Our Man in Antigua

no…not a San Francisco ‘thing.’…I was just waxing nostalgically (counter-clockwise)about certain Easter rituals, like dressing up for one of the 2 or so important rituals, church-wise…the outfit, the hat, the brunch, chocolate bunnies (not a racist thing, ok?) and thanking whoever that, at last, Lent/Semana Santa et al is over…Jesus (and Elvis)have left the building….hey, at least some of the sidewalks are clean, thanks to a new crew of hosers, with a spiffy new purple water truck.

and some ongoing rumors, some of which might even come true, such as a new LaTorre supermarket up the hill, at Santa Lucia Milpas Altas…hey, its closer than San Lucas, with less traffic. The some say, other site was out by the Nestle’s plant, on the Ciudad Vieja route…whatever. Progress rears its ugly head, one way or the other, no? ah..the other rumor? one of  our yearly winter warriors tried to take a couple of his ‘friends’,  dressed in native costume, into a nearer bar/restaurant on 6th avenida last week…and were promptly 86’d (asked to leave rudely) he said…so? ..’correction’…the girls are said to be 22 and 26 years old. When I spoke with one of the principals of the operation, he said that he’s ‘out of the loop’ and didn’t know anything about the event…Guatemala is a very racist/sexist country, as we know…had the ‘girls’ been wearing ‘western clothing’ this probably wouldn’t have happened, which made me think…have I ever seen any girls/women here, wearing native dress, in any establishment, ever?  no…aside from a small tienda/store, that is…and all of this probably has nothing to do with a subsequent event, whereby some kind of police came thru the park, and took away 3 gringos for ‘questioning’…one said it was about ‘illegal activity.’ ..so? the moral of the story appears to be…there’s a bit of a spotlight on older gringos being seen with native women, dressed in their native costumes..ah, this town as if there isn’t enough chisme/gossip to go around..

ah, the dust, the ash, the smoke…burning cane fields, volcanic grit, dusty calles…many furriners, myself included,  complaining of eye problems but I have hog..no, eye wash…and yes, the cops are sometimes busting folks for drinking in the Park..mainly at night, so as not to disturb the tourists, what few are left now…as with the winter crowd, they’re thinning out, as their 90 day visas expire. The codger’s bench in the park gets thinned out weekly now, if the damned sweepers in the morning could quit quit stirring up the dust…bitch, bitch, I know: I’m just glad to come out of my cave now that the crowds have left

jeez…its time for  an adult sports beverage, now that the April edition of Our Man in Antigua is up/out on Amazon et al..whew, whatta schedule.