Another Fun Xela Xopping Xuttle

If you know Spanish, you probably got a mild chuckle out of this blog's title. If you don't know Spanish, you probably went, "Huh?"
See, the letter X in Spanish sounds like SH. So xopping xuttle is my Spanglish joke for "shopping shuttle"!
And in case you're new to my blog (or Guatemala geography), Xela is the common name for the city of Quetzaltenango. Xela is pronounced "sheh-lah" and Quetzaltenango is pronounced "ket-sahl-ten-AN-go". Or close enough. 😊

So what does this all mean? It just means that a bunch of friends and I rented a private minivan & driver and went on a shopping spree in the nearest big city. We went to a MALL. Gasp! 😲

The new(ish) Utz Ulew mall in Xela.

Our first stop was the Utz Ulew Mall near 19th ave and 3a street in zone 3. I had chosen this stop for a very important reason -- Dollar City! And it was sooooo worth it. 😁 I bought so much good stuff and would definitely make a trip back there just to shop more. Dollar City is the Latin American partner of Dollarama, an awesome dollar store in Canada. Everything even had Dollarama price stickers on it. It was heaven!

Next stop was the usual mall we visit, Pradera Mall, that has a nice Walmart. But first....fast food lunch in the food court!

McDonald's for me and Panda Express for my friend. Delish!

Bert had a HUGE Taco Bell combo. He couldn't finish it. 😋

It's actually exciting to have McD's and Taco Bell when we go to the city cuz we just don't have that option in Pana. Tastes "from home" are kinda comforting, even if it is junk.
For people who care about prices, Bert's giant combo was Q45 and my McNifica Doble combo was Q47.

We all picked up a few more things at Walmart before heading to our last stop, a store called Cemaco. I had never been to one before and I was impressed! It was a huge store with tons of items for the whole home, plus tools, paint, pet stuff, gardening, and lots more. It was pricier than Walmart but better quality.

Inside Cemaco in Xela

The signs are in Spanish with a local Mayan dialect beneath. I think it's K'iche.

After Cemaco, we were totally wiped out. We had arrived in Xela at 10am and it was about 3:30 when we left. Whew! The drive home flew by as we chatted in the van and soon we were all home unpacking our loot. 😄

The cost? Our shuttle was Q750 roundtrip, which is a good deal. I've heard quotes of Q800 or Q900 normally. We split the cost between everyone who comes, which works out to be more reasonable.

One note: you are expected to pay for any parking costs, of course, and you are also expected to pay for the driver's lunch. That second part was news to me. 

But just so you know, taking the chicken bus is way cheaper, if you can handle it. A trip from Pana to Xela is only about Q50 per person return trip. But chicken buses are not so much fun and you don't get a private driver to take you all over town and a nice van to pile all your attractive purchases into when you're done. 

So that was my Saturday. I hope you had a great weekend too. Catch ya next time! 😊

Goofing off in the mall

INFO ABOUT QUETZALTENANGO

Xela is Guatemala's second-largest city with a population of about 160,000. You're like, "What? That's a BIG city?" I know, right? But get this: Guatemala City has a population of over 2 million. Everyone lives there. And Xela is waaaaaay behind with only 160,000 peeps.
And then there's Panajachel, where I live, with only 20,000 people. Pretty darn small.
So taking a trip to the "big city" is a fun way to spend time with friends and shop for things that are harder to find at Lake Atitlan. It only takes about 2 hours to get there too, so you can easily get there and back in daylight hours.

More fun facts:
Pana's elevation is 5,240 ft or 1,597 meters
Xela's elevation is 7,650 ft or 2,330 meters
So on our ride, we went up in altitude by about another 2,410 feet or 733 meters! Wow! This actually makes me experience a little bit of altitude sickness, which kinda just feels like a hangover -- headache, irritability, hot flashes, tiredness. But I know to expect it, so I fight it off with ibuprofen and caffeine! 😆

Making Chili

You would think that something as simple as making a pot of chili would be easy. But, no, we're in Guatemala! Chili isn't much of a thing here, although we expats are trying to get our local friends addicted to it by bringing it to every potluck. (Right, Iva?) 😊

First things first: beans. Well, I know from experience that cooking rock-hard beans for four hours on my gas stove makes them only slightly less rock-hard. Waste of gas! And finding a can of beans is almost impossible. But then I noticed this huge bizarre package of beans next to the dried ones at Despensa. It says they're whole precooked beans. I had to try it!

Here is the video I made on opening this weird plastic thing.

So that was successful, if unexpected! I tasted the beans right then and they were soft and salty and slightly spiced.

I then added a pound of cooked chorizo sausage, canned mushrooms, a chopped onion, a shredded carrot for vitamins, tomato sauce, and various spices. Less than an hour later, we had hot spicy yumminess. 😋

Homemade chili, yum!

