Food and Fun With My Sister

My sister and I did a lot of walking, shopping, eating, laughing, and exploring during her six days here in Panajachel. We strolled Santander several times and bought a lot of gifts: some planned, some spontaneous. We got to meet with Victor of tuk-tuk 88, Jesus the card seller (who is now 15!), the shoe shine boys, Catarina the persistent street vendor, and ran into many friends just walking around town. I love Pana!

Macadamia nuts for sale on the street. In Panajachel, if you can put it in a wheelbarrow or on your back, you can sell it!

Photos at the Pana dock at the end of Santander.

Suzanne doing a super model (or super hero?) pose.

Our first dinner was at Paris Paris on Santander. It was delicious! I love beef. I  need to eat more of it.

She's not wasted, promise! We only had one drink by the lakeshore. The beer can says Q10 right on it but the tienda owner charged us Q12. When I asked why, he told us it was because it was cold!

Drinks at Pete's! Not wasted, honest!

Bert joined us at Pete's for an impromptu dinner on Monday night.

NJP making dinner in his awesome kitchen. We had beans and peppers and onions and chicken on tortillas. Very Guatemalan!
We also had some rambutans, which you can see in the bag on the bottom left.

Pete keeps his food staples in old paint cans. Keeps them very dry.

I got Suzanne to try granadilla. We were joking with Arturo, Pete's friend, and said it looked like frog's eggs! He laughed at us. :)

Tuesday night dinner was amazing sushi at Restaurante Hana. OMG divine!! We had California rolls 2-for-1 special plus tempura. Sushi is about Q65 a plate ($11.30 Cdn), so the 2-for-1 special is an awesome deal.

Restaurante Hana is in Casa Cakchiquel on February 14th Street. (I kid you not. That's the name of the street.) It has a lot of historical photos of Guatemala. Super cool to look at.

Dhal at La Cocina on Santander. The only Indian restaurant in Pana! Yummy. This was Wednesday lunch.

Beef and veggie samosas at La Cocina. They were so amazing! I could eat these every day.

Funny how my sister comes to Guatemala and we end up eating Japanese and Indian foods! But we had a lot of other delicious Guatemalan food such as tamalitos de chipilin from the lady who sells them from her woven bag on the street. It tastes like asparagus. (Click the link to see a video recipe.)

And of course, we had to have COFFEE.

My happy sister at Cafe Loco on Santander. Check my YouTube channel for a quick video of the inside of this small but amazing coffee shop.

So happy! This is the roasting room at Crossroads Cafe. Michael, the store owner, let Amazing Iva and Suzanne back there to see the roasting. Suzanne was in heaven!

Our dinner on Wednesday night was with some friends who are here in Pana for a year. J&N invited us over for dinner at their lovely home and we had the best time hanging with them and chatting with their three adorable kids.

On Thursday night, Suzanne, Iva, and I had our farewell dinner at Altamar restaurant right down by the lake. It had such a beautiful view and we had the place to ourselves.

Me and Suzanne enjoying drinks and food at the Altamar Restaurant in Pana overlooking Lake Atitlan.

Can't beat this view! There was even lightning in the distance. 

Suzanne and Iva chatting it up.

I had nachos (not bad) and Suzanne had chicken tacos (excellent) and the hugest plate of french fries (yum).

They had amazing fancy drinks there! Strawberry daiquiri with real pureed strawberries for Q35.

I've got two more blogs to write about my sister's visit. One about the Atitlan Nature Reserve that we visited on Tuesday -- amazing! -- and one about our trips to Sololá and Santa Cruz. Keep on reading, amigos!