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Posts Tagged ‘sobremesa’

Our Town

Posted in Living in Antigua, tagged , , , on April 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

‘love it or leave it’….or just get the hell outa Dodge for the end of Semana Santa, which  is exactly what I did…4 days/3 nights in beautiful downtown Guaranja, off the maps, grids and without water…yeah, there was ice, coke, rum and beer plus ammunition, so it wasn’t a total loss. Total Loss? the  venerable Land Rover, with history  going back to Jim Hearne, Mac, Murray and lately HBT…Reid?  his dreams shattered permanently after hearing just how trashed the Rover is…

Imageit’s  not a pretty picture but that’s what it is…the weather, the pigs and the missing radiator…and now that I gave it a final coup de grace….it was HBT’s  idea, except he doesn’t remember…two  rounds in the  night, after innumerable rounds of beer, rum and HBT’s favorite combustible..hey, it was Guaranja, Good Friday night, no water, rum down to a bottle and a half and everyone else was letting off rounds…if nothing else, it was a great insight/experience in ‘tipico’ Guatemala living…no water, wood stoves for cooking, extended families, lotta pigs running around and a fabulous river for swimming…hidden, off the  map and popular with the locals…

part 1…http://www.examiner.com/article/finding-guaranja

I’m thinkin’ of  a  Monopoly version of Antigua…Go to Jail cards, followed by years of  ’house arrest’…land on a space where a  restaurant used to be, pick up 200q,…speaking of jail, another ‘conspiracy to commit illegal acts’ has spun off the latest event involving a certain  house south of  town…not involving cats this time but a television set…the ‘crime’ captured on video, engendered a lotta cops and attorneys…after coming from a town where the police never come to, attorneys are unknown, this event boggles the mind..

Mario B/wife Nancy/baby, eating at Sobremesa…La Sala, thanks to Mario, is rockin’ seven nights a week and brightening up that part of town..Pappy’s Texas BBQ says their website is now up…www.bbqantigua.com….orders they take at orders@bbqantigua.com  tell me if it’s working or not, porfa

a flash of Flor, a dash of Claudia #1…hey, better than nothing, eh? and a  few places around town sold out of  ’Our Man in Antigua!’….whoop tee doo…right…BFD, actually but I’ll restock, take the $$ and shut up..

lastly, the old Ixcot space is now rented…from the signage, it looks like it’s associated with the Hotel D’Leyenda two doors down and they’re betting the house on serving ceviche..they could stuck a  Spanish school, travel agency and whatever else in there….who knows?

HBT didn’t get the concept of nude chocolate wrestling here in A-Town…tourism, right? yes, but….who gets to be the judge of the contestants? right!

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Coming soon, to a street near you

Posted in Living in Antigua, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

“Jesus and Mary, Part 12″….yep, another procession…Merced being ground zero with TV uplinks, lights and the streets blocked off…and the Army? the PNC? tons…black berets, pistols tied down for a quick draw and everywhere, every corner…what the %$#@! are they expecting to happen?

yes…that was an earthquake tonight…6.2, SE of G City but a deep one…yeah, it rattled parts of town, those who are/where in a position or state of mind to feel it..(not me, Bozo)

popped my head into Sobremesa’s new expansion…’love the little lounge and the new ‘open to the sky’ garden is coming (in back)…Alex says he’s been slammed with biz..

ok…it’s Monday, right? which implies that we’ve got 5.5 days or more processions, right?

I haven’t been out at night for 3 nights…this was a barely escaped event at La Merced and I count myself lucky..when the 8am traffic on 6th avenida norte gets to me,you know that I’ve got a problem with noise/people…well, I know it…even with lousy vision and bad hearing, I’m still affected…no, more pharmaceuticals aren’t the answer (damn)i know…’one more week, one more week’….and no, I haven’t been getting very far at night (see above)so the gossip/chisme factor is low…what little I’ve seen/heard isn’t of much interest…even to me, so that’s how lame it/I am..maybe tomorrow, maybe next week…who knows? go out and make some news, ok?

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The Whether Report

Posted in Living in Antigua, tagged , , , , on March 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

or otherwise, everything from soup to nuts: nuts? go to the central park about  9am or the Ocelot patio for Slappy Hour, 5-6..

Sobremesa kicking out the jams, making new rooms/holes in the walls, ceiling, Micho’s recently remodeled bar getting some touchup paint tonight, yielding some serious fumes in that space…serious stuff, no face masks…

ah…the return soon (saturday) of the  Marvelous Miss M, following a tour of Israel, Spain and Italy…she’ll need a job and yes, I see that Cafe No Se is looking….hmm…Micho’s also (a better fit, methinks)

a preview of next week’s jaunt

http://www.examiner.com/article/searching-for-the-lost-spanish-stone?cid=db_articles

the always elegant Victoria C, on 4th calle at 7ish…chatting with girlfriends, same dazzling smile…hmmm…would a sexagenarian have a shot?..you know, a chance…

this weather? first it’s cold, then it’s windy, then it warms up….I’ve had girlfriends like t his.  Remember, Pappy’s BBQ tomorrow, 11am…Jon Mellen, of Epicure, a bbq fiend, will probably show  up, especially after I told him that I wasn’t buying his frozen ribs anymore, since I can’t beat Blake’s…11-4, Fri-Sat-Sun…6th calle, next to the Cactus Grill.

