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016 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kaya and I'm a bit of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And welcome to another ramble on episode where I just
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: talk about what's going on. Okay, So last episode I
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: talked about the weird introduction to my Airbnb, which was
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: pretty fun for me, but I didn't make it to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: actually talking about Katsaltanango or Shella as it's known so Shella. Shella.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The actual city Shella was fine. Like I said, it
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: was just a smaller version of Guatemala SiO di i
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: di Guatemala. But the shops were more interesting to me
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: than the ones in Guatemala City. I'm not sure exactly
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: what it was. It looked like they just had more
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: style in Shella. Like A great example was probably my
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: favorite taco place in Shella, even though I was only
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: there a week. It was called called Takuchine, which is
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: like Chinese tacos, and I asked the guy, oh, why
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: is it Chinese tacos, the guy who was working in there,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and he was like, oh, it's just pork, and I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, okay, maybe they just thought it was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a cool name. But there was like a picture of
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a pig wearing a Chinese costume on the sign for Tacucine,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and I was kind of confused, but I went back
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: there and their tacos were really good. Didn't have anything
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to do with China as far as I could tell,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: but they tasted great. And the inside of the restaurant
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with China either. It was just
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the sign that said Tacucine. But the inside of that
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: store was super cool. It was the cut off front
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: thirty percent of a VW van and it was so
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: it's open in the back where the body normally would
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: have been. There was a grilling station like that's where
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the kitchen was, so he had all these spices and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: sauces on shelves all back there, and the windshield was
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: still there and intact, but it was perfectly clear. And
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: on that dashboard area there was a mount not quite
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: a rotisserie, a skewer, I guess, and there was a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: full half a pig up on there, or maybe it
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: was a full pig. I actually didn't see it from
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the back, but so the entire windshield of the VW
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: bug front was taken up by this very well looking
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: roasted pig, and I got super excited because it looked
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: so good, and I didn't even realize it. I was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: just going there because I was so curious why they
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: called them Chinese tacos, and so I ordered two of them.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And then after a couple of minutes, when I was waiting,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I looked to my right. There were so many things
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: going on in the restaurant. There's like street signs and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: all these decorations. So I didn't even notice the van
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: at first, but I was waiting right in front of it,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: like feet away, and then I was like, Oh, that's cool.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It's the front of a VW van. And then I
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: looked in the windshield and there was a pig and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, wait, what's happening. And that was
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the kitchen area, and there was a heat lamp inside
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: keeping the pig warm. And I got a lot more
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: excited about the tacos then, and with good reason, because
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: those tacos were fantastic. They were pulled pork, and the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: pork was flavored very well, just a little salty, nothing complex,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just a simple salted, smoked meat and it was very
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: very good, very very very good. So takucine and shella
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: pretty good stuff, and that was nice because it was
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: right next to where I lived, like a five minute
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: walk or something. I only went there once, though, because
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: of two big reasons. One was that there were a
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: ton of places to try to eat at, so I
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: didn't know which one I would go to. And two
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: was that I found my favorite tostada enchilada place run
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: by someone named au Nisse or Nissi for short, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I saw her making one of the enchiladas. They're tostadas
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: in Ciuda di Guatemala, and I guess in Shella they
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: call them enchiladas, even though English speaking people know enchiladas
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: as something different. So the enchilada is on a tostada
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and put on top. But I saw her making one
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: when I was walking by walking home one day, and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: my brain was like, no, eat that, that one's good.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And there's tons of people selling enchiladas and all sorts
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of tacos all around the city when I was walking around,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but that one looked particularly good, and I could tell
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it was mostly vegetables, and I could do with a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: bit of vegetables anyway, keep it healthy, And so I
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: backtracked a few steps and asked to get one, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it was fantastic. Instantly my favorite tostata, and she told
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: me that it was her grandma's recipe, and that's very cool.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Even before I thought that's cool, though, I thought, whoa,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: her English is way too good. Her English sounds fluent,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: like her accent and her vocabulary and her mannerisms just
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: sounded basically fluent to me. So I asked her a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: couple questions and she kept speaking fluently, and she's just
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a savant. She is very good at English. And I
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: went back there a second time after that, a couple
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: days later, when I got the ravenous Hungary for the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: carraen Enchilada again and it was just as good as
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the first time, and it was really fun just going
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: there and talking with someone who spoke such good English.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: That one I was embarrassed because my Spanish has improved
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: a little since I got here. I'm more comfortable with
