Looking for an Informal Place to Eat? Go to a Comedor

Typical lunch in a comedor (this cost 15 Qutezales = $2)

If you have the chance to visit Guatemala and you want a little taste of the culture you will do doubt end up at a Comedor. This literally translates to "dining area" but is used for little informal restaurants. There is usually no written menu here. Instead the server will come around and tell you the two or three things that the have on the menu and if you don't like them you are out of luck.

One of the great things about comedores is that the food is CHEAP! Meals generally cost $1.50-$2. At the fancy comedor in Antigua (a UNESCO world heritage beautiful colonial town) the meal would be maybe $5.  I lived in a small rural town about an hour outside of Xela (the second biggest city in Guatemala). We didn't have a supermarket or more than a couple paved roads but what we did have was a handful of comedores.

Menu choices usually include:
- Fried chicken
- Beef or duck or cow hoof soup
- Some type of chicken in a tomato-based sauce

Meals always come with:
- drink (choice of hot beverage like coffee ((in my opinion coffee flavored sugar water)) or a juice of the day)
- the meal will come with sides (usually rice and maybe a vegetable (usually covered in mayonaise))
- TORTILLAS (or Tamalitos) - a refillable basket wrapped in a cloth to keep them warm.

One food you might find on the menu are Paches which is a traditional Guatemalan food.

I would like to say that there is no fast food in Guatemala, but this is not the case. In the bigger cities you can usually find a McDonalds or two or more likely, a Pollo Campero (Country Chicken) which is similar to KFC but insanely popular in Guatemala. Pollo Campero is so popular that outside of almost every store there are a couple of women selling hot tortillas to go with the meal because in Guatemala, a meal isn't complete without tortillas. In fact this is so much the case that when I was eating with my host family and eating everything they did, I kept a tortilla tally and ate 98 in one month. I think this was much lower than other members of my host family.

Tuk-tuks: The Tricycle of Taxis

A tuk-tuk in beautiful Antigua

It's true. Tuk-tuks have three wheels, are covered (they have cloth flaps on the sides instead of doors), and fit 2-4 people (2 comfortably). The steering on the inside is more like a motorcycle than a car. There are no pedals and everything is controlled by the handlebars. There is one smaller bench seat in the front for the driver (usually a 16~25 year old male) and a larger bench seat in the back. There isn't much room. Hailing one is like hailing a cab: just wave one down on the street. What you cannot do is call a number and have on pick you up. There is no tuk-tuk dispatcher number. As far as I know they are privately owned and drive around where / when they want.

As you can see they are very...open

The front row of the tuk-tuk.
From right to left: paying passinger, driver, driver's son(?) along for the ride

In my small town there was a line of about five tuk-tuks lined up by the one bus stop. It was only about a five minute walk from there, the center of town, to my house, but if it was really raining and I was carrying a large bag of laundry then I would sometimes pay the 5 Quetzales (~$0.65) to have a tuk-tuk take me to my house.

Like any other buying situation in Guatemala, taking a ride in a tuk-tuk requires negotiation. You have to bargain with the tuk-tuk driver. What I found is that there is generally a set price for certain distances and you need to know how much more than that you are being charged. If you are a gringo or don't speak Spanish - expect to pay more for everything. That is just the way it is. Luckily things (and tuk-tuk rides) in Guatemala are relatively inexpensive and even the foreigner price is low. I highly recommend taking a tuk-tuk if you find yourself in Guatemala (they can be found all over all cities). 

If you are wondering why the driver's head is tilted to the side it is because he was on the phone. In general, this is how I feel about transportation in Guatemala:

http://howapcvputsitgently.tumblr.com/post/130546685762/how-i-feel-while-riding-local-transportation

In conjunction with:

http://howapcvputsitgently.tumblr.com/post/123538299831/hcns-concept-of-personal-space

(HCN is Peace Corps lingo for Host Country Nationals aka Guatemalans in my case)

Me in Traje (the Traditional Mayan Clothing)

My host mom, Juana, and I

I know this is a bunch of pictures of me (and my host family) but bear with me.

Traje (pronounced traw-hey) is the traditional Mayan clothing.

One of the things that I love most about Guatemala is the vibrant Mayan culture. Below are some of my blog posts about different aspects of the culture.

- Mayan ceremony

- Traditional Mayan folk dancing

- K'iche' one of the many Mayan languages

- Mayan language map

- Mayan saunas 

- Mayan ruins 

- Mayan numerals

- Cinta: The Mayan

headband

In Peace Corps Guatemala each volunteer had to live with a host family. This was partially to help keep us safe and accounted for and partially to help us integrate into the community. In my case this was extremely helpful. I lived with a LARGE host family. My host parents had nine children and their children had children. Not all of these people lived in the house, but many of them did. At any given meal there were 15 people. 

Another thing that I loved was that the Guatemalans I met really wanted to share their heritage / culture with me. My host mom would dress me up like her doll. She would pick out an outfit for me, one of her many trajes. This included four pieces: the wrap around skirt, belt, apron, short-sleeve top, and sweater. Then we would go around the house and sometimes around town and take pictures. 

Sheryl and I. This hot pink number was one of my favorites.

Princess. I'm not kidding her name is princess.
Not even princesa (princess in Spanish)

Juana liked picking new places to take pictures.
Any place with flowers was a good spot.

Corn drying in the front of the house

Genesis Cristal, one of the youngest in the family

Michel and Sheryl

My two best friends in town, Lidia and Rosemeri. They are both teachers in the local school.

Hora Chapin (Guatemalan Hour)

If you have ever lived in or visited Guatemala then I bet you are well aware of the "hora Chapin" ("Guatemalan hour" or less literally the custom of arriving late). Many cultures around the world seem to have similar customs with flexible time windows, but not the United States. The norm in Guatemala is easily 15-30 minutes late (maybe even more)! This can be frustrating trying to plan and carry out meetings. Even when I thought that I was going to arrive at some event in my town super late (about 5 minutes) I would generally arrive out of breath from running only to find out that I was one of the first people there and that said event wouldn't start for a while.

The Peace Corps was one big lesson in learning to calm down a little bit and learn to go with the flow. Since arriving home I have found myself with a propensity to be a little bit late for things. While I am trying hard to shake this bad habit I think that I came out of it with the much better skill of learning how to be flexible, go with the flow, and always have a plan b, c, or d for when plans inevitably change.