AND AS FOR NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS ...

Christmas Eve Fireworks (note the streets hazy with smoke)

Weather these days: Sunny, windy and dry. Lows in the low 50s, highs in the low 70s.

So, I don't know. Christmas here is quite over the top, to say the least. It starts with an endless carousel of partying and such for days ahead. All that imported wine, aged cheeses from the Netherlands, smoked meats from Spain, local tamales, turkey, chocolates, marzipan, eggnog and what not, going straight to ones' hips. Music everywhere, surprise gifts.

After a few days of all this, memory capacity does seem to go on a serious blitz so that you end up saying stuff like "Did that happen the day before yesterday ... or last week? No, wait, I think I actually dreamed that!"

Yeah, life can be harsh like that here.

Christmas Creche

As members of the ancient desert tribes, we don't really "do" Christmas, but it is all around us. Inescapable. As opposed to the US, though, where one sees more like reindeer and elves, the "creche" is what one sees more of here. I've told you, this is Catholic nation bar none.

The "real" Christmas celebration begins the night before--Christmas Eve--with lots of going to different people's houses to eat and drink. At midnight, all hell breaks loose and it's like the glorious sounds of invasive artillery warfare. All households, in true spirit of peace and brotherhood, burn up dozens of firecracker strings---called metralletas (machine guns)--and all sorts of fireworks. The kind that is proscribed in other countries as seriously hazardous.

Kids paradise, of course, what kid isn't a little pyromaniac? Hence, the streets are covered in a thick cloud of smoke and I rest assured many asthmatics just up and die every Christmas!

Hey ... I wonder if I could get a grant to run a research on that...?

Ancient Crumbling Building Façade on La Sexta

And then, after all that noise, eardrums blasted, eyes smarting from smoke and gunpowder, everyone sits to dinner. More like gorge on dinner. How one can go on eating after having been eating all day long at other places is a testament to the human spirit and its capabilities to devour twice one's weight. Talk about turkey, tamales, heavily spiked fruit punch, cakes.

For me, it so just happens that my mother's birthday was on Christmas Eve, so I am a quite the party pooper on that day. Plus, having spent other days out and about, one gets tired. I stayed home Christmas Eve. Yet the festivities have a way of finding one. One eats, one drinks on those days and nights. Resistance is futile.

Facetious "Wanted" Poster on Street Wall

So. What else? The renovations of 6th Avenue downtown, La Sexta, downtown's main street continue, with lots of controversy about the meaning of gentrification and who benefits and who suffers from it. Gentrifying forces seldom care about vulnerable populations, so to speak.

Still, even though it is looking cleaner and nicer, and is becoming quite the place to walk, I like the pockets of old, detritus-like façades, such as the one in one of the photos above. The photograph directly above, however, is of an amusing flyer which reads "Wanted" and names former president George Bush, former dictator Rios Montt and Álvaro Uribe, president of Colombia, wanted for genocide, terrorism and ... you get the idea.

Sunset View of Volcano. From My Balcony

The weather has been extremely cold, going down to the 40s sometimes. No central heating. Intense sunsets, clear skies. I love the cold weather, even if we have to bundle up even inside the house. The better to hide all those chocolate-laced tamales piling on my hips.

The recent moon eclipse was clearly visible from our rooftop, so guests and apartment tenants, all up there watching it happen. Did you all see it? It was fascinating. My photographs of the phenomenon came out all crappy, so I will be posting none.

I am truly glad I did get to watch it, since I seriously doubt I will be around when it happens again, in about 300 years or so. Not that I am being pessimistic or anything; just a hunch.

Sunset View from my Balcony

Either way, since people tend to drop by unannounced during the holiday season bearing gifts and cheer, we have learned our lesson by now and now keep a repository of small gifts handy, such as cookies or whatever, so that we can reciprocate. I made granola (almost the only thing I know how to prepare well) and placed it in nice glass canisters with a bow, and that is what I gave around.

This is really good granola I make, you all, if I may say so myself! I shipped most of the ingredients from the US: The walnut and hazelnut oils, the almonds and walnut, the cranberries. The rest: toasted coconut flakes, sesame and pumpkin seeds, etc., are easy to find and cheaper here. Actually one can find most of these things here, just at triple the price! You just cannot find granola like mine at the supermarkets here, so it has become quite popular.

My home-made granola gifts

Anyhow, as I was saying, downtown is becoming quite fun. Artsy. Cool little museums and cafes. A burgeoning theater scene. Cinema. Galleries. Street musicians. Panhandlers. En fin, what downtowns should be.

A new place opened on 5th Avenue--or La Quinta--and it is wonderful. A huge space, all 1950s in style, wide open and with tall windows. It was an abandoned carcass of a place before. Now it is called Bakabs and it's a ... I don't know, like a "holistic space" where they have contemporary art by emerging young artists, original clothing designs, modern furniture, artisanish accessories, and also serves coffee, wine and snacks.

