the food....

So I have so much to share from my trip to Guatemala! But I've decided to start with my favorite part of the trip. All the fabulous food! Man who new Guatemalan cuisine was so delicious and balanced. All my meals were excellent.

my first meal was breakfast on the airplane. Not too shabby actually. Eggs with tomato, think ham slices, potato, roll, guava juice and coffee.

As soon as I got to my hostel I asked the guy at the front desk where was a good place for lunch. I told him I wanted a typical meal. So he sent me to this little whole in the wall, with typical grandmas cooking in the back of a little general store. I ordered Peipian, which is a typical dish from Antigua. It's like a chicken soup with spices (not spicy though). It was hearty, nutty and super filling!




right outside this beautiful church was this little food fair. They were grilling sausages, meats and pupusas! I was so stuffed from my lunch but I made sure to ask until what hour they would be there! I was gonna eat one of those purple pupusas! By night fall I was ready to eat again...I went a little crazy and tried a pupusa (no more purple corn ones though :(), some sausage and a plantain dessert. I was insanely full at the end of this! I felt like such a little piggy but hey I was on vacation! LOL


next day I woke up insanely early. I think I was just hyper and excited about being in Guatemala. I ordered breakfast (which was included in the price I paid to stay in the dorm room!!!!) and this fabulous burrito is what they served. I stayed at the Black Cat Inn, do stay there it is a really cute, quiet place close to the park. I went all throughout Europe and most breakfasts were toast and tea, I used to get excited when they hand "orange" drink available! So this was like uber luxurious to me. It was very good and it stuffed me up for my busy day of sightseeing!


I was heading over to the public market to look for a non expensive/touristy lunch when I saw a sign for this little restaurant. Luckily I saw lots of people (locals) and saw they had a set lunch special for 18 Quetzales (less than $3). So I went up to the terrace and relaxed a bit. Man this was a good and big lunch. I was very pleased with this! I especially liked the tiny container of pickled veggies that came with the soup! So tasty I'd wished I had gotten more of that!

after taking the long hike up to the lookout point for amazing views of the city I went with fellow dormitory mate to a pizza place. I was still full from lunch but I ordered an almond horchata! Deary me was that heavenly! Not too sweet and the almond flavor was perfect! My friend ordered a margharita pizza and she shared a couple slices with me and it was damn good. Brought me right back to Florence and Rome....

second day breakfast sandwich from the hostel most definitely did not disappoint. It was as delicious as it looks!


at the market I had fun shopping and stumbled a local sweets shop. Most of the sweets were marzipan which they make with pepitas and milk, but I also bought some squash sweets, and almond cinnamon candy. She told me that the fruits were milk candies. I did not try them but aren't they cute?

typical fruit stands all over!


after Antigua I traveled to Santa Cruz de Lago Atitlan (Lake Atitlan) and stayed at La Iguana Perdida. This hostel/hotel/resort totally lives up to all the magical reviews. It was such a lovely place to stay and the food was divine! Above is first nights dinner of pizza, roasted veggies and salad. And the next morning I had breakfast crepes. No words can do justice just yummy!



I walked around a small village and got some local fair (fried chicken, veggies and rice). Then later snacked on some chocolate covered strawberries and pineapple while I emmmm worked hard at learning back strap weaving....more details on that latter!





I visited Chichicastinago for the Thursday market. It was amazing! As I waited for my breakfast this guy came buy selling seeds and nuts. I got a tiny bag of fava beans. Then this glorious breakfast was served. So delicious it was my favorite from all the wonderful breakfasts I had on the trip. It was fried eggs, black beans, tomato sauce, sausage, fresh cheese, tortillas and cafe con leche. I didn't eat much else that day because this was obviously pretty filling but I got some shots of other local fair fruits and tortillas for sale. I did get a perfect mango, strawberry and blackberry smoothie with milk.


after the shuttle dropped me off in Panajachel, I decided to walk around a bit before heading back to la Iguana Perdida. I saw some girls eating these strangely shaped popsicles. There was every natural flavor imaginable from squash to strawberry...I however decided to try the purple sweet potato and then figured might as well get it covered in chocolate! LOL it was interesting...not as good as the chocolate covered pineapple but I could tell it was really made from sweet potato which is cool enough itself!

fabulous dinner at the Iguana. I didn't ever photograph the amazing soups or desserts which I should have but I always just gobbled them down! This night was empanada, mashed potato, veggies and salad....


this was also a good lunch but I suspect it the meal that got me sick all day on my second to last day :(....but it was tasty! It was a breaded steak with cheese, veggies, guacamole, french fries, tortillas and horchata!

back in Antigua my last breakfast...a bagel like BLT. YUM!

made sure to get my purple corn pupusa before I left! SOOOOO goooooooddddd and I washed it down with fresh fresh squeezed orange juice. Man I'd go back to Guatemala just for that combo!

the food....