Carnaval

It's been a while since my last post, and even a week since Carnaval - but the food and the event make it definitely worth a quick post. For Mardi Gras, and the holy days that follow, there was a huge street fair near the cemetery. Vendors overtook the park in front of the cemetery and the entire street alongside it. Selling everything from typical lent foods (such as dried fish and iguana and many coconut sweets) to giant pots (and I mean giant - 2 of me could fit inside), bags and ceramics. There were also carnival games, ferris wheels and cars that you could drive around. The best part though, was all the street food. Tens of "restaurants" were set up all in a strip. Restauranteurs spent a day setting up their stores, building stoves and bringing in seating areas to serve great looking food.

Our evening consisted of first Chicken Pepian, which is reminiscent of a mole sauce. It was delicious! To accompany our Pepian, we had two hot drinks: Caldo de Leche and Rompopo de Fruta. We then moved onto a form of pizza, a la guatemalan. Thick, freshly baked dough with a drop of tomato sauce and cheese (not sure if it was Mozarella). Our final entree were Mexican tacos, that reminded me how you get used to always eating the same flavors. There was something about them that was very not Guatemalan that probably made them taste even better. The evening ended with freshly fried churros, that are good, even to me - a non-churro lover.

While the food was great, and it was fun to go around to 5 different stands and try all sorts of things, the excitement of the evening was probably in the flour. We went to Carnaval on Mardi Gras, the biggest - and most vicious night. I didn't know this, but soon found out, that it's tradition to crack eggs filled with confetti on people's heads and throw flour on people. Therefore, there was no shortage of high school and middle school aged kids having their fun. While a few of my friends got attacked with the flour right from the start, I managed to stay clean. We even got a little retaliation finding those that had thrown flour, and cracking some eggs on their heads. Towards the end of the evening, all of us began to let our guard down a little and the group I was with got a little ahead of me. As soon as we separated, I was mobbed by a group of at least 5 or 6 kids, who loved throwing as much flour (mixed with a little real egg this time), onto the poor gringa... I think you could have baked a loaf of bread with the amount of flour I had in my mouth, hair, eyes, clothes... and I had gotten so close to coming out almost totally clean! Here are some pics of the tacos and Marissa and Sat - post being floured.