This country's president will be inaugurated today and already helicopters are circling El Tenedor, the restaurant connected with Casa Santo Domingo but located in a remote hillside nearby the city of Antigua. I suspect that somebody of importance is breaking bread up thataway this morning. Contrasting that, John and I decided after our walk to continue an additional four blocks to the Sky Cafe near the San Francisco church and ruins. We entered the empty restaurant and found one wait person. I asked if the rooftop was open and we were given the affirmative so climbed the circular stairway and overlooked the city of Antigua. John ordered a cheddar/ham omelet and requested salsa ranchera on the side. Buttermilk is unavailable in this town so the pancakes which I ordered were some sort of sweet milk thick pads. My first bite was surprising but I began to take a liking to the quarter-inch thick pads lying on the plate before me. I had a pat of butter from New Zealand and a packet of syrup with a picture of a maple leaf on its top. It was not maple syrup by any stretch but filled the void and made the combination of pancake, butter and syrup more than acceptable. I had a side of fresh fruit (watermelon and cantaloupe). Finish that up with a cup of crimson hibiscus (jamaica) herbal tea and you know what I stowed away in my gut this morning. John would be able to give good reports on his omelet, potatoes and toast with the salsa ranchera. Oh, and add a cup of Guatemalan coffee...make that two.
We are now back at the compound where Rumaldo has been trimming the ivies and vines on the side of the large apartment which was fashioned from the ruins of the Santo Domingo convent. Paul and Ruth purchased this property (a part of the ruins) before the central government of Guatemala had protections in place against the sale or purchase of the antiquities. Such a sale could never happen these days. As I have mentioned in other blogs regarding the ruin, the outer walls are about one meter in width. That provides great protection from either the warmth in midday or the coolness at night. As I have also mentioned before, the English patient (Jane) resides and rules from a throne in that apartment. She is a British ex-pat who is now a resident of Guatemala and enjoys her station here. She volunteers at various venues and seems to be connected with some of the folks who prefer to tilt their heads such that their noses point towards the sun. She has 24/7 help in her apartment lest she stumble or fall. I have received reports that not all help is happy to be working for her. Putting it bluntly, she is a difficult employer. Of course, for the money she might have expended in her adopted city of Dallas, she would now be penniless. Here it is a different story as her resources stretch like the widow's mite. Widow she is not. She has been married at least once and has a family and an ex in the USA. When they have visited, they feel that she is getting good bang for her bucks...oh, make that her Quetzales! Her ex, though unfaithful in their marriage and now married to a far younger lass, has been more than generous in matters financial for Jane.
The reason Jane is down here is that she heard of a marvelous cure for MS. There is a man in Guatemala City who was hired by one of the dog food companies like Purina to experiment with a formula for animals. In so doing, he claims that he discovered a magic elixir that would cure MS. Of course gullible folks like Jane jump to anything that might seem promising so she entered this man's experimental program. After a lengthy course, she discontinued treatments from that charlaton and sought stem-cell therapy in the country of Panama. She and her acrophobic maid flew from Guatemala to Panama for that treatment. Imagine the terror of the maid on her initiating voyage in the silver bird. She is neither doing any better nor any worse than she was when she first came down here some three or four years ago. She is a pill and I opt not to associate closely with her.
John plans to bake cinnamon swirl bread today. He has all the ingredients and now it is just to combine and do the time with the dough. I will waddle up to his apartment when the smell of the bread comes from the oven. Nothing better than freshly baked bread with butter. Does that sound like the story of the Little Red Hen who had no friends until the finished product. Of course she did not share:
["Very well," said the little red hen. "I shall make the bread myself." She went into her neat little kitchen. She mixed the flour into dough. She kneaded the dough and put it into the oven to bake.
Soon there was a lovely smell of hot fresh bread. It filled all the corners of the house and wafted out into the garden. The pig came into the kitchen from his muddy patch in the garden, the duck came in from the pond and the cat left his place in the sun. When the little red hen opened the oven door the dough had risen up and had turned into the nicest, most delicious looking loaf of bread any of them had seen.
"Who is going to eat this bread?" asked the little red hen.
"I will," grunted the pig.
"I will," quacked the duck.
"I will," purred the cat.
"Oh no, you won't," said the little red hen. "I planted the seed, I cut the corn, I took it to the mill to be made into flour, and I made the bread, all by myself. I shall now eat the loaf all by myself."