Bakabs

It has a bit of a childish/playful quality to it, which isn't surprising if you consider that most of the artists who have their photographs, furniture or clothes for sale there are quite young. They still need to get their mojo going there, but it is well on its way. They need to add like, artsy books for sale and some jazzy music going on, perhaps. Generally speaking, however, I liked it and plan to return.

Bakabs

If you are ever in the area, I suggest you drop by and take a look, have a cup of coffee, etc. The administrator told me they are also offering one-day art and yoga workshops, stuff like that, and seems that people are signing up for these.

Bakabs

By the way, I loved the bar (see above)! In general, great space, so check it out if you are in the neighborhood. It has parking adjacent to it.

Other than that, it is an election year. It is illegal to campaign before January 2011, but since the fine is minimal... something like US$100 ... political parties campaign anyhow, and just pay the fine if/when caught. Moreover, the City government and the Presidential cabinets are all engaging in political campaigning though they, of course, do not get fined.

Talk about unfair advantage. And call it a case of who you know gets you off the hook.

Bakabs

The whole situation is simply ludicrous. I cannot stress enough how very uninterested I am in the nuts and bolts of the political scene here, yet still am fascinated by the surreal and buffoonesque quality of the electoral process.

There is a sense here, despite it being such a conservative society and traditional a culture, of impermanence, insecurity, not knowing what to expect except, probably, something scary ... no wonder so many people just avoid the whole political scene and any sort of real citizenry action, and live for the day, trying to get the best for him/herself out of it and screw everyone else. It comes down from the crappy leadership.

As for the elections, there are just, up to now, no good presidential options for Guatemalans, and the people know it well. So they either vote for anybody they think will throw scraps their way or they just don't bother.

Musicians playing on La Sexta, a Saturday afternoon

There is a whole region of the country right now ... Alta Verapaz, mostly... that was occupied by the military in a surprise maneuver ... in order to stem out-of-hand narco activity. Seems that the drug lords had taken over the local airport and roads, were engaging in Old Wild West style street shootouts all over town, and so on.

Not surprisingly, a significant number of the sicarios caught ... those are the hired guns or assassins ... were military and former military men. Not surprisingly, as well, the locals are actually happy to be currently occupied by the military, even with the attendant restrictions to their civil liberties!

The whole thing is surreal, of course. Add that to the clownish and cynical political scenario, and you can see where the country is going. Right out of a 30 year civil war, jumps into the same kind of civil strife that is bringing Mexico down.

Huevos Bechamel

So, best to focus on food. Food is a safer kind of adventure here. Relatively speaking, I mean.

The photo above, huevos bechamel, is this ultra-fattening, aorta-clogging dish we had at a Spanish restaurant. It goes down well with cold beer. I am not sure exactly how they are cooked, but they consist of boiled eggs, creamed with butter, then breaded and fried. They have a bit of a tart taste. Mustard-y.

Yeah, I know. If you were on a diet, there goes your calorie allocation for the rest of 2011. But I have to say, those eggs are soooo good!

Christmas "red" tamale

Guatemala is the land of tamales. There are just so many kinds! Rice tamales, potato tamales, corn tamales, meatless tamales, sweet tamales, chocolate tamales, chicken tamales, pork tamales, tamales with beans, and on and on. Christmas tamales come in red and black types, black tamales being laced with really dark, almost pure chocolate. Cocoa was discovered and produced by the Mayans, after all.

The red tamales have raisins and prunes, even though they are salty. I prefer mine meat-free in general. This, I must add, is real Mayan food and a true credit to the Mesoamerican culinary culture.

Local Sugarfree Ice Cream

However, if you are on a sugarfree kick, I have to recommend this Dos Pinos brand ice cream I discovered. It is sugarfree--as I said--and the taste so rich I immediately became a fan. It may be sugarfree, but it is not really low in calories, so I won't recommend it as a fat-free diet staple. It does go well with my granola and the amazingly big and luscious local blackberries.

Delish Sugarfree Ice Cream with Blackberries

So, ready for New Years? Are you still making promises after all these years of failed resolutions or have you, like me, just realized that New Years is a day like any other and has no magical powers inherent to it? I make no wishes and no resolutions, and life just works out to be more interesting--even with all its attendant grief--than I could imagine.

Be it as it may, the whole of downtown will come alive that night. We had planned to go to Xela for New Year's (very old colonial city up in the highlands), but then realized there is serious fun to be had here that day. Not to mention that Xela is suffering a severe, freezing cold front! But the calmer scene and beautiful highlands beckon ...

Yet here in downtown Guatemala City, several pubs will have live bands---good, well-known, local bands actually--and right off the bat I can say that El Gran Hotel (cool, Art Deco-meets-casual chic), La Bodeguita del Centro (very funky, Bohemian place) and Blanco y Negro (reggae/ska at the historic Pasaje Aycinena), among others, have already announced their New Years partying plans.

The only resolution I have made up to now, is that if we don't go to Xela, we will go to all of those 3 pubs! And let the new year bring what it may for all of us. Salud!

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