Today, I was getting over my flu. I decided: time to get out of the house, I’m finally going out tonight after being stuck in bed for four days.
But I reallllllly didn’t want to go to La Parranda. Every Wednesday, “the place to be” in Xela is La Parranda for salsa night.
First of all, I’m pretty sick of the salsa scene. Don’t get me wrong. I love, love, love to dance salsa. But what I don’t enjoy is standing around and waiting for some salsero to ask me to dance, and then feeling bored/crappy because I don’t have the long blond hair/dance skills required to be a popular salsa partner. I’m not even looking for male attention right now, so I don’t want my fun at a bar to be dictated by, well, male attention.
Yeah, so I’m sick of the salsa scene in Xela. I want to go out and just shoot the shit with people.
Second of all, I’m still feeling a bit unwell from the flu, so I wanted something low-key tonight.
So I found myself at trivia night at Ojala. The theme: sex. Sex trivia. (Did you know that a teaspoon of sperm has 5 calories?)
This was obviously not the most “authentic” Guatemalan evening out. Besides three Guatemalan dudes in our team, the bar was almost entirely composed of foreigners. The questions were clearly meant for a North American or European audience.
I had a great time. Our team, “El Mango y los Chocobananos” (in slang terms, “The Good-looking guy…” and you can figure out the rest) tied for first. There were lots of laughs. The questions were great.
But is this what I came to Guatemala to do – go to an event clearly meant to emulate “back home”?
But at the same time, should a traveler snobbily avoid something fun in the name of “authenticity”?
I will try to answer these questions tomorrow once I have given them some proper thought. Any thoughts from the audience?
Comments 1
Caitlin said: “But is this what I came to Guatemala to do – go to an event clearly meant to emulate “back home”? But at the same time, should a traveler snobbily avoid something fun in the name of “authenticity”? I will try to answer these questions tomorrow once I have given them some proper thought. Any thoughts from the audience? ”
Oh Boy!!!! Have you opened up a huge subject. This is one of those subjects that can be debated forever, with no results because there is no *real* answer. Or better, no one right answer for all situations. Maybe we should sick Wade on this one…..
What did you go to Guat for? I would guess it was to enjoy yourself, to learn, to create memories. To this end, going out and having fun is good. No, a traveler should never avoid something fun just in the name of *authenticity*. Those were the easy questions to answer. The difficult subject is *authenticity*. Just how authentic can a situation be if you throw a foreigner into the mix? What is *not* authentic? If Guatemalans get together to play cards on a Friday night. And you normally play cards at home on a Friday night, does your joining them make that an authentic experience or not? Does everything authentic have to be that different from what you would do back home? If you get invited into someones house for Christmas dinner, and they go out of their way to make you feel like you are at home by putting up a Christmas tree or something and serve American dishes, is that authentic? Is it not? One take, out of many, with this last scenario is that this is exactly what that culture does for guests. I know that in the US, if someone from another culture is invited for, say, Christmas dinner, that an attempt is made to make them feal at home in the same way. That is *authentic*. Or maybe not?
This can go on for ever with various examples. One good one would be, if a traditional ceremony is performed for a group of tourists, is that authentic? Some would say no, as it is just a staged tourist experience. Others would say yes, as it IS an authentic ceremony. I was on an island in Belize once, and a local highschool group came and performed some traditional dances. Was this *authentic*? This group performs the same dances all around Belize for Belizians ^sp? So, yes, it was authentic, from one perspective anyway.
Go out and enjoy yourself, just be careful.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 5:02 am ¶Post a Comment