Guatemala: Day 8 - Last Night in Xela

For my last night in Xela, Chris and I agreed it would be nice to treat our family to dinner and dessert. I mentioned that pizza was kind of a specialty dinner here and that Dominos was the popular place to go. Chris hasn't given up her NY snobbery about pizza and thought Dominos would be way lame.

However, I talked with Danilo and he instantly requested pizza (which he and the rest of the family all know to be his favorite food.) And followed up with saying to go to Dominos. "Told you!" I said to Chris. We tried to explain how people feel about Dominos in NY, but it didn't matter much.

Before dinner, Chris and I also got a bottle of wine,  a bottle of beer, a yummy-looking cake, and some other pastries.

We asked when they would like to have dinner and they said 7. We said that we would leave for pizza around 6:30, but Danilo added that Glendi could take Chris on the moto at 7. So dinner at 7 became go leave to get dinner at 7, which really means 7:15, which means when all is said and done dinner will be at 8. Ish.

But when we finally sat down for dinner, we had such a nice time chatting and eating. They enjoy kidding around and they seem to be an all-around happy family. Because of the restaurant, this was the only meal we all sat down to together other than the Chinese food on our first night. After pizza and beer, I brought out the treats, which were even yummier than they looked. The cake was called tres leches and the pastry was called mil hojas.

And after this began the vino challenge. When we bought the wine, I knew there was a chance the family wouldn't have a corkscrew. But I asked Danilo if they had anything and he said yes. Then he banged the bottle bottom on the wall a couple times. I thought he was being silly. He WAS being silly, but he was also showing me how he planned to open the wine. This didn't work, so we brainstormed some other methods.

I brought out my spork, my tweezers, and my knitting needles. We opted for the knitting needle. We hammered it into the cork, in hopes to create a hole. But then the needle was stuck. Like, super stuck. Like, so stuck that Danilo got his drill to pull it out. Which worked. And a little bit of wine came with it so we thought we had succeeded. Sadly no more wine came out. Danilo tried drilling into the cork with a drill bit, but finally we opted for using the hammer and another tool to push the cork into the wine. Which was perfectly fine and we enjoyed our well-earned beverage.

Drills, knitting needles, and wine.

The night turned into a nice little celebration. Danilo played his xylophone while Pablo played his child-size version. We also shared our facebook names (which was a good chance for me to see how much can be seen by people who have no real connection to me at all) and looked at photos. Glendi told me to tell mi esposo that I would be staying longer in Guatemala. At first I misunderstood and said, "si!"

We wound down around ten, with Cheetos the kitten cuddled into Chris's knee. Usually he sleeps in the garage type area with the dog, but he was so cute we let him stay. Until he decided it was time to play all over me at 2:30 in the morning.

I woke up, showered, and ate some more dessert for breakfast. Glendi made some coffee and gave me a pair of earrings she made. Soon after I was off to Panajachel, which is another adventure that I'll be saving to share for another day.

Adios, Xela! :-(

P.S.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Our Christine is safe and sound. We met lots of nice people at the school who will take good care of her. AND several of them will be heading to the mountain school at the same time as her! I believe I left her in good hands.