El Baúl

On my last day of Spanish school, we were treated to a surprise lunch trip when we got home. To bid farewell to Karen (who was leaving the next day), Noah and I (who were leaving this week), Gloria and Angelica put together an insane menu and brought us up to one of Xela's best vantage points, El Baul. To get there, we rode in the back of Helen's pickup. This is how its done in Guatemala. Too hype.

I wish this were legal in Canada.

El Baul is at the top of a nearby mountain, and is essentially a local park. There are a bunch of picnic areas up there, including grills where people can barbecue to their hearts' content. Also, there is a really ballin' statue of Xela's Mayan warrior, who I believe is named Tecun (although I can't be sure this statue is indeed supposed to be portraying him).


Aside from the beautiful picnic areas and the big stone monument to former warriors, there is also an amazing view of the city. Perfection.


However, the highlight of the park is by far the slides, known as resbaladeros. Unlike normal park slides, these are made of concrete, which means that if you faceplant, its bad news. To go down them, most people slides on pieces of paper, or newspapers, but the experts use flattened plastic soda bottles. As you can imagine, you can pick up some serious speed on one of those things, although I only had a small bottle to try, and apparently the best ones are the 3L puppies (yes, soft drinks come in a remarkable 3L size here).



After the slides, we made our way back to the picnic area to sample our wonderful lunch menu. Carne asada, sebollas, tortillas, elote, papas, friollos, you name it - we had it.

Culinary delight.

We made our way back to the house as the dark clouds began to roll in, and after a full day, I threw my stuff together to get ready for Antigua, which I left for the same night. Never a dull moment in Xela.

The fam.