Our Man in Antigua

the only two words that came to my mind(sic) when I was walking around Old McDonald’s Farm, aka Franks’Place..thank you for a perfect afternoon, with music, friends and snacks…well,more than snacks…Spyros and crew turned out the most outrageous ceviche, using the finest/freshest ingredients from an organic garden bigger than Central Park…maybe twice as large..my mouth was open a lot of the time..the views? thanks…memorable..very …

so…no drinkie poos tonight…Shaun, wife and kids at Marco’s Ice Cream on 5th and enjoying a very rare Saturday night off…dos Reilly’s shuttered, same-o for El Muro and El Caminante,Cashbar, Sangre, Studio 35…Gaia? open? why? the food? a mariachi  band playing on mid 5th norte…sidewalk…hey…wake up, Frida’s and TacoDiscontento….hire these guys…show some ambience with the lousy mexican food they serve. If if weren’t for the game on the large flatscreen at TacoSmell… they can’t even get people thru the door…staring thru the window…La Fonda doing ok, La Pena del Sol Latino doing a few tables…thanks, Crash, for the ‘coffee’ in the cup…tasted like a Nicaraguan blend..and aged just right…4th calle rather slow tonight…empty might be a betterdescription…a few bands/groups of the young, clean and sober seen heading southward from 4th  avenida…Ricardo’s Vino y Tabacos lights out..Queso y Vino? night after night, the Guate crowd with the shiny SUV’s..passed the o so elegant mayoral candidate of the Unionistas..Susana Acensio…’wished her luck tomorrow’… a few early tables at Hector’s..he’s ‘on a trip’ somewhere per the staff…let’s see, how long has it been since he’s had a steady lady? for that matter, how long has it been for me?…long enough that I forget who ties up who first.

ok..the election…’never seen so many polling places…but as Uncle Joe Stalin once observed, ‘it doesn’t matter who votes or why…what matters is who counts the votes’…’given the notorious 2000 vote in Florida, think about it…’would you trust a voting machine or an accurate count?  I’m personally hoping for someone better than the existing doofus and his ex-spouse…i live here but as just how things are in the upper youess, change is slow, at best..