On Sunday, May 19th, about half of us had lunch at “El Comalote,” a maize
based restaurant, in the lesser seen, eastern end of Antigua. The restaurant came highly recommended by Mily after I had shared that there was a “geocache” hidden near there (more on what a “geocache” is in a bit). “El Comalote” offers various meals, with a specialty in meals prepared with maize. While some of us had ordered tortillas with beef and chorizo, and others had ordered Hilachas, some of us ordered some tortillas with chicken. I had ordered the latter, and I was not disappointed. My chicken tortillas came with one red, one blue, and one green (made from mixing cilantro with the masa) tortilla and pickled red onion, as well as some guacamole on the side. While having lunch, each of us enjoyed friendly conversations with one another about various topics, including our research, interests, and more about ourselves. It was at this point in the trip when it felt like we were growing to understand one another and our dynamics before leaving for Lago Atitlán the next day.
Us eating lunch at “El Comalote.” (Photo taken by staff at El Comalote).
So, what brought us to El Comalote besides it being a fantastic place to have lunch? As mentioned previously, a “geocache” had after I shared with Mily about the geocache located near it. You may be asking, “What is a geocache” anyway? A geocache is part of a worldwide scavenger hunt using GPS that takes you to a given location where you have to find something. Sometimes a geocache is physically placed at a location that you have to find. Other times a geocache takes you to a location and to claim that you “found it,” you have to either take photos or answer some questions at that specific location. Either way, geocaching (the name of the activity of finding a geocache) tends to take you to some places that you might have not known about (even within your hometown).
Before our visit to El Comalote, I gave a short presentation on what finding a geocache entails at Casa Herrera. I was appreciative of everyone’s engagement during the presentation, as I got some great questions about how the hobby of geocaching works. After my presentation, we made our way to El Comalote to have lunch. Before having lunch at El Comalote, however, we made a short visit to Santo Domingo because Dr. Runggaldier wanted to share with us about its convent and museum collections.
Me giving a presentation on “What is Geocaching?” (Photo taken by Dr. Astrid Runggaldier).
After finishing lunch at El Comalote, I pointed us in the general direction of where the geocache may be located along the wall of El Comalote. Everyone was giddy and excited to find the geocache after my presentation. Julia, our TA, had found it first, followed by a few others. Once Yves revealed the location of where the geocache was hidden, I retrieved it so that we could all sign its log to claim credit that we had found it. As it started to rain, we all took cover underneath the small awning located in front of the maize restaurant and signed the geocache’s log in a still functioning payphone booth. All in all, this experience was rather magical because it reminded me of why I like to introduce geocaching to people: to bring them a sense of adventure and joy to the lesser-seen places that you might not have gotten the opportunity to see or learn about without geocaching.
Photo of approximately where the geocache is located near El Comalote. (Photo taken by Julia Cohen).
Some of us signing the log under the cover of a functioning payphone (from left to right: Ainsley, Yves, Martin, Hudson and I). (Photo taken by Dr. Astrid Runggaldier).
Group Photo of Us. (Photo taken by Martin Rangel).