El Mercado and Suprise Japanese Food

Since I have been living by myself for a week, I have started cooking for myself (which I love… since this is what I do at home as well) and that means I have started shopping for myself.  As the second biggest city in Guatemala, Xela has two general grocery stores.  However, the best place to get your food ( and the cheapest way) is to go to the market. Xela has four markets, and on certain days the entire city seems to turn into a market as Guatemalan women dressed in blinged out and brilliant colored traditional huipiles sit on every corner with their piles of vegetables, or walk around the plaza shouting manzanas! Frutas! Tres quetzals! with  large baskets full of fruit balanced on top of their heads.

I love going to the market, because not only is it dirt cheap but you can also find any item you could possibly need. Radishes, spices, chicken feet, cow testicles, stools, coffee makers, clothing, electronics, dvds, sweets, lychee, cowboy boots,  and even satin underwear displayed in neat piles next to fresh eggs.

My problem with the market is because I look so blatantly gringa, I am constantly getting ripped off, but since even getting ripped off is super cheap I can never tell when I am getting ripped off. Also, some items are ridiculously cheap – for instance tres quetzales for a pound of tomatoes ( 45 cents) and some items are comparable to US prices ( 6 bucks for a used backpack). I always try to bargain when the price is already fair, and this 12 year old mayan girl in traditional dress just stares at me and shakes her head. And then sometimes I don’t bargain and then later realize that 10 q for a pile of tortillas is twice the normal price.

On the subject of food, I have been treated to a Japanese feast this week because one of  my housemates ( who is Japanese) is leaving and she and all of her Japanese friends have been having dinner and making gigantic amounts of Japanese food. I then proceeded to buy sushi from one of the women, so for dinner yesterday I had miso soup and sushi. Talk about things I wasn’t expecting to eat in Guatemala.