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: speaking Spanish with people, but it's still extremely stilted and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I forget half of the words that I want to use,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and I use half of those words incorrectly anyway. But
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that's now like the third person I've met in Guatemala
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: City with basically fluent English, which is pretty nice to
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: run across every now and then, so I can just
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: have a regular conversation without struggling to get through the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: blockade that is my own fault, my Spanish, low level
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of Spanish. And the last day I was in Shella
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was great because NISI was there and I was able
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to bring a beer down from the super twenty four
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Amosa by the way, which is my new favorite Guatemalan beer,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: which I feel a little bad about because Gio is
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: not great, but it's super popular in Guatemala and the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Guatemala City brewery that makes Gyo is huge and the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Cabro brewery is smaller, and I usually prefer the underdog
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and the Cabro Reserva, which is from Ketzaltenango from Chella.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: It's really good. But I finally tried to Mosa because
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: it was a bock beer, so I assumed it was
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: from Germany or some western country. But it turns out
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the same company that makes Gayo also makes Mosa, which
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: is a very good beer, and I was like, oh,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I guess I do like the Sea Vicia from Guatemala
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: City because Mosa rocks. And yes, it was my last
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: day in Shella because I did move on to panahachal.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: But that last day I was going to say. I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: ate seven enchiladas carrot enchiladas and sipped a couple beers
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and hung out with Nissi and we just talked about
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: movies and all sorts of gap talk. And then I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: was full and I had to pack because I was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: leaving the next day, and so I said goodbye, and
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: then I was looking down at my beer that I
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: had just finished, and I was like, okay, remember you
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: can turn this in. You can return the bottle, get
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a couple of katsals back. And last time I totally
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: forgotten just took the bottle home and then I had
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to walk twice as far to return it the next day.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So I was really proud of myself for remembering to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: return the bottle to the store. And I got to
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the store and returned the bottle, and then when they
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: handed me the two kets al, I was like, wait
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a minute. I didn't pay for any of the food.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I just ate at the angilada stall. And I just
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: said thank you and just walked away from Nisi and
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: her stall without paying. And I started laughing pretty hard
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: because that is not the first time I've done that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: When I become really comfortable with a restaurant or just
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: a food vendor in general. I a sign that I've
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: become really close to your restaurant and that I really
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: like your food is that I eat until my pill
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and I'm so content that when I'm finished, I just
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: walk away, floating on cloud nine, belly full of food.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And usually I remember within the first couple of minutes
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of walking away, and I'll be like ooh, and I'll
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: turn right around and pay. And that has happened so
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: many times in China. I'll get really comfortable with the place,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I'll eat my favorite food there, and then I'll say
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: thank you so much, seeing so good, seeing you again,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and then just walk right outside. Remember in ten seconds,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: swivel around on my heel, and walk back in to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the two owners staring at me like, did you forget
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to pay? I totally forgot to pay. Yes, here, here
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: you are. And but this time I made it all
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the way to the store to return the beer bottle
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: before I realized that I had eaten the most I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: had ever eaten at that stall, because I was just like,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: this is my going away feast, and then I hadn't
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: made it anything and just said thanks bye. And it
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: was very funny because when I walked back down the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: street and turned the corner, she and her assistant were
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: talking to like a group of people there who were
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: getting some manchillatas, and we locked eyes and I just
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: started laughing right away, and we all realized that I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: had just walked away and forgotten to pay. So I paid,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and then it was a good second goodbye, and I
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: probably should have gotten more enchiladas. And then I went
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: home and packed and got ready for my journey to Panahachel,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the town that everybody has told me I should go
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to pretty much since I got to Guatemala. Anytime I
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: mentioned I had a few months here, they were like, cool,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: go to Panahachel. It's nicer than here. With the second sentence,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: everybody usually said, or oh, you haven't been to Panahachel yet. Why?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And now I know why everybody was so incredulous. It
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: costs the same to live in Panahachell as it does
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in Cello, or as it does in Guatemala City. But
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: it's a tropical paradise. So Lake of Titlan. You've probably
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: heard that name if you know anything about Central America.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty popular lake, and it looks beautiful and
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it's surrounded by volcanoes, so it's like a Windows desktop.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it's a pretty popular place, but it's still
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: not very accessible. There's a lot of stuff interesting about Panahachell,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: but you know what, I'll probably get into that on
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the next ramble on because I haven't even talked about
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Shella except for my new favorite enchiladas and Nissi. Okay.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Another good part of talking with someone who is so
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: good at English is that I feel bad about my Spanish,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and so I try a lot harder to speak Spanish
