarril de los Altos," which is about a railroad that ran from Xela (Quetzaltenango) to the coast, but no longer exists and "Luna de Xelaju," a waltz about lost love in Xela.
We left when the band took their second break. On our way out, I took a picture of the restaurant hostess. I must say that if she had been present when we made our reservations, Linda might have suggested that we find a different restaurant.
We then headed over to Parque Central, where another outdoor concert was taking place. This group was more like a Mexican Ranchero band and was very loud.
We needed to pick up a few things to take back to our apartment, so we headed to the Bodegona to get them. We then headed over to the mercado for some vegetables, but found that the produce stands were almost all closed for the day. We did get four large avocados for Q10 ($1.20).
Our shopping done, we headed over to the street where we board our buses back to the apartment and found one loading that was heading for Alotenango, which is just down the road from our apartment. When I paid our Q6 (72 cents for both of us) fare, I told the ayudante that we wanted to get off "en el lejos fin del cemetario." Evidently I'm communicating better or they now know us (more likely), because they dropped us off right at the road to our apartment.
Back at the apartment, we cleaned up, used the Internet, blogged and watched some English language movies with Spanish subtitles. We'll be getting to bed early tonight, as tomorrow we return to Socorro School and continue our work on their computer lab.
