S1, E3: Super Bowl LIX & Central America

Picture it: It’s Friday before Super Bowl Sunday, and instead of being productive, I’m here with a full-on rant.

I saw near-death experiences in parking lots, tortilla chip aisle showdowns, and realized that people will fight for buffalo dip like it’s gold.

After barely escaping that retail war zone, let’s talk about something way more fun—my recent trip to Guatemala.

I never had Guatemala on my travel bucket list, but after spending a week hiking volcanoes, wheezing up 75-degree-angled streets, riding a horse (which aggressively farted in my husband’s face), I am a changed person.

So if you love Super Bowl rants, unhinged travel stories, and finding out which McDonald's items will change your life, buckle up—this episode has it all. Hit play and let’s Talk Some Shit! 🎙️🔥

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Transcript

 Welcome to Ricci talk shit. The podcast where I, your fearless leader, Ricci, sits on her ass and talks about, well, whatever the hell I feel like talking about. We're going to go into deep dives into the chaos of life. We're going to rant about why pineapple on pizza shouldn't be a debate. And this is where logic is going to take a backseat and fun's going to take the wheel.

Oh, and just so we're clear, this isn't your overly curated, perfectly scripted Pinterest worthy pod. No. No. It's not. It's messy, opinionated, and dripping with sarcasm. If you know me, then you know. So grab a drink, buckle up, and prepare for a rollercoaster of hot takes, unsolicited advice, and random shenanigans that you never asked to know about, but you absolutely need to know about.

This is Ricci Talks Shit, where there's no rules except for one. Don't take anything I say too seriously. Let's sit down and talk some shit. 

All right, so it's Friday before Super Bowl Sunday, and yes, I am just recording this now. I know, I'm aware, procrastination at its finest, but honestly, I don't care because I have a rant and I need to get this off my chest. Let's call this Super Bowl shopping a survival story. I made the mistake of taking my mom shopping thinking, oh, we'll just grab a couple of things for the Super Bowl.

Be in and out, easy peasy, but boy was I wrong. Apparently the entire population of the state had the same fucking idea. 

Does no one work on Fridays anymore? I swear, I saw at least three full grown adults wandering around Costco at 1 p. m. on a weekday, in Eagles jerseys, clutching industrial sized cheese platters like their life depended on it. Costco, a war zone. Aldi, Mad Max territory, BJ's, it was just a lawless society. I swear, I saw two people almost get run over in the Costco parking lot.

It was just pure chaos. Sir, you're fighting someone over the last 200 pack of wings. Do you even have a Super Bowl party that you're planning? Or are you just hoarding like the apocalypse is going to be Sunday instead of the game? Honestly, win or lose.

It's going to be the apocalypse in Philly. We're going to burn down the city. I guess they have the right idea.  We attempted to brave it, but after dodging carts, like we were. In Fast and Furious, and almost getting body checked in the tortilla chip aisle, we decided to abort the mission. We got back in the car and hightailed it the hell out of there.

Listen, I get it. Our Eagles are in the Super Bowl. We're hyped. But if I had known the entire tri state area was taking a personal day to bulk buy beer and cheese dip, I would have stayed home and just eaten whatever sad leftovers I had left in my fridge. Anyway, end of rant. Let's get to the fun part.

Let's talk Guatemala. So my husband and I just got back from Guatemala. Which confession? It was never on my traveling bucket list. Not for any reason . I just, I didn't know much about it. It's not marketed as aggressively as Costa Rica or even Mexico, which I've been to way too many times to count. So I had no idea what to expect.

But we were there for a wedding and we figured why not make a vacation out of it while we're there.   We extended our time and honestly it was incredible. So first stop Antigua, Guatemala. Gorgeous, historic, full of volcanoes that definitely want to kill me. We decided to hike up Pacaya Volcano because apparently that's what you do when you're there and I like to torture myself.

But plot twist, once you reach the top, you get to cook pizza and roast marshmallows in the lava.  I literally cooked a pizza in a volcano, like some sort of unhinged high altitude chef.  Just call me chef. Thank you.   Then we roasted marshmallows over the lava coals and it was equally terrifying and cool.

