Note to Self: Avoid the Market on Sundays

This post is a little late in coming. Had some Internet connection issues earlier today. Not cool!

Anyhoo, yesterday, Sunday, we took a different route to walk into town. Our apartment is to the east of Panajachel. When walking into town, there is a suburb of sorts called Jucanya. Once you cross the yellow bridge, you're out of Jucanya and that's the beginning of Pana.
I had seen on Google maps that there was a small foot bridge crossing the river in Jucanya and we set off to find it. Of course, the streets have no names (sing it!) and they curved back around and we ended up down at the lake shore. That was actually quite interesting because it seemed that we walked right into a local picnic or something! There were tons of people there, but not a gringo in sight. We kinda snuck through, trying to be unobtrusive, and then I stopped to take a picture looking back from the river delta. I also took a 360 video from the riverbed.

We call those boats "party boats". I don't know what their true purpose is.
People all pile on and the boat tours down the shoreline with music blaring.
They go right past our park. 

It's the very end of the dry season right now so the river is just a stream.

This is looking back up the riverbed towards the yellow bridge.

 After our stroll by the lake, we headed up to the market. Bad move! Apparently, Sunday is the day when everyone and their cousin converges on the market! It was crowded and noisy and crazy. There are people hawking their wares, trucks and tuc-tucs and chicken buses and motorcycles roaring by, a hundred people talking at once, and traffic cops blowing their whistles. It smells like rotting fruit, diesel fumes, and fish. It is quite an experience!

The street fills up with vendors who just put down a blanket and arrange their wares on it.
There is everything from coconuts to shoes to cell phones to shrimp. 

There are vendors who set up to sell helado, ice cream, which is super popular with the locals.
I have yet to try one. The ice cream vendors' carts are on wheels, and they ring a bell as they walk the streets. 

This lady's umbrella fell down and caused a traffic jam of people.
I felt like a giant next to the short Mayan women. You could barely squeeze through the crowds
in some places, but no one seemed to mind. 

Where's Bert?

See him now? He bought a pound of strawberries and 3 garlic bulbs for Q11 or about $1.80 Canadian.

Inside the market building are even more fruits and vegetables, plus along the wall
are places that sell fresh meat. You can see a kid expertly slicing a haunch of something for
a Mayan family. I haven't dared to buy meat here. 

Peppa Pig pinata! Plus a cool bike. 

Me again, hot and blistered and making a silly face.

You may think you know what this is, but you don't.
Bert bought this for me. It's the most beautiful cat litter scoop
you have ever seen! Cost Q15 or $2.46 Canadian.

Totally exhausted tonight but have many more pictures and stories to share. Just gotta find the time to post it up here! Hasta luego, todos.