For those who are interested in prices:
large can of mushrooms Q13
1 lb of chorizo Q9
big bag o' beans Q17
2 large spaghetti sauce bags = Q12
a carrot, an onion, and spices = Q1?

So the total cost to make was about Q52, which is CDN $8.88 or USD $6.75.

I used chorizo cuz we had some in the fridge. Ground beef is quite a bit more expensive, about Q24 a pound (or more), which is around CDN$4.10 or USD$3.11. The price would have gone up significantly. Substituting sausage or chicken for beef is just one of the many ways I adapt recipes to adjust for prices here in Guatemala. The other is not adding cheese.... wahh!! 😭

But on the bright side, after dinner I went for a stroll to the store and got a delicious creamsicle for only Q3 or about 51¢ Canadian or 39¢ American. Ha! 😁

Reverse Culture Shock! My Trip To Canada

I finally got to go home to Canada for a visit after more than four years away! Thank you a million times to my awesome sisters for buying my plane tickets!

My trip was amazing and I got to do so many fun things with my family, including Canada Day (July 1), my parent's 50th wedding anniversary party, and my mom's birthday!

Flying over Guatemala City. So pretty from above!

Reverse culture shock is a real thing...although to me it was just kinda silliness rather than stressfulness. I felt a bit out of place but adapted quickly back into Canadian ways, although I spoke Spanish a couple times by mistake!

I've compiled a list of my Top 10 reverse culture shock experiences.

1. Canadians really are super polite. I miss that so much in Guate! In Canada, everyone truly does apologize all the time, no joke. A lady said sorry for almost bumping into me at the Dollarama. A driver and I got in a politeness battle over who would go thru the four-way stop first. And a man held open a door for me!!! omg crazy!

2. Canadians have hilarious accents. Mine is not strong, but a lot of the folks that live in my hometown have pretty thick accents. I tried very hard not to giggle. "Hey, Don. I herdja put a noo fence in da back fordee, eh?"

3. I love sidewalks. And parking spots and painted lines on the road and drivers who (mostly) obey the law.

4. Mosquitos are deadly to your health and sanity. I'd forgotten how many biting insects there are in Canada.

5. Cheese! OMG I ate so much cheeeeeeese! Dairy products are about three times more expensive in Guate. Gotta love Canadian dairy.

6. Canada is SO BIG. There is so much space. So much empty land...well, not empty really. It's full of trees and rocks and bugs, but I mean, honestly, why don't more people move there? Canada has room galore!

7. Houses are vacuum sealed. I kept opening all the windows at every house I stayed at. I guess I didn't realize how much I live in the outdoors in Guatemala. My windows and doors are always open and when they're closed, they're really still kinda open cuz there's no need to seal around the windows or use insulation. Canadian homes are airtight!

8. Everyone looks rich. They all have nice cars and fancy houses and clean clothes. But I know they're all probably drowning in debt and working 44+ hours a week at jobs they hate.

9. There are no stray dogs. Like NONE. I kept approaching people who were walking their dogs just to say hello and pet them. The dogs, not the people. I got some strange looks. I missed the chuchos of Guatemala so much!

10. Canadians think setting off fireworks is only for Canada Day. LOL! 😆

Canada Day fireworks in my Northern Ontario hometown.

My little sister was so great at helping me complete my Canadian Bucket List! She picked me up at the airport with a bag of dill pickle chips all ready for me to devour!! I ate as many Canadian foods as I could stuff in my mouth over the two weeks. I had poutine, butter tarts, root beer, blueberries, cherries, that weird yellow puffy corn treat that tastes like air and oil and butter, real hamburgers on the BBQ, perogies, Great Canadian Bagel, President's Choice products, and my favourite -- my Dad's maple syrup on pancakes! Plus I had Tim Horton's, like, almost every time I passed one, which is a lot. Iced Capps and Timbits and donuts, oh my!

A Timmy's Ice Capp and Lake Simcoe. Sweet bliss!

I swam in Lake Huron (c-c-c-cold) and Lake Simcoe (warmer).
I went an awesome boat ride across the lake to go for dinner, cuz that's how we roll. Or float, rather.
I walked around in daylight at 9 pm. (I miss the long summer nights!)
I heard a train!!!
I smelled campfires that were made of real wood, not garbage.
I saw chickadees and bluejays and cardinals and seagulls and crows and white-throated sparrows (the O Canada bird) and six squirrels on one lawn.

Please forgive the excessive amount of exclamation marks in this post. It was just really such a great trip and I smiled my face off the whole time.

Some of my backyard at my parent's house with beautiful irises in my Mumsy's garden.

But now you're probably wondering...am I going to move back?
Nope.
I definitely want to visit my home country more, but I love Guatemala and it suits my lifestyle much better than Canada does. Guatemala is beautiful, warm, and inexpensive. My life is better here. Plus I have my whole family of pets to think of!

And when I finally got back to Panajachel after 19 hours of travel, I had such a huge smile on my face. That's a pretty good sign that I'm living in the right place. 😁