 Nothing like standing near boiling rock death to make you appreciate your life, am I right? But honestly, the sights were incredible, and I want to talk about my near death experience on horseback. Speaking of experiences that tested my survival skills, I rode a horse for the first time, ever, in my life.

And it was on a volcano. I don't know how many people can actually say that, but I can. So I didn't know what I was going to expect, but let's just say it was magical, yet terrifying. Mostly terrifying. I did feel like one of those damsels in distress that's on the cover of, your spicy novels that you read with the handsome man with flowing hair. Let's call him Fabio. And yeah, I was not prepared for how big and sentient the horses actually are.

Sir, I need you to just walk forward and not have independent thoughts right now because the horse. He's literally had a mind of his own. He liked to go near the edge and it felt like I was going to just fall off the friggin earth. It was insane, but there was also the altitude issue and my lungs definitely betrayed me.

I also think I had a sinus infection working on me because I couldn't breathe out of my nose from the minute we landed in Guatemala. And I'm not going to say that was the altitude sickness because I definitely don't believe that. couldn't breathe for the first four out of  six days, that we were there.

Yeah, that was torturous. Anyway, so my husband was walking the trail himself, and he was behind the horse at one point, and I guess my horse started farting in his face. So he decided to power walk ahead of the whole group and he was power walking up the friggin volcano just to get away from my horse's literal ass.

Welcome to the majestic beauty of nature, everyone. The next day we took a speedboat across Lake Atalan, which was stunning. It's the widest and deepest lake in Central America. 

So, the Lake Attalon trip is really important because it was 18 of us, and this is really where my husband and I got to meet a lot of the bride and groom's friends from college and my husband reconnected with some of, his cousin's high school buddies and. It just was a really fun day for all of us to get together, bond.

A lot of the cousins were there. So we just had a really great time, like all getting together, hanging out, getting to know these people before, the wedding events were to come. And we are on this bus for three hours to get to the lake. Then once we get to the lake, of course, we're all like, okay, we have to pee.

There are no bathrooms available for any of us. We are walking back and forth around this lake, I don't know, for like 10 15 minutes because we were all like, we should use the bathroom. And I think we finally had to pay a restaurant to let us use their restrooms. It was insanity, but  then we hopped on the speedboat and we're going the lake and 

when we got to the other side, we had to walk up a street. It was at a 75 degree fucking angle and we got to the lookout point at the top.

There was also a church we got to see and you look down and you just see your whole life flash, before your eyes, but let me tell you. Walking up that street, I literally thought I was gonna die. I made it about three fourths of the way up before my body was like, Yeah, we gotta stop. We're gonna fall the fuck over.

Meanwhile, my husband and the rest of the group happily made it to the top, easily. And this goes for the lookout point that we also did. I made it about three fourths up, and I stopped. First off, I'm terrified of heights, so looking over the mountain cliff that we were walking up was not really helpful and then I just couldn't do it anymore.

I couldn't breathe. I'm wheezing like I had, seasonal asthma when I was a kid. I felt like I was running the 12 minute mile in middle school again and I was just like, you know what? Frickin do it because I'm wheezing like a 90 year old chain smoker here. They finished it. I made my way down and met them at the bottom, literally in time for them to all come back down.

That shows you how slow I was going. There was children running past me up and down these friggin stone steps that were carved into this lookout point. And they got to the top, the group. Apparently they had some margaritas, some drinks, they were having a good old time and I'm just fighting for my life.

So shout out to the whole crew that made it up there. I'm glad I didn't hold anyone back because it was insane, but. High altitude and people that aren't in shape are not a great mix. Who knew? Anyway, we got to see some amazing churches. We saw some ruins. We went with another couple one day and we did a little tour of a church that was ruined by earthquakes and then.

The Friday before the wedding, we did a wonderful cooking class with my husband and his cousins and their husbands and spouses. So it was really fun. We deep fried plantains. I really never thought I would eat a plantain because honestly, I've only ever had the bitter ones and they've never. Never suited my liking, so I found out there's sweet plantains and I got to eat those and deep fried them and, drizzle them in chocolate.

