Gastronomia

I arrived in Juayua on Friday afternoon and thought I'd get a bit of admin out of the way before the weekend. At the top of the list was getting money, then a haircut. Having not looked after my hair at all this trip, I thought I'd treat myself to a little trim. Well after about four minutes of Edward Scissorhands action, there was a new me with dramatically shorter hair with my hairdresser insisting it was only an inch, pointing to the long strands sitting forlornly on the ground. The torture cost me the grand sum of $1.50.

In Juayua each weekend there is a gastronomic festival which brings the town alive. The streets around the central park are full of stalls selling all sorts of food, grilled meats, soups, sweets, seafood, etc. Lots of visitors pour into the town on Saturday and Sunday, from both the cities and foreign tourists, to pig out for hours on end. This is accompanied by a man singing loudly and passionately and, for the most part, off-key, which can be heard right throughout the small town.

I bumped into my English friends, Sam and Julia, when I got here which was lucky as the rains poured throughout the afternoon and we were huddled under the tent eating our food for a few hours while waiting for the rain to settle. Later that evening we met back up at a bar where we had way too many mojitos. It was actually really nice to be around some other travellers again after such a dearth the past couple of weeks.

On Sunday I went to the neighbouring town of Ataco which also hosts a food festival at the weekends. This town is developing quickly but still not spoiled by tourism. While it drizzled all day, the beautiful murals on all the buildings brought so much colour and life that I barely even noticed the rain.