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: with other people when I'm outside of that person's company,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: because the more I speak, the better I get. It's
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a very clear line. And I just don't speak to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: enough people. One because I'm listening to podcasts half the time,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I'm learning something really interesting, and so I'm in my
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: own world when I'm walking around. But I also make
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: these podcasts, and I read a ton of books and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I watch movies in English, so I don't give myself
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: enough time speaking in Spanish to remember my Spanish every
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: time I do. Though, every time I have a thirty
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: minute conversation in Spanish that I struggle through. Afterward, my
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: level has permanently increased. All that knowledge from high school
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: is definitely floating around in my head because after I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: have a big bout of Spanish speaking, the next time
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I talk to someone, another little bit of grammar comes back,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and another few stanzas of vocabulary flow back naturally into
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: my speech. And you know what's kind of nice about
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: this trip, I'm not going to fly to another country
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: right away that speaks a different language. I'm in Central America.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go to Panama next. They're going to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: speak Spanish. Also, probably going to hit a couple countries
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in South America they'll speak Spanish. So I'll really be
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: able to get a good base, a good foundation again
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: that I can hold in my head, because usually I'll
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: go to Japan, and then after I study Japan and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: speak it for three months, I finally feel like I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: have a conversational hold on the language. I'm like, all right,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: let's go to Laos and that it's completely new language
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and I have no idea what to say. Or Thailand
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: and I've never been able to learn Thai. The first
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: time I made a real good go of it, and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I learned the alphabet and I learned some phrases. But
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: then after a few months I went to where I
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: go China or something. I went to another country where
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the language was totally different, so I didn't get to
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: continue that language learning odyssey. So it's kind of nice
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: right now that I'm just traveling in Spanish speaking countries
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and I just get to keep practicing Spanish. We see,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: yo practico mi espano. Now my accent is pretty good,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: but it has the same problem here that happens in
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: every country. I learn a few phrases, I speak it
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: with a good accent. The person talks back to me
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: because of my accent and assumes I can say anything,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: and then I have to, oh, locque me espanols, Mui
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: malo lociento, you'l be be muchas plaras And they're like,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, you're speaking in a pretty okay accent.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I should overwhelm you. And that is my fault for
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: not studying what I could have. But I really we
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to watch a Tarantino movie or listen to song
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Exploder and learn how Decepticon was made, which is a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: really good story. That was a good episode. Okay, so
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I was talking about Shelle ten minutes ago, so let
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: me get through Shelle before I can move on to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Panahacel in the next Rambalan episode. Oh, I also got
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to listen to the song Exploder about Everybody wants to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Rule the world by Tears for Fears. You can imagine
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: how good that was. It was the best. I love
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: those guys. I love that they're still playing. I saw
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: them in New York, did I tell you? Oh my gosh,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: seeing Tears for Fears at seventy whatever they are and
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: they still sound almost perfect is crazy. They played all
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: their hits. Oh so good Beth on New York so awesome. Okay, anyway,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: so Shelle. I went to the Municipal Theater where there's
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: supposed to be a bunch of shows, but I was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I had decided by that point that I was only
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: staying for a week and I was already tired. I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: had some books to record, and I just decided not
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: to see a show while I was there for a
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: few days. It never looked open when I went there
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon or the evening anyway, so I'm not sure.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe because it's the rainy season now in Guatemala, there
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: aren't as many shows going on, or they closed for
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the rainy season. Like there's a theater in long per
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Bong and Laos and they just closed for eight months
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a year, they closed the entire rainy season, which is
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: eight months. It's a oh, I want to go back there,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: which reminds me of Shella. It was weird that there
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: was no rain in Shella because people talked about rain
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and they said it was gonna rain, and every day
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it said there's gonna be thunderstorms, and then there just weren't.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Most days. Sometimes there was a shower, but it was
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: very light, like that sprinkling Seattle type thing or Portland.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to call Shella a liar about
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: their but I was there for seven whole days out
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of the year and it didn't rain. So now that
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: was pretty great for me because I got to walk
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: to the bus stations and walk to all the municipal
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: theaters and really get my exercise in because I didn't
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: exercise the previous week. So I feel pretty good about
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: getting to walk every day. And I walked all around
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Shella because, like I said, it's not super huge. Oh
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the airbnb before I forget I was cooking water with
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the teapot that they had in the kitchen, and I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: was waiting around for the water to boil, and I
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: glanced up to my right and on the top of
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a metal bookshelf thing, there was a life sized child