It's pretty delicious. I want to shout out Foodie Tenango and Milton. Absolute legend. Thank you so much for teaching our class. We had such a great time. You taught us amazing techniques in making Guatemalan food. Thank you for sharing your family recipe with us. And we just really thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We had amazing food, and we made tostadas, and we made all kinds of wonderful, delicious dishes, and we were literally full for three days straight after that because it was just so much food. It was incredible. His whole family helped out with the cooking process and I was really proud of us.

Like we did a great job. The six of us that got to go and, and then after that, my husband and I later that night. We somehow ended up at a McDonald's after one of the wedding events. So there's that. We got to the McDonald's and we're trying to figure out how to order because everything is in Spanish.

And the nice lady at the counter was like, Oh, you can use the screen to order and put it in English. And we're like, Okay, why didn't we think of that? Because we're stupid. But that's besides the point. We got to try some fun little things that they have in Guatemala that you can't get in the States.

They do a grilled cheese at McDonald's apparently outside of the U S and it was pretty delicious. They have these. potato wedges that taste like curly fries that my husband literally Devoured and had to get more at the airport before we left because he was obsessed with them Yeah, and we were there and when they were putting together our order Before ours was ready.

There was about 35 To go bags being set up and we figured out. It was all for these four people that were next to us. And apparently they thought I was a local or whatever. They started speaking Spanish directly to us. And I look at them like they have 20 eyes, even though there's just four of them.

And then they realized we speak English and they were like, Oh, are you guys drunk? And I was like, no, we're just American. And we're stupid and have to try McDonald's in other countries. And they just thought it was the funniest thing ever. They loved it. They were like obsessed and they were ordering like 32 bags to go because they were with another wedding.

It was the Bride's brother and like his friends and they were all bringing Drunk food back to the wedding party after I guess all the festivities So shout out to you guys 

we had so much fun talking with you and,  we were laughing about so many things while we were all waiting for our food. Now, speaking of food, they had a lot of different options. Do you remember the Big and Tasty? That was on the menu in Guatemala. Do you guys remember that from the 90s?

I think that was like the only thing I ate When I was a little kid like either that or chicken nuggets, but I remember like sharing the big and tasty with my granny and For some reason the McDonald's burger meat is so good Like it was juicy and tender and delicious like nothing like we get in the States Not that I've had McDonald's in years here, but I can't remember it ever tasting enjoyable anyway,  we got our little McDonald's and then we walked back a long way to our hotel from where we were because we were like an extra two blocks further than we were  at.

So I'm in these It's terrible shoes for walking and I'm slipping and sliding all over the cobblestones. My back is hurting because if you know me, I have back issues. I was just complaining and bitching the entire time. And I don't know how my husband didn't just leave me on the side of the road and just say , fuck it, I'm done with you, but we had a great time. We got back to the hotel and all I remember is I'm just taking a bath. That's all I wanted to do was get in the giant bath, like Olympic sized bathtub that we had there and it was just it was a blur of a night. We ended with McDonald's. I felt like a college student finishing my party rounds and going to get some fast food at the end of the night.

So shout out to all my  friends that we used to do this shit with because literally I'm 35 and a half and like doing it now it feels pathetic, and it's painful. It's more painful than it ever was. We used to walk around college parties. I'd be in these 10 inch heels, not giving two shits.

And now I'm like wearing these like sandals with the tiniest heel. And I'm like crying about walking like six blocks when we used to walk. God knows how long, like 30 minutes to a venue, like we were crazy. So shout out to us, 15 years ago when we were so much younger, love you guys, whatever.

 Then Saturday comes along and it's the big day. And the church is gorgeous where the wedding is. The bride and groom are beautiful. The groom is my husband's cousin. So there was all the family there. We got to be with everyone the whole trip and, the food was incredible. Great. Cocktail hour, the drinks were flowing.

We had our little group of friends that we had met from the lake and we were meeting more friends as they came in and it was just so fun, like all the group of people we got to hang out with and some people that, we grew close with over the time. And  yeah, this wedding was incredible.