and yes, last night’s booze cruise to the Mono Loco bar in the city? 45 passengers and they didn’t get  home til 1 or so…place jammed/packed, 3 levels…

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Clowns to the left, Jokers to the right

Posted in Living in Antigua, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

to paraphase Mr Dylan…the town? overflowing with Guatemaltecos, some tasty Capitalinas(and they know it), the Silver Guy  in the park, clowns and a performance art guy on  north 5ta..

what’s up with all the dirty streets/calles/avenidas? where’s the little truck with the vacuum cleaner or the muni water truck?…at least, when Adolfo was the mayor, things were clean….well, except for deals like the Finca Chacra…ooh. a subdivision? mighta been the final straw for a lotta folks in Antigua, another sign that the Alcalde had reached too far and too deep…the 5 or 6 folks nabbed last week, who were part of this, have probably begun to sing….

the Banco Industrial rip-off? happened in the City, over the weekend after the first of March..confined to some large shopping malls,with a lotta withdrawals…payday, $$…a million Q mentioned and BI is going to reimburse and switch to cards with ‘chips’ this spring..

Papa Town?  reopened(why?) the lone guy at 13, the ‘concept bar’ probably wondering why he bothered to open….the patio below, owned by Whiskey Den with a bunch of beer-slugging folks, Lava fulla Guatemaltecos…

my trusty travel agents? a bit of price confusion per next week, so I thought i’d go by and have a word…closed at 4….Pappy’s BBQ, around the corner, down to the dregs of the day’s smokeroo…Neil of Micho’s and Alex of Sobremesa, getting ready for the night…two great chefs, on the same block…Antigua’s finest..

Epicure? Jon Mellen gifted me a jar of  their ‘bread and butter pickle relish’…I was buying the Trader Vics sweet pickle relish anyway…damn good, Jon…35q, if you’re missing bread and butter pickle stuff..

so, it’s a perfect sunset/twilight at the finca…town, frankly, fried me: the people, crowds, traffic…guess I’ve lost my tolerance for such. The dogs play with each other, and the next big thing is to have the bushes trimmed in front of my kitchen window…whooo…eh?

so, assuming that the ‘price/rate issue’ can be resolved favorably by next week, it’s a ‘go’ to go tromping thru the canefields of Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa sometime in the fear nuture..and maybe a little after hours ‘stuff’…

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Jam packed!

Posted in Living in Antigua, tagged , , , , on March 8, 2013 | 1 Comment »

no. not strawberry preserves…tourists! a ton of tourists….a lot of cruise shippers in the day, being hounded by the vendors in the park(no Tourist Police to dampen their ardor) and the evening full of  overnighters…I don’t remember a busier day/evening but then my memory is….subject to a lot of things.

Michos’!….walk in and you won’t recognize it…what was a cozy, semi-funky coffee shop by day and a quiet bar at night? stemware, full on wine-liquor racks, and a big new curved bar…new tables/chairs and….a full size restaurant kitchen out in back…Neil got his 6 burner gas range, Spiro is serving  up delicacies and…a big smile on Henrik’s face…if the short-lived ‘Pangea’ experience, where Neil  had a tiny kitchen and a weird partner is any clue, this may well be the premier dining place on  4th calle…Sobremesa finally has competition, chef-wise…

Ricardo’s Tabacos y Vinos, on 5th Ave, by the Arch? if this town had a Fire Marshall and an  occupancy code, they’d be in violation tonight: ‘never saw so many people packed into what  is a small space…so? so what? $$$, that’s what.

ah, the ever luscious Flor Moran? ducked into El Portal briefly…dressed in white(tight) and a spangled top…says she’s reopening her store, Dasha, in two weeks…no, I didn’ get the new location but I did get two hugs/kisses…whew..if i weren’t ‘off’ blondes, I’d consider…

Reid C, complaining that his watch lost the second hand(bobbing around inside, at the bottom of the face) so? so what? who needs a second hand anymore? are we timing greyhounds or race horses? hell, trade it to Francisco for a used Movado with a Timex inside…after more than a few changes, it looks like the next expedition is set to go in about ten days….’looking for the lost Mayan stele/carved rock in the cane field, by Santa Lucia Cotmalguapa is coming together….word of caution re the Posada del Quetzal in Puerto San Jose…their posted room rates on their  web site changes often…the posted rate is 1000q a night but the real rate, via  the splendid girls at Mayan Kingdom Travel, is 150q a night…yeah, back to PSJ and the strip clubs..maybe even the Bamboo Club..’adult entertainment’ at its Guatemalan best…we’ll need Reid along to ‘compare/contrast’ with his adventures in Joco…god, I love  field research..

Shaun of Ocelot ‘road testing’ a series of ‘fishbowls’…a giant glass bowl full of various fluids(mostly fruit juice/alcohol)…tonight’s version was something called the ‘Pink Panther’ and deadly…imagine a giant glass bowl and six straws…no pricing, as of yet…road testing, as it were..

ok, a vision of what one might expect in Puerto San Jose…never posted/published before..

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