We had heard from a pair of American travellers about a Mayan cooking class in San Pedro that they really recommend so we decided to give it a go. It was run by a woman in her 30’s called Annetta, she met us at 9 am by the dock and we walked with her up the steep streets away from the tourist trap by the lake and into the local market. While we were there she brought all the ingredients fresh for the meal we were going to make, she explained to us that most of the locals don’t speak English or Spanish, just native Mayan dialects so encouraged us to ask her any questions we had about the food or people we saw while in the market.
She showed us all the different types of bananas and avocados they have, and explained we normally only get one kind of tough skinned avocado in the UK as it is the only one that travels without bruising easily, she also brought dragon fruit for us to try along with other ingredients needed for the meal we were making. We had noticed in Mexico and Guatemala that sometimes tortillas are a grey colour and she explained this is just because they use grey coloured corn, and in Guatemala they have white red and grey corn but only white and grey are used for cooking as the red corn is considered sacred and is only used in Mayan ceremonies. We also noted how nice it was that no plastic bags were used in the market, apparently this was a new thing, they had recently been banned with a fine of 1500Q (£150) for using one, which is pretty hefty as the average weekly wage in the area is ~40Q (£4). Apparently there used to be plastic bags everywhere in the streets which got swept into the lake every time it rained and as the lake is effectively just a valley filled with rain water they just stay in the lake, so a big effort was made to stop the pollution. We also asked her why throughout Guatemala women seem to wear traditional dress while men rarely do, apparently it is due to the civil war in Guatemala, the men used to be recruited and would kill men from opposing areas that were distinguishable by the slight variations in traditional clothing so they changed to wearing western clothes that are imported cheaply second hand from the US.
After we had all of our ingredients we headed back to Annetta’s kitchen, a large room with two open sides looking out over the lake. The meal prep wasn’t exactly a cooking class as we didn’t all cook our own meal from start to finish but instead was more like communal cooking where we all had different tasks overlooked by Annetta. Some people got to cut the exotic fruits and vegetables and some people were shown how to peel an avocado with out a knife but I of course got the very exotic task of peeling and chopping potatoes, then carrots and then beans. We did all however get a go at making tortillas (which is much harder than it looks!), potato and herb pancake type things and also a tamale type dish of mashed potatoes and vegetables wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. We ate these with rice and a type of chicken and vegetable stew and for desert we had fried plantains covered in a sauce made from blended chillies and chocolate.
The food was nice and while we ate Annetta told us stories about her life, how she taught herself English at 7 by learning phrases from tourists and how when her mother got sick she became the head of the house aged 8 and how she married a man who cheated on her, (which is apparently very common in Guatemala as woman are seen as subservient to men) and when she tried to leave him was told she was just lucky he was a good husband and didn’t beat her, which he later went in to do and when she chose to divorce him her family disowned her, then when she tried to get a job rather than go back to her husband her society disowned her for disrespecting her husband. She eventually became successful and her family, community and husband wanted back into her life, she told us how she forgave them and tried to change the community’s view on women supporting them selves and had opened a weaving co-op where local women could make and sell there goods. After we had finished our meal she took us down to the weavers co-op shop and showed us the different types of cotton that grow in Guatemala and how the colour of the plants flower indicated the colour of cotton, how they cleaned the cotton and turned it into thread and how they got a wide range of colours from natural dyes such as beetroot and barks. It was a very interesting and informative day and Annetta seemed like one bad-arse woman!
The course finished about 3 and some girls we met on it suggested we went to their hostel bar after, it was a cheap bar and you could jump straight from the bar into the lake, they also had an inflatable in the water and people were taking it in turns to sit on one end while someone jumped on the other launching them into the air. It was a really fun afternoon and we ended up going out, which seems to happen a lot these days, but it’s just so much fun going out here it’s a mix of locals and tourists, young and old, salsa and Latino club music and everyone is so friendly and dancing with each other it’s a lot of fun and like nowhere I’ve ever been out before. It’s was also very strange as around the lake they close everything down by midnight so people start going into clubs at 8 pm, leave at 12 am and have a good night’s sleep, I don’t see why we can’t do that in the UK to be honest!
We got to sleep at 1 am and were up at 5 am to catch a shuttle from the other side of the lake back to San Cristobal in Mexico, an 11 hour trip in a small shuttle on 4 hours sleep. It was a very long day to say the least but we’ve made it here!
I’ll keep you updated as to what we get up to.
Lots of love,
Alice x
Ps. We’re in the attic of the hostel which has huge windows; look at my view from bed!
