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Archive for the ‘Shopping’ Category

State of Bliss

Posted in Guatemala, Living in Antigua, Nicaragua, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel, central america, guatemala, tagged , , , , on February 27, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Bodogona has Flor de Cana 7 yr old rum!…that, plus the 1.75 liter jug brought in from Nicaragua today has me in a minor state of bliss…look, I’m a simple guy, ok?

check out La Cuadra’s latest issue: page 16 for Frank of Nim P’ot’s Top Ten Reasons to visit Guatemala…I’m kinda fond of ‘most laws not enforced’…send in your suggestions for next month’s Top Ten…this is fun..speaking of fun..

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-story-of-ruth?cid=db_articles

Jason of Lava’s birthday bash tonight…a roast pig and a lamb…fabulous…the usual scoundrels plus a few new additions….the Gang of Four goes fishing in the morning…telephone calls at 4am…’Wake up!”

this may well be my favorite time of year…the purple blossoms of the jacaranda trees, the purple of bouganvillea vines, the purple bunting hanging from the windows around town…warm days, perfect nights..

guess who’s back? Pat F…..g Farrell!…been gone almost a year and shows up? yep…welcome back…he mentioned visiting Don Marco in  the pen…remember that FBI bust in the park? Don M gets out in September but he’s restricted from traveling for two years, but as I said..’hey, he’s got his brother’s passport, eh?’…and yes, the PNC in action last night! caught a 16 yr old perp(the other 6 got away)trying to crack into Gaia..upper 5th, ok? if they were and the cops think so, this is/was the gang responsible for the 11 or so break-ins around town recently…bypassing alarms, eh?  hmm..who used to work for an alarm installation company?

the ex-restaurant Panchoy on 6th ave sur, by dos Reilly’s? major renovations…its a big  place and going up against Las Cebollinas? no  worries from the better place, Da Vinci (my favorite per decor) who is going the ‘pizza-pizza route’…why? a class joint? I guess pizza is better than nothing..same could be said about Christophe but I’m not going there..and another shop opening next to dos Reilly’s..what? who knows? probably a travel agency/spanish school/pizza/mayan crafts…getcher t-shirts here, altho I see that more than one clothing store is going the ’50% off’ route…

the very elegant Catherine D, dining alone at El Sabor Tiempo…when she mentioned rabbit stew I had to mention ‘Thumper’…I left before she threw her wine at me..and yes, the March issue of Our Man is up on Amazon.com….getcher Christmas shopping done early (I need the $$)a few more outlets in town and thanks to the recent influx of tourists it’s moving…thank god..where’s the Flor of Dasha? haven’t seen her on the streets nor seen any sign that she’s opened a new store…damn..she is  a ‘visual treat’…my Flor? on the counter, waiting for a refill…have a great Thursday, the end of February and so on..

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Nary a Clue

Posted in Guatemala, Living in Antigua, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel, central america, guatemala, tagged , , , , on January 15, 2013 | 3 Comments »

as usual, you say….the towns’ composition of bars/restaurants is continuing to morph….more closures, more moves, more tectonic shifts.

The venerable Panchoy Restaurant on 6th Ave, across from dos Reilly’s, calling it quits after 15-20 years, the ex-Pizza Mia space on 4th Ave, across from the ex-Ixcot/Pangea spaces will have a new tenant soon…who is bailing from a space on 4th Calle per the competition…a long time bar in town reputedly getting the boot per repeated infractions of this and that..

on the other hand(five fingers)…La Sala pumping Salsa Night with a Cuban foursome…La Casbah doing electronic music on the weekends only…hey, he owns the building and doesn’t need the $$$, ok?

and yes….the first installment of last weekends’ jaunt…and a partially new crew

http://www.examiner.com/article/hi-yo-silver-1

Riki’s..the old Riki’s space? lost another possible tenant per the costs of rehab…Ritual, on 5th Ave, across from the Posada Don Rodrigo…closing…on 5th Ave? the golden zone of town? yep…at least Ocelot/Lava are doing fine…slammed by folks at 5 and 6pm…and the new owners/tenants of what was Pangea still dithering….no clues as to menu/direction other than ‘wine and beer’….