Bride and groom looked incredible. The music. It was so fun. Shout out to ADHDJ because honestly, it felt like I was back in my Honda Accord playing my iPod on shuffle or like back in the day in college when I would have parties and I'd be like, ah, this song sucks. And you'd be like 10 seconds into the song and I'm just shuffling to the next one.

So ADHDJ, you rock. Love you, man. That's not really his name. That's the name I gave him because honestly there was times where you'd hear 10 seconds of a song and then you'd hear another 10 seconds of a song and it would just keep changing and the drop never came and you know you're getting to that point where you're like I just want to hear the drop and then finally like you shout out oh I want to hear like Backstreet Boys or something and they start playing that as a whole song for five minutes so I loved it.

It was a good time. It's basically how I would have DJed a party because that's just me in a nutshell, but so much fun. We were dancing the whole night. The food was great. The, late night food was great. Oh my god, it was so good. Honestly, the weather was incredible. It was so perfect. And we just had a blast.

So I just want to shout out to the bride and groom. We had a great time. Thanks for getting everyone together. And yeah, it was just a really incredible time. We were in Florida for a couple days. We went to Guatemala. We finished our trip back in Florida. 

 We had such a fabulous time.

Guatemala, if you've never been there, definitely add it to your bucket list because it is surrounded by volcanoes that you can hike. The atmosphere is definitely elevated, so be aware of that. But, It was just absolutely beautiful. There's so much history, there's so many different stories about how the capitals move so many times because of all the earthquakes that have happened and all the earthquakes lead to the volcano eruptions, and it's just incredible.

We were really disappointed, unfortunately. We began to see Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes. in Guatemala. He was sleeping, that's what they call it, sleeping. But that volcano usually goes off every 15 minutes. And apparently they said he's been sleeping for two weeks and it was the longest span that Fuego has ever been inactive.

So we got to see some incredible photos of the volcano, exploding and going off and seeing the lava flows. It was really. Really incredible. I wish we got to see it in person, we got to hike a volcano. I rode a horse for the first time and the food, there is nothing better than the food.

If you do go, do yourself a favor, take this cooking class. My husband's cousin found it on TikTok, but the company has an Instagram. You can look at it. It's called Foodie Tanango. I'll link it down at the bottom in the show notes,  I want to say it's about 80 to 90 dollars a person and you get to go shopping, pick out all the food at the local market at the second biggest market in all of Guatemala. you get to see the food, basically farmed a table fresh, like you are picking the food out at the market, you are going to make it and Milton really, takes the time to go through all the steps with you and really explain it thoroughly.

I think it was a great, Price for what you're getting and the experience is just so fun to share it with, friends, family, whatever. It's just a great experience you get to have together. while you're there, definitely try the McDonald's. You won't regret it. Apparently the cousins at one point went to Taco Bell and they said it was pretty fire.

We didn't get to do that, but that's okay. One Americanized meal in a foreign land is plenty for us, and just prepare for the altitude. Your lungs and, your whole body will thank you if you do that. So stay grounded for a day or two, get used to the high elevation, and then just work your way up slowly.

I know a lot of people say about Peru, it's the same thing. You want to stay in the, the main city before you try and hike Machu Picchu if that's a goal of yours. So I never really thought I'd be talking about this because I'm not really the expeditionist. I'm not the explorer. I'm more of a sit on my couch and watch gossip girl kind of girl.

So I'm becoming more adventurous as I get older, if not now, when, but yeah, that's really the recap of our trip. There are some photos on social media. I'm putting them up slowly. now we're just, excited about the Super Bowl. Obviously, if you couldn't tell from the beginning of this podcast intro, I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

And when I say fan, we're not fans. We bleed green. We are attached to this football team.  Like a baby's attached to their mother. And honestly, it's Monday. I am running so late getting this up because I just couldn't think about anything else all weekend. Just getting through the Super Bowl and, just really watching it.

But let's talk the Super Bowl. So it is Monday after the Super Bowl. And I'm emotional as hell right now. I don't know how I'm making it through this podcast, but the Philadelphia Eagles have beat the Kansas City Chiefs. We have whooped their ass. The guys, they played incredible. I have no critiques of them.

