Change

Why is making change in Guatemala so difficult? I've handed business as little as Q$10 for a Q$3 or Q$5 purchase and put them in panic mode, some daughter summarily summoned from the next room to skamper across town begging other businesses to break my bill. Q$10, mind you, is less than US$1.50. No less than half the time, San Pedro La Laguna's bank is unable to change any bills, suggesting people holding the essentially-unspendable-unless-you-want-to-buy-the-whole-store Q$50 and Q$100 denominations spit out by the ATM "try again later." The stories I've heard about severe cash shortages sweeping Guatemala in years past were, I believe, not exaggerated.

Saturday I was lucky to find a tienda that could change Q$50, picking up four packages of then ungobbled galletas for Q$8.50. Chiky-brand variations cobertura de fresa, de vainilla, and the new Chiky Blak, galletas con sabor y cobertura de chocolate, were all tasty and standard, but the star of my in-room cookie fest was Arcoiris. Each of the eight cookies had a square butter cookie base, topped with four colored mini-marshmallow humps, alternated so as to be diagonally consistent punk and white, edges slightly melted together to form a unified marshmallow mound. Not only were the marshmallow puffs topped with coconut flakes and colorful sugary specks, but inside the foil package was a fast food condiment squeezepack filled with chemical-red fresa-flavored goo, to be smeared or dotted atop the cookies. A perfect interactive cookie experience for those wowed by processed sugars. A dream come true.

At night, speaking of dreams, I dreamed about moonpies.