Knocking on Heaven's Door

One of the many beautiful things about Antigua is the architecture and today we are going to take a look at a particular aspect: door knockers (click here for suitable musical accompaniment). Below you will find photos demonstrating the variety found in this beautiful city. In a couple you can see that the owners of the house have put a metal band around it to prevent people from raising and dropping the knocker as they walk by - as if anyone would actually do that and continue on their way. Our favorite is the hand holding a ball. We bought one years ago which, if you have been to our house, you have undoubtedly not seen since we have never actually put it up. Maybe someday. Along with the sink(s) from Mexico.

Support

It is great that we are all studying Spanish so we can help each other out. An example, you ask? Why just the other night the two most senior members were studying at the dining room table. The Most Senior member asked the Junior Senior member to look for a Spanish word, ataúd, in the dictionary. The Most Senior member then asked, "how do you spell it?" to which the Junior Senior member, of course, replied, "I T." Not getting a response, said Junior Senior member then continued to spell the word in Spanish. The Most Senior member then looked up and said, "Dang, how do you pronounce this?" The Junior Senior member looked at what the Most Senior member had written and proceeded to double over in hysterics because Most Senior member had written: itataúd. Most Senior member was less than amused.

Well, at least there was dead silence in which to study for a period of time after aforementioned interaction. Below is a short videos clip (sorry it is sideways and shaky but it was taken on maximum zoom) of a naturally occurring phenomenon which seems an appropriate metaphor for Senior Member's reaction:

Yeah, not the greatest quality. Heck, if I were you I wouldn't spend my time reading this stuff if it isn't going to get any better than that!

Here are a couple photos to give you a better idea. Over on the left in the distance is Volcano Fuego letting off some pressure.

And another shot from a slightly different angle.

Too cool.

Two for Tuesday (kinda)

More Spanish class this morning. We go from 9 am to 12 pm and it is working out much better with all of us going at the same time so that we have the afternoons free. Yesterday we went to Pastores which is about 10 minutes away by bus. Pastores is a small town that specializes in making boots. A custom made pair will run you between Q350 - 1000 depending on what exactly you want. The trip was primarily a scouting trip to see what styles and options were available. The predominant style is cowboy and some of the boots had rather long pointy toes. No, we didn't take any pictures so you get to see what the Antigua bus station looks like instead:

Pretty exciting, huh? Actually, it is pretty amazing that you can get on a bus here and travel all over this beautiful country. While comfort may not be the greatest selling point (particularly for anyone larger than a typical 8th grader in the US), it is much easier to actually get to places here with public transportation than it is back home. Monday was one of the main market days here in Antigua so there are more vendors and more people coming to shop which gives the regular market a more energetic feel. And this is what it looks like:

Of course, this is all in addition to fruits and vegetables but you have seen enough pictures of those for now, right? Ah, screw it, here is one more:

And what is market day without some entertainment? Okay, I couldn't figure out if these were clowns entertaining or presenting a morality lesson but plenty of people stopped to listen/watch:

This afternoon, we went to the park after class and two guys came through selling bread. But not just any kind of bread. This bread isn't really a pastry but they call it 'pan dulce' which we think means 'sweet bread' but I really didn't care what it tasted like because this is what it looked like:

We found it difficult to photograph and capture the true brilliance of this creation but it is alligator shaped bread with a big gaping mouth with big teeth. Too cool. I walked around town and visited a couple art galleries and saw some amazing art. I really like the work by Doniel Espinoza at  La Antigua Galeria de Arte. So, if anyone has an extra $x,xxx they don't know what to do with, you could buy me this painting (it looks much better in person - as does all the art mentioned - and would go great with another of his paintings so feel free to contact me for the name of the other one so you can get both):

I really like his watercolors also:

And the work of Chilean artist Pilar Rios:

Also went to El Carmen Galeria de Arte and was really taken in by the work of Marlov Barrios and Erwin Guillermo (again, feel free to contact me for gift giving suggestions for, well, me!).  It is not surprising that influences of the 36 year long Civil War are found in much of the art and I found it to be very powerful.

Here is more of what I saw while walking around:

 Here is the public laundry where folks can bring their laundry and do it by hand. It seems to be closed now because of construction work going on in the park in front of it but we have seen it in use on previous adventures.

¿What Do You Meana No Puedo En Mi Cocina?

 So let's talk food.... 

YUM! While we do have a kitchen here en la casa, we have really been eating out way too much. As characterized by the most senior expedition member after Spanish class today, “Hey it's 2 for 1 taco day at Frida's”. Good thing – bad thing. Nice to have options, but not always good to know so much detail.

So far we've had lots of good pico de gallo (never understood this name.... is it really rooster feed?), 

 guacamole, soups, and pizza. Our kitchen at home has a nice stove top, sink, fridge, microwave, etc. but is lacking in that it does NOT have an oven. Hmmmm... what to do? Well we've made plenty of pan-toasted pan (bread), pan-broiled steak (grand overstatement regarding quality of said meat item), and now pan-grilled homemade pizza.

Actually the pizzas were quite good. Even junior member liked them (after grimacing at the few black marks on the underside). The most interesting part was figuring out the leavening need for dough making. We had to figure out the word (levadura) and then purchase it in brick size and form. Yes, we are the proud owners of enough yeast to run a bakery. So, what do we do with said yeasty-beasty? Hmmm.... well senior member decided to just 'go for it.' Usually not the best option when it comes to the baking process. Measure twice, cut once.... right? Well... we actually got dough and positive dough-related action (!levanta!... sorry just finished my homework). Okay “cooking” pizzas in a frying pan was quite a different experience... and a shout out goes to Craig Priebe and his cookbook for giving us the confidence and inspiration. Like I said... YUM!