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: dull wearing panties and it was just lying soupine on
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: top of the metal bookshelf. And there's so much stuff
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: in that kitchen that I hadn't noticed it before, but yeah,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: there was a weird kid doll and she had two kids,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: so I'm sure it's for learning how to do diapers
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: or something like that, but it was just laying on
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: top of the bookshelf, and I thought that was creepy
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and weird and very It added a lot of personality
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to the kitchen. I'll say, oh, you know, it was
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: so weird that I keep forgetting to mention the whole
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: time I've been in Guatemala. If an ad pops up
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: while I'm walking around on my phone, so many of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the ads are USA government funded anti immigration ads, and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: it's that idiot Christy Noam just saying, look, don't try
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to come into the USA illegally. It's really bad and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: we'll throw you in jail and throw you back, and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: there's like these thirty second ads of real footage of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: people I believe, climbing the fences or getting into the States.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: It's just such an irritating reminder of how much money
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they are wasting. I'm really happy to be traveling right now,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: especially now more than other times. But it's a bit
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: odd to walk around in the city and then an
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: ad pops up on my phone and it's telling me
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: not to illegally sneak into the US. There were a
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lot too. Half the time an ad popped up, it
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: was the same anti immigration ad, so that's apparently two
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars gone. Moving on, I got to climb
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Serro el Baoul, the most famous little hill mountain. A
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: lot of people called it a mountain six hundred feet
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: above the city of Chella, so it's eighty six hundred
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: feet high. And the second day I got there, I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: ended up sleeping like thirteen hours, so I didn't get
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: up until it was already five thirty pm or something
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: like that. Nope, wrote it down four forty five pm.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I woke up and I had planned to climb by
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Wool that day, but I was like, oh, geez, I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: don't know if I have time, but I checked and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the sun was going down in an hour or so
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and it would take me an hour to get to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the top of Baoul but I had to shower and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: grab my bag and get dressed and all that, so
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: by the time I did that, only at half an
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: hour left. But I was like, you know, whatever, it's
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: not a huge climb. You climb a billion mountains. It's fine,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: And so I just started walking through the neighborhood, found
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a couple cool places and then found the trail head
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and made my way up, and it got dark halfway up,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: but it was fine. The trail was huge, and I
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: saw other people climbing up and down two while I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: was on my way up. So I'm glad I did it,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: because if I didn't do it that day, I would
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: have waited until the next day when it was still light,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and then on my way up I would have discovered
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that the trail is completely safe and very wide and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: easy to walk up. Really, so I'm glad I went
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that night. And it was a cool site from the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: top of ba Wool to see the lights of the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: city all lit up and see the very clear boundaries
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of Shella. Wait about the tacos tacos? About the tacos
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: from Taco Chine. So a bunch of taco places give
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: let's say three tacos, and then you get two small
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: tortillas with each one. Does everybody put half of the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: stuff on top into the second rap? I don't eat
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: both raps at the same time. Most people here I
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: see just pick up both raps and shovel all the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: food in their mouth. But I really like to pick
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: up the top rap, pour half of the taco filling
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: into the second rap, and then I have two tacos
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: instead of one taco. I double my taco time and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: it's not as messy. I always end up drop stuff
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: out of the two raps with everything on top, because
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they always fill it with so much great taco filling,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and I just can't shove it all in my mouth
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that easy. So I'm wondering how many of you out
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: there do the same thing and divide your tacos, so
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: two tacos become four, or three tacos become six. My
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: cup overfloweth anytime I'm eating tacos, I just want more
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: tacos anyway, So that's a really easy life act for
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: me to double my tacos. Immediately. I got to mention
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Let's Kill Ward's Wife, because that's one of the funniest
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: movies ever, and it had a super low rating for
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: a very long time. The lighting is weird in the movie,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: but it's such a funny movie, and I think in
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: recent years it's gaining like a little bit of traction.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I think maybe it was twenty years too early for
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: people to really find funny. But it's one of my
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: favorite comedies for sure. I've watched it a lot of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: times now and it's just as funny. It's remarkably funny.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Every time I watch it. I'm so surprised at how
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: well they do the comedy. It's so funny. I just
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: watched it with someone who appreciated it, which is great.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: When you can watch a movie with someone else who
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: appreciates the same kind of humor as you, that's fantastic.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I just watched it, I don't know, not two weeks ago,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and I could watch it again now with someone or
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: by myself, because it's that funny and there's not a
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: lot of movies like that. I don't watch anything really
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: anymore on repeat and I watched Let's Kill Ward's Wife
