Some more about Xela, redundantly wonderful

On Friday we left the Escuela de la Montaña and headed to Xela where we were going to meet up with our friend Amy. After finding her posada, we knocked on the almost unmarked door and were greeted by friendly, ten year old Ikea who told us that Amy had stepped out. Walking away a little bit dejected, we stopped to look at the map to see what crummy hostel we were going to stay in for the night and lo and behold! Amy arrived with a (hey lovebirds!) for us (sorry, quote key broken) and we had a place to stay. The posada is in its third or fourth iteration, first as a stable, then a school, then various uses interspersed with earthquakes which have forever altered its personality- walls end halfway up, or start where they shouldnt, etc... All the same, an awesome place to stay and Amy has a fantastic room with a nice view of the courtyard.

We took Amy out for indian food (!!!) at Sabor de la India, a restaurant at the hilly end of the square, located on a dead end. We sat in the dining room at an enormous table, wondering what Indian would be like in Guatemala. . . Turns out, pretty different from Indian in the USA. Cat ordered palak paneer, a classic that should be pretty straightforward, but came lightly steamed with a spicy, ginger sauce. I ordered and loved my chicken tikka marsala, with thick rich sauce and special cashew rice in yogurt. It was Amy whose meal took the cake as the most bizarre, with Koshka ball curry (or something like that) which gave her the opportunity to develop her language skills by asking (What is in this!).

Awakened early to the alarm clock, Amy going to meet up with friends and climb a volcano picking up trash. . . Got up, made some coffee, realized the kitchen and pila, or outside sink, were super skunky, full of dirty dishes and stagnant, putrid water, and sat down to wait for our shuttle to Mexico, booked the night before at the Black Cat Hostel... We were sitting down at the sofa in the courtyard when we heard the pathetic mewling of a little cat, which had fallen off the roof and was terrified to find that it was lost... It was very sad; the cats parents were up on the roof but we could not reach up to get the cat back to them, much less find the cat, once we let go of it... It ran away and hid under the sofa. Brian decided to take on the filthy Pila and spent a half hour plunging it with the toilet plunger, after which we filled it with clean water, and left feeling heroic, for our minibus...