Randomness

This has happened many times on this visit, I sit absorbed in my book, or my work or my mundane musings and then hear a bird call and look up to see the marvel which surrounds me. How can it be? Deep inside my mind it is dark and textured, somewhat cartoon-like in the internal balloon vision. It keeps shocking me, the mountain, the lake, the scent of the moist gardenia out the window.

Being surrounded by so many short and beautiful people I feel like a pale freak, the ancient abuelos on the street, less than 5' tall and thin and brittle but tough as the dry leaves on the avocado tree that rattle in the wind. The scenes in the street so much chaos and dust, sweetness and need.

I find the sites and sounds don't startle me as much as they used to, a good thing? What will tomorrow bring and can I open my mind to blur the line between internal and external....

The Feria Santa Catarina

Today is the opening day of the feria for Santa Catarina, a festival celebrating the town, it's protector Cofradia, an association of the town fathers, and the protector saints. It is a fair complete with lots of food vendors, huge marimba band, lots of stuff being sold, kids, rides etc., etc., etc. I stole the girls and we headed over the mountain in the back of a pick-up truck. We took a turn down by the lake to see the view and again how high the water is. We had thought there would be more happening this morning, tomorrow is the big day, but it was nice to see town preparations without the chaotic crowd factor.

During the time of the feria the tradition is for local families to present one another with a vat of their own pulic and tamalitos. Pulic is a rich caldo or stew and each cook has their own twist on it. Miguel's mother is famous for her recado, the base of the caldo. She specially requested a photo of herself stirring the giant vat of recado that she made. As you can see already half of it is gone, they receive many visitors and exchange Pulic. We carried a huge portion home for Miguel and the family to lunch on. This soup is a many layered broth made with onion, tomato, achiote, cilantro,
mashed and run through a sieve for smoothness and thickened with masa. The traditional vegetables are potato & guiskil, the meats are beef and chicken. It is served with lots of tamalitos that in this case are made from the corn grown by the family made into masa and steamed in wrappers of green corn leaves that are from their field.

I need to revise the recipe a bit to make it make sense and so I will post it another day.


Not tomorrow as I will be cooking for a gringo thanksgiving in Guatemala! I couldn't resist this photo of the boats lined up at the edge of the lake, a classic tourist shot.

Morning Light on the Lake

Here is a new video of the morning volcanoes. In the background is the sound of the water rushing down the stream that runs through the garden. We start out looking to my right towards Panajachel then to Santa Cruz and then pan toward volcan San Pedro moving to the space next where there is a cove and that is where Santiago is. Next pan toward Cerro de Oro the small bump, behind is Volcan Toliman and then the back is Volcan Atitlan. Next I pan toward the garden to the star of the neighborhood, Pote' the dawg!

Papaya Salad

This is the second time this week we've had Papaya Salad with dinner. The idea was green papaya salad but they are all ripe at the market so I made it the same way and used the ripe fruit and it is very yummy! Sliced pieces of Papaya (1 large fruit) , thinly sliced pieces of cucumber (1 ) , slices of tomato (1), diced onion (about 1/2), hot chile pepper rocoto (about 1/2 depending on how spicey you like it). Then I added a ton of lime juice and juice of one sour orange, lots of salt, a dash of sugar and a large handful of purple basil chiffonade, and minced cilantro. Let it sit and blend for 1/2 hour, or while you make the tortillas for dinner and then eat it all up. It really makes your stomach happy too! Here's what I forgot in the original post...THE GARLIC, about 3 cloves finely minced and if you have it a splash of Thai fish sauce. The idea is that it is spicey, salty, tangy and sweet all at the same time.

pups in the calle

On this street I often come across these same 3 dogs curled up for their afternoon nap. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen them up and roaming around! It is one of the few quiet streets where a dog can actually sleep unmolested. It is the back road to San Ju Yu, the boat launch. This next is the vinery growing on the walls here, bouganvillea and orange trumpet vine (Pyrostegia venusta). This shot doesn't do it justice because I was taught to not put pink and orange together but it totally works. I'll try again tomorrow for a better shot if it is cloudy the colors will translate better.
This is a shot of Brazilian Red Cloak or Red Justicia (Megaskepasma erythrochlamys) in full show these days mostly in the fancy gardens around town here in Panajachel. It is grand to see these plants familiar to me as potted plants growing as shrubs and trees in the ground. I get clues about their care by observing them in a more natural habitat. Okay a garden isn't totally natural but it is a step closer.

I'll end with a photo taken after a large boat landed at Santa Cruz with many people heading up to the town's central square for some celebration. If you can note many of the women in their beautiful huipils (hand woven blouses) and cortes (skirts). And of course Abuela with his jazzy straw hat and the ubiquitous tuk tuk!

Chuwa'k chik!

Bird Sounds, an explanation

After 3 fruitless hours trying to load the bird sounds I will have to find another way to share it. I guess my bandwidth doesn't have what it takes to get through! here it is finally!

ANYWAY, a photo of the delicious flowers we prepared for lunch on Saturday, up the hill in St. Cruz. Still having trouble narrowing down what it is, upon closer inspection the flower seems more like a bean, there are many wild vines here that are used. This one Miguel calls behuque or enrededora, in Caquchikel tzu re'k. Trouble is enrededora is a universal term for vine. I'll keep looking. The flower was prepared by removing only the petals to use lightly sauteed with onion and a dash of fresh tomato and added to noodles! Another way to eat them is a tamalito prepared with the cooked flower, tomato, onion and added to masa and steamed in a corn husk. I hope to get to make some of these since I love the tamales in any form!

A nice walk along the lake with the girls, Otilia, Delia, and Nancy gave them break from the daily work routine. It is hard to tear Otilia away from her work. Hmm, she reminds me of myself... Since it was Sunday there were more folks along the shores, at first the waves were ferocious and strong and then within an amazingly short span of minutes the lake calmed to a glossy, smooth sheen. Every day has so many different weather patterns. As you can see in the photo with the submerged willow the lake has risen at least 3-4 meters causing lots of changes. This water rise is due to all the rain in May during the deadly storm Agatha and also again heavy, destructive rains in September.

Bird sounds at Lago Atitlan

The first tortilla of the visit! RICO!

Nancy and I have walked down to the lake for me to see how things look for this year. There is plenty of damage from the storm Agatha earlier this year and then again in September during some more horribly heavy rains. I wish nature would let up a little bit on this beautiful place! However, it is surprising cleaned up and as lovely as ever.

This morning was all about getting things set up here, phone card, groceries and just looking around to see what has and has not changed. We're having some yerba Mora for dinner tonight, it was exceptionally fresh at the market this morning, also a broccoli that I bought off the back of a pickup truck, 2Q for the head which is about $.25! The bridge is all repaired (again since it was rebuilt after hurricane Stan) but the little tienda at the edge of Jucanya as you can see is dangling over the edge of where the river washed out.

I had my first delicious latte at Crossroads just in the nick of time because the shop was inundated with a large group. I beat a hasty retreat.

I've been trying to load on a video for the last 3 hours so I give up. I'll try again in the morning and make a new post. here is the video