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: maybe three or four years ago or something, because I
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: remembered it being one of the funniest things I've ever seen,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: but I hadn't seen it in ten years since the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: first time. And when I watched it again, I watched
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: it a second time directly after watching it the first time,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: which I hadn't done in a decade with any movie.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: That's how funny it is. And then I showed it
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to my everyone in my family, and I still want
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to watch it again. I don't know what a good movie.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Let's Kill Ward's Wife? From twenty fourteen, I'm still talking
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: with Mario, my security guard friend from Misco. He got
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: my contact information the day before I left, and every
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: now and then he just sends me messages about, Hey,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: how's it going, And that's kind of nice just to
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: talk to someone while I'm traveling around in their country.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: He seems really excited that I'm visiting Guatemala in general,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: and doesn't have a lot to say. His day to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: day is standing in front of this big gate and
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: waving as people go in or out of the gate
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: or walk by him. That's what I did every day
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I lived there. For three months and I just waved
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: at him and then he waved back, And every now
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and then comes Ain Gwentro. Yeah, yeah, he too. But
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he seems like a really nice guy, and I still
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: get messages from him while I'm traveling around in other cities.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: So hey, Mario, I think I have to to get
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a credit card without international fees. At this point, I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: keep having to budget my withdrawals around how much cash
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I have left, and I've been using cash only for
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: fifteen years now, a long time, ever since I started traveling,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: thirteen years, I guess. But if I just had a
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: card with no international fees, I wouldn't have to constantly
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: be planning out my cash withdrawals. So I think I'm
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: gonna do that soon. Oh, Panama's kind of an international city.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I wonder if there's a bank there I could open
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: up an account at and get It just seems crazy
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that I'm traveling again for a long period of time,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: buying all these flight tickets and I'm not getting any
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of the rebates or cash backs that everybody else is getting.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: It just seems crazy. You know. What else is notable
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: about Shella is that Cabro is from Shehella, but Guyo
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: was still the most popular beer. I thought for sure
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I would get to Shella and then Cabre would at
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: least be more prevalent or equal to Gaio, like it
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: would have more of a presence, because it's very rare
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to find cabro Rozerea, especially when you're in Guatemala City.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: But it's just as rare in Chella, like a lot
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: of the stores didn't carry any copro at all, and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the ones that did only carried Cabro Extra, which is
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: not as tasty as Rozeva. But all the Super twenty
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: fours had decently priced cabro, so I just went to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the Super twenty fours when I needed a cabro. But
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I walked to every supermarket and most markets on my
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: way from the bus station to my Airbnbanchella, and I
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: kept being like, this is weird because I went to
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: giant Maxi dispenses, like huge supermarkets, and they just didn't
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: have cabro. And I went to one also in La Torre,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: which is a very popular giant like Walmart sized Central
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: America can store, or at least Guatemalan department store, and
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: they have tons of food, and when I asked the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: guy if they had reserva. He said they did, and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: then he checked and he was like, dope, no reserva.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: It's all out. And I was like, oh, man, okay,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: So I still the Super twenty fours had it, so
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I just went to those every time. But I thought
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: that was so bizarre that the town in which it
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: was made didn't have the beer available. So guy A
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: must really be taken over. And now that they have
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: mosa ooh ee, bad four site, bad foresight four look prognosis,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: bad prognosis for cabro. I don't want a Cobra. I
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: think I'm gonna get a cabro. What else happened in
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Shallow while I was there? Oh, the new pope was chosen,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: so there was a huge celebration for two days straight
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and then smaller celebrations before and after. But for two
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: nights there were processions, processions where they carried the what
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: looked like a big casket to honor the dead pope,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and I guess welcome the new one. But there was
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: a huge roll out poster on the side of this church,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and all the food people gathered in one area and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I got a whole bunch of tasty little snacks, and
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: it was cool just to be around this huge community
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: celebration while it went on, walking around the nice park
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I lived near that was near the right next door
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to the giant church where all the festivities were going on. Okay,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and that was Schella Sheella was no rain, a pretty
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: good climb on a mountain, great Chinese tacos that were
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: just pulled pork guatemal and tacos two for one, pizza
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that was slightly underwhelming, sorry, fantastic enchiladas, and good conversation
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: with Nissi, and then just a bunch of nice walks.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: It's a very mountainous region, so I do like all
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the exercise and climbing around. But a couple days ago
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I strapped on my rucksack and checked out of the
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: church family Airbnb and made my way to the bus
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: station to get to Panahachal. And I have a lot
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to say about Panahachal, and I'll tell you all about
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: it next week. Spoiler. It's great.