El Mercado

Yo fui al mercado con doña Irma and don Salvador esta mañana! That's right - for those of you who don't habla español - I went to the market with Irma and Salvador this morning! It was a mad house! Sabado (Saturday) is market day and people get bussed in from all around to buy and sell at the Antigua market.

We set off around 9am. As soon as we got there, Salvador left us to go chill under an awning. Now it was Irma's time to shine. Ella tiene mas o menos setenta años (she's 70 years old more or less), but she was in there mixing it up with the best of them. She was haggling all over the place. She drives a hard bargain - she even did the walk-away several times.

Shortly after we arrived, a joven muchacho (young boy) offered his services as a bag carrier and she instantly took him up on it. Honestly, I felt a little slighted - did she not think I could carry the groceries? Una hora y media (an hour and a half) later, she filled two huge bags with verduras y frutas (vegetables and fruits). Not only was this kid loaded down under what had to be cincuenta libras (50 pounds) of produce, I had my hands full and Irma was carrying a few things too.

Very impressive - reminded me a bit of Mom in Sam's Club. She struggles to git it all in one cart sometimes ... and we're talking industrial strength Sam's-sized carts ... not your average sized Kroger or Target carts.

As I watched Irma haggle for the weeks groceries, I realized that both of my grandmothers would probably be very good at this too - each in their own way. I imagine that their haggling styles couldn't be farther apart, but I suspect that they'd both excel.

My favorite part was the journey home. We had far too many groceries, so Irma and Salvador hired one of the many pickups that wait at the back of el mercado for this very purpose. Irma rode in the cab and Slavador and I got to stand up in the bed! Good times.

I'm hoping that after this experience, I'll be able to get semi-descent prices in el mercado when I start shopping for myself next month .... We'll see.

Last night, I found myself wandering the streets of Antigua. At night they light up their churches - those in ruins  and those that are still functional - and it's quite beautiful. This is my favorite picture ... I almost felt a little artsy taking this one :) Don't worry, the feeling passed pretty quickly.

So, this video might make you a little seasick, but it's kinda interesting. Ayer en la tarde (yesterday afternoon) as I walked home, a truck full of policia stopped on the street outside my house and set up this checkpoint. For like 6 or 7 hours they pulled over random cars and ... I dunno ... searched the cars and questioned the drivers I guess. I didn't think they'd take kindly to some gringo video taping their operation, so I had to hold the camera by my side like I wasn't using it.

Here's my favorite part ... See the cop that's standing just in front of the green car? He's holding a machine gun ... and an aluminum bat!!! What?! What's the bat for?! Which weapon is the backup?! I guess if you saw the machine gun and thought this guy was joking around, then the bat let you know that he definitely meant business!

Crazy. Oh also, it's kinda interesting to see my gait in the motion of the video. I'm guessing that Elliott could probably tell you my height, stride length, and eye color just by watching this video. He's kind crazy that way. Dude builds robots that decipher how ankles work so that he can create cyborgs or something like that ... Also he thinks Kelly Clarkson is the most amazing musical artist ever ... go figure :)