A Day Out for the Guys

Eliot and I decided to send mom "to get her hair did" this afternoon. Guys day out! We started by kickin' it with a little lunch.... a normal meal for El: pollo, squash and mangos. Mmmmm hmmmm. A few minutes on the floor playing some catch, then we hit the town, just us guys. We cruised around for a while, then decided to hit some art galleries. FYI: Guatemala is full of INCREDIBLE art. After taking in a lot of paintings, etc., it was close to pacha (bottle) time. So, we thought we'd swing by our favorite little coffee joint, "& Cafe" and head to the park in the Centro. That is, until we got a few doors down from the gallery...

See, when we left the house, we were well aware that the rainy season is beginning. So far each afternoon we've had a bit of rain, but no big deal thus far. Besides, it's guys' day, right? We left the umbrella at home just thinking we'd tough it out. Raincoats and umbrellas are for wimps. At least, that's what Eliot said.

So, a few doors down from the gallery and it started. Keep in mind that each entire city block in Antigua is just one solid wall from corner to corner on either side of the street, so there's little place to hide. At first it was no big deal, the eve of each store front was enough to hide under. Until the wind came. Then it was a full on rain storm. So, Eliot and I quickly found a little spot along one side of the street to hide in a doorway of a closed business. I sat on the stoop and pulled him close to me in his stroller, with nothing to sheild the rain but a bib. HE LOVED IT. Cars drove by splashing water everywhere, the water dripping from the eve of the building was dripping right next to us, getting me completely wet from the waste down and he kept sticking his hands out to play it it. He couldn't sit still, he was just wiggling and giggling. It was quite an adventure. I finally got wet enough that we made a run for it to the next available doorway about a block down (funny, lots of places were closed today). We ducked into a jewelry store and actually bumped into some of our housemates. Of course, they are all women, so they had raincoats, umbrellas, plastic covers for the strollers... wimps.

Here's a pick of us stuck on the side of the street in the rain...
It was now pacha time. We busted out and ran for it. About 3 1/2 blocks later we made it to the cafe. Nice, the power is out. So we jumped in and decided at least to hang out and wait for the storm to pass. Some more friends were inside. Girls. Completely dry girls. No sense of adventure! We dried off, played for a while, then had the afternoon bottle. Still raining. This is normally naptime, and Eliot let me know it. I put him asleep, tucked him into a dark room in the back in his stroller and waited. About halfway through his nap the power came on, so thankfully I didn't have to loiter any longer. Our girl Gabriela whipped up a White Chocolate Mocha (& Cafe makes the best one in the whole world), and soon after Eliot woke from his 35 minute nap. We kicked it for a while so "da da" could finish his mocha, and as the rain slowed to a sprinkle we decided to head home to see mom's beautiful hair.

The guys kickin' it at "& Cafe"...

All in all it was a very fun day. We laughed a lot together, and got soaking wet. Cap it off with some fried chicken at Pollo Campero and that's a good day to be a dude in Guatemala.