and it looks like another ‘road trip’ is shaping up for next month…Rabinal/copper/malachite stuff…the silver ore that Mike D found is okay, but it’s in a mine that’s already being worked, so fuggedaboutdat..it was a practice run anyway..now that we know where to find the topo maps and directions, we can find our butts a lot easier…the crew may change a bit, depending on the terrain/roads..it was different this time, being in a new car with brakes/good tires and so on…one forgets those simple pleasures and/or lack of concerns..one does…and I like Henrik’s new black Land Rover…way cool…or is it a Range Rover? who cares..Luciano is back at El Cazadore Italiano and they’ve got their groove back, after Marcel cashed out…and a good thing.

and the ex-Mayor’s daughter, working the La  Leyenda Hotel on 4th Ave? she’s aged….really aged, recently…we smile at each other, etc..however, on the good side, the ever elegant Victoria C is back in town and judging from her clothes at 5pm, working somewhere on 4th Calle..we had a conversation across the street from each other, ok? is she still hanging out in Norway sometimes? Reid C says he finally saw Miss 8:30 yesterday….how did he recognize her? outstanding assets, he said…yeah, that’s her…if you’re in the park at 8:30, et cetera..can you say ‘pulchitrude?’..can I spel it rite?

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Dingleberries

Posted in Guatemala, Living in Antigua, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel, central america, guatemala, tagged , , , , , , on January 7, 2013 | 2 Comments »

in a way, kind of a metaphor for stuff going on around town…the signs are off at what was Riki’s and Ixcot….Braulio’s is four months behind in their rent and even worse…wurst? that old time place at the end of 1st Avenida with the great terrace views? nailed/stickered with a big SAT tax poster(so I was told)….alas…if so, another low blow to an already bad year of tax/paperwork/screwups…

a movie being shot in A-Town? interiors this morning along 3rd calle and this evening…the City Hall closed off, with chicken buses, extras and so on…wtf? judging from the equipment, a low budget kinda flick..yeah, I’ve been around movie making/makers for awhile…the clue is the number of cameras, the dollies(not the ones in spandex) and the director and his staff…

and yes, the ‘beat’ goes on…tomorrow the big City for topo maps…searching for the long lost Spanish Fly Silver Mines by Hue Hue next weekend..oops…spanish fly? did they fly or did they use buttons? who cares?

David Hoffman was questioning my count of 8 times that Pinata Boy was thrown out of Lava…he was too busy kicking the stuffing outa PB, who is supposedly at the Lake today…and yes, the so-called ‘security guard’ got canned that night for non-performance of his duties..

Piano Mike outa here Friday for a month…back to the YouEssof A for another stab at romance..applause, please…just like Woody Allen once said, 90% of life is just showing up and as one who’s been down that rocky path of hopes, mopes and dopes…let there be luck!

and thanks, one and all, for comments on my health ‘issues’…the cold, that beast, has apparently been banished from my bod…no meds today…well, almost none…’maintenance’, you know…ask Hogan about that stuff..

supposedly the old Pangea space had a looky loo…a potential renter, ok? a lady with a white little dog on a leash, a t-shirt that read “I Love Las Vegas’, a sugar daddy and no…no sign of gold lame slippers..lame’, not lame…altho one is as good as the other..Allen at the ‘Menu’ dishing out the dinners, Scott S/Pablo A at El Cazadore for an early dinner, Luciano workin’ the bar…Marcel probably laughing a lot, somewhere, at getting out while the getting was good..dos Reilly’s with as many staff as drinkers..and when will the old Reilly’s on 5th ave norte ever reopen? they keep dragging in trucks of sand, gravel and what-not…has it been two years since?..1st calle by Merced…lights out at the bars/restaurants…a quiet night in town..and yes, a few more familiar faces from the frozen north in town…welcome back!

Fusion dead, El Nido Antigua, the shopping mall in back equally so…altho the Choco Museo across the street? maybe its the hats or the staff but they continue to drag in people..and on…the proposed expedition to Puerto Quetzal this week? off…had to leave at 5am Wednesday…wrong, scotch-breath..the only thing i do at 5am is make another visit to the….WC..and yes, for those who are into pork…jameswdurham2@ gmail.com is still in business…the very best in pork chops,sausage and so on..pork me? no, pork you..have a great week…yeah, the weather is weird but.. 