The pig, the duck and the cat all stood and watched as the little red hen ate the loaf all by herself. It was delicious and she enjoyed it, right to the very last crumb.]
Two days ago we met one of our friends from Guatemala City and one of her friends here in Antigua for lunch. They are two ex-pats who now live in Guatemala. One is fifty-seven years of age and the other has been on Earth for eighty-two years. Both are vibrant and in complete control of their senses and neither falters at speedy ambulation. The younger lives with her husband on the top floor of an apartment building (they have the entire top floor) and they have a weekend home here in Antigua. Sadly, the alcoholic and drug-riddled son of the husband lives in the weekend home with his dogs. It is a gorgeous Spanish-style home with all of the modern conveniences. It is ample in every aspect and would make any Texan drool and drivel. Sadly, it seems the lad has no direction other than to sit and ponder while he intoxicates himself with the deadly brews and powders.
The elder lady, Audrey, caters to this day and has done so for years here in Central America. She is the author of a cookbook and enjoys all aspects of preparation of comestibles and the serving of such. Just this past week she catered a sit-down dinner of 15. A truly amazing individual. I can only hope that things work as well for me should I live to be 82 as I observed them function for her.
The younger lady, Juliana, was our acquaintance from a year or two ago. An interesting lady in her own respect, she has an equally interesting husband Gerry. He worked for years for the employer General Mills from Minneapolis. He was involved in global operations through the years and, as I recall, was a sort of trouble shooter when products and product lines were introduced to foreign lands. Among his responsibilities were those of Central and South America. Long story but the short of it was that he bought out a portion of the interests of his employer in Central America. He did amazingly well and they live well and enjoy all of the better things. We are possibly going to accompany Juliana on one or more trips during our stay here. We are interested in returning to El Salvador and going for our first time to Belize. She is also interested in joining us during a portion of the time we may be out at Lake Atitlán in February.
We have now climbed the Cerro de la Cruz (Mount Cross) for over one week and it seems to be getting a bit easier. Not each day but overall. We still work up a healthy sweat (or glow for you who are proper). And, we have both been very careful to not consume between meals. There have been minor exceptions but nothing habitual.
I mentioned earlier that John had purchased a textbook of Spanish that was used at the school he last attended here. He has begun individual studies in that text and I have done so with Rosetta Stone. I keep plugging along and I really do enjoy the course as it helps me fill in the gaps that I have missed along the way in my pursuit of the beautiful Spanish language. But, between the two of us, we do manage to communicate our every needs and even more. We have not been caught in any jam for years. But, there is always something to learn because neither of us is at all fluent. Just say that we do get along and are unafraid to try.
There is a large black walnut tree just above the roof of where I am staying. Being deciduous, it lost its leaves about three months ago and dropped almost three barrels of delicious black walnuts. As we have observed in years past, the leaves just now are beginning to sprout out on the limbs. The tree provides an absolutely wonderful umbrella for my dwelling and every day I do see changes in its beauty.
Cracking of the black walnuts is the job of Rumaldo. It is his chore when the days are rainy or the weather inclement. He has been instructed to not work in the rain so he sits in the shop and cracks each walnut individually in Paul's wonderful nut cracker. Still the meat is difficult to extract in the black walnut and it is a true labor of love (though Rumaldo receives a generous salary for his five and one-half days of toil on the compound). Never mind that he does take naps from time to time when out of ear- and eye-shot. One cannot beat a good horse to death!
Daysi, the maid in the compound who has enjoyed over a half century of cumpleaños (birthdays), has been struggling with the additional challenges of a kitchen remodel at her own home. Suffice it to say that it is not being done quickly and there have been unexpected delays as well as set-backs because of past mistakes, lack of funds and poor judgment in the initial construction of her home. Forget about either standardization or code! But, other than a day here or there, she is a regular on the compound. Unlike Rumaldo, she works only four days weekly. She is originally from Nicaragua and her divorced husband still resides there as do some of her family. She lives here with an amante (lover) who is far her junior. All that having been said, she is a faithful and dependable employee though she is not always too careful whilst dusting and fails to get the dirt in the corners. To overcome this minor fault, Ruth has employed the good sight and ingenuity of Paul to restore and reconstruct cups, vases, small statues, etc. in the home that have been whisked off the tables or shelves. Sad but true. One does what one has to do. We persevere.
Perhaps later I shall have a good report on the bread and the balance of the day. Until that time, rest your eyes!
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