Feria

The first weekend was a mix of many cool experiences. First, on Saturday, I got myself invited to our cooking/cleaning lady’s mother’s birthday party. As I left the plantation with some Zika researcher friends (they have been here for quite some time so have made strong connections with people in the community) I realized I had not left it all week! It’s pretty self contained. We didn’t go far but we got to their beautiful home that is larger than most and has a super spacious back yard filled with mango and coconut trees, chickens, and with it’s own water system. 

They are relatively well off compared to many in this rural community. Turns out that all the husbands in the family are working as undocumented immigrants in America to send back money to support their family and it clearly shows. The heartbreaking part of it is that the kids have never and may never meet their fathers since they can’t risk leaving the US, especially now.

Well anyway, it was very gracious of them to let a complete stranger in on their intimate celebration, and I felt fortunate to be a part of it. The birthday lady is a grandmother at 45 which kind of blows my mind. The whole family, which includes many generations and small children, were all there (minus the men as above).

They cooked a delicious spread including pico de gallo, chirmol, escaveche, chicharrone (fried pig skin), and pig ribs. One of the guests had used one of the many pigs roaming around the banana trees for the feast. It was all very tasty. They even had a cake after and sang a happy birthday song.

There was a little baby and they genious-ly hung her in a soccer net like hammock structure to keep her rocking when no one was holding her. She didn’t cry at all except when someone set off firecrackers in the back yard for the celebration which scared us too.

That night we headed into Coatepeque for the Feria de Verano. We got there at like 4pm because the nurses told us a concert started then. I have no idea when or if a concert ever started, but there were tons of people, carnival rides (looking pretty rickety, so rickety they were even fixing a ride while we waited in line to board it), churros, beer, and latina music. The tough part about the music was that there were a lot of dancing venues which were all open air, all next to each other, and all competing to be the loudest. I definitely left the place with a headache but had a good time hanging out and dancing there with the Guatemalan nurses.

The following day we crammed all our beach stuff, a cooler, and 5 people into a small tuk tuk 45 minutes to the town of Tilapa on the Pacific Ocean. When you arrived you could smell the scent of fish and salt, the banks were covered in trash butttt we paid someone with a boat to take us along this beautiful inlet surrounded by lush forests and mangroves. 

We hopped out in a mangrove and walked out to Tilapita which is a small beach town with lots of nice houses but maybe 1 restaurant and hotel. Since there are no restaurants along the beach, it is an option to knock on peoples’ doors and ask/pay them to cook a meal for you. (Can you imagine knocking on beachfront property in Malibu and asking for food? And those people HAVE the resources.)

We walked across town to the beach which is a mostly black-sand beach—let’s just say this makes it feel even hotter—and found an unclaimed techo made of palm leaves and set up some hammocks. 

The beach was huge and mostly abandoned, there were white capped waves and heat radiating off the black sand, but it was quite lovely under the techo. I asked my research friend if I should run north or south along the beach, and he asked me if I had my passport with me (this beach is less than 2 miles from the SW Mexican border.) Apparently both Guatemalans and Mexicans think that the other country and its people are much more dangerous than their own. I ran south to be safe. Also, I somehow got burned all over my body despite spending most of the day in the shade, go figure. Must be that gringa skin.