 

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Diminished Expectorations

Posted in Guatemala, Living in Antigua, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel, central america, guatemala, tagged , , on January 5, 2013 | 3 Comments »

in that, the OTC cold meds are doing something(finally )and I’m semi-coming around to feeling abnormal again…everyone, well…not ‘everyone’ but a sizeable percentage of same seems to be disclosing similar symptoms. So? so what, right? those little green depth charges are working, even if I’m not.

 

Tomorrow? 12-ish, Micho’s Cafe/Pub on 4th calle..Spiro’s birthday…you know, the guy who whips up that incredible looking/tasting ceviche?  and i think(sic)that Nelson is playing Caffe Bourbon tonight…hey, music is almost back in Antigua and the good news is that the musicians are actually getting paid…well, most of ‘em…Seth Montfort blew/left town last month…bad vibes with Panza Verde but then that’s not exactly news for a few people.

more bad vibes from the recently opened Pan E Fantasia deli on 3rd calle…’internal strife’…someone walked off/left in a snit…no, that’s not a moto…look, I like their stuff, it’s just the sticker shock that goes with it.

looks like i missed the grand opening of the Mango Smoothie Place on 5th calle last night…hey, i was zonked, ok? if that’s the same space that i was told was renting for $3000 a month, then do the math…figure a 1000q a day, rent, utilities, etc…if you’re selling smoothies at 50q each(don’t quote me)then that’s 20 a day, to break even..does it pencil out?

is this really the first weekend of the new year? yep…calendar-wise, etc…incoming snowbirds this week…Roberto Bookstein and Reid the C…Barb the K and Joe Collins, each recovering from dat old debil radiation, later this spring. Yeah, and Tuesday, my first trip to the City in six months plus…going to look for topo maps at the Guate Geo-what’s it office by the airport…maybe, just maybe, if  my ex-landlord and his mysterious brother get their act together, a road trip to Hue-Hue and the ‘lost spanish silver mines’…Friday? I gotta feeling this isn’t going according to Plan.

and one of our Antigua/Rio Dulce characters, back from RD yesterday…took the bus, which stopped halfway…the food/piss stop…got off and witnessed a shooting…bang bang…dude emptied his pistol into a bystander, then goes off to his car, gets another handgun and does it again…can you say ‘Hallmark?’

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Pinata Boy

Posted in Guatemala, Living in Antigua, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel, central america, guatemala, tagged , , on January 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

a new record was set this week and one that’ll be hard to top…I wondered about the scabs/abrasions when i saw him in Bodegona yesterday, and still raving….the record? being 86′d eight times outa Lava/Ocelot in the same night (New Years)…the thumps/bruises were acquired ad hoc. This, of course, eclipses the previous record of six ejections(with thumping) and a more recent escorting from the premises of a lady we all know…what exactly is in those Kamikazies, anyway? yeah, it’s spelled wrong…I’m on Vicks 44 and tequila…lime juice for the vitamin C…even normally boisterous party animals were disgusted, which is some kinda sign.

at last, the ‘final final’ of the New Year’s Day blowoff….at 5pm or so the central park was encircled with firecrackers, strewn in patterns here and there…I bailed, since Ocelot was having ‘difficulties’ opening on time..but this morning when the usual 8 0′clock sweepers appeared, it took them 3 hours rather than the usual one hour…serious rubbish/trash/debris…no, not the habitues…the  firecracker remnants.

Chalk up a smart move for Hillbilly Tom…..left town and headed for his place on the river, by Gualan…a lot safer/saner as long as he doesn’t mess with the sow down below.

Marbel the Marvelous surfaced! new foto on FB and a sweet note to moi…I, frankly Scarlett, miss her…she dressed well and we laughed a lot, two commodities in short supply around here.

marvel

 

at last word, she’d gone to India, Nepal or ?…..you know? who was missing for New Year’s Eve here? think about these animals….Jason Lever and John Wilbur…did they ever meet each other?

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