I just, I couldn't have asked for a better, more incredible game. You kept the score on Kansas side to zero for the first three fucking quarters of a NFL Superbowl game. That is. It's unreal. Our defense, our offense lines, they are just, oh my God, I have no words because they were all just on point.

They were so hungry for this and all of Philadelphia, the whole entire like area has just been electric for the past whole season, we've been, it's been an incredible season. You guys can talk as much shit as you want on Jalen Hurts, but he is humble. He is a leader and he is just so down to earth and caring for the people that are on this team and the city and all he's had his eye on is the win since the last loss that we've had.

And it's just been incredible to watch. New York, I do want to thank you so kindly for giving us Saquon Barkley because, honestly, he was the missing piece of our team. We needed him, and he just Melted right in. It's like when you melt chocolate, it just all comes together. Honestly, it was literally the perfect addition to the Eagles.

Him having his birthday on the Super Bowl Sunday along with Cooper DeJean and Cooper! Holy shit, man! That amazing, incredible play that you had, oh my god, it was just It was incredible. There's no words to describe how the Super Bowl was. Pouty McCombs, he is doing his best with that.

My favorite meme right now of him just super pouting. So his new name is Pouty McCombs. And I just, I'm really glad that the NFL did not focus on Taylor. I'm so grateful for that. She is a distraction. She's a distraction, and that's why Kansas City is I don't know.  Travis is distracted.

You can see he was not playing his top of the game as he normally is. I'm a big fan of New Heights Podcast. I love it. I love Jason Kelce. I love Travis. Not as a Chiefs player, but I love him being Jason Kelce's brother and I love the podcast they have together.

That is the highlight of my week. Most of the time I'm listening to that, laughing at them because they are hilarious and adorable together and it's just always a good time. But he just, seems like he's distracted and that's fine. Even You found the love of your life, or whatever it is, but,

you lost the Superbowl. Good luck. She might be writing songs about you of how much you suck. Just throwing that out there because she's got to make a new album. It's been a while. She was on world tour for, however long, what was it like two years? She's going to say some shit about you.

 Maybe she turned her back on her best friend with this whole thing going on with Blake Lively.

So who knows what she'll do to her boyfriend? She doesn't seem trustworthy. She seems fake and good luck, Trav. But back to the boys in green, we are just so proud of you. Philadelphia is just electric. We love you so much. We can't wait to celebrate our victory together when you get home.

I'm just, I'm so proud of them, the first one against Brady was, the opening of the doors to the dynasty that's to become. And this one is number two. honestly, it feels so good. It feels so right. Brady was there again. Maybe he is our lucky charm.

He just has to be at every Super Bowl and we're gonna win it, whether he's playing on the field or just commenting. Yeah, Brady's maybe the Philadelphia Lucky Charm, so maybe just have him stick around. Don't really penalize him, NFL, for the comments he made about the refs because he wasn't wrong.

The refs, they did some shitty moves yesterday. There wasn't as many flags as I actually thought there was going to be. I was really surprised. Tom Brady had some good points. He is the GOAT after all. He really knows the game.  I'm not going to disagree with some of the things he said.

But what about that halftime show, right? Kendrick Lamar. Serena Williams doing the CripWalk, shouting out to her haters after she did her celebratory CripWalk for one of the tournaments she won, and then she got backlash for that. What the hell? Also being Drake's ex girlfriend and the whole Drake and the Halftime Show was interesting. Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, there was so much going on. There's so much imagery, so much calling out  it really made a statement. I think it's going to maybe change the way the halftime show is for the future. And I get it. Like they're reaching different generations. They're at the millennial Gen Z generation now.

That's who they're really aiming these halftime shows at. For those of you that didn't get it, didn't like it, look into it a little more. 

It was really interesting learning all the different tidbits about the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar and all the tea that was spilled. It was great. So if you didn't get it or you didn't like it, maybe read into a little bit deeper. I thought it was,  interesting re listening to it.

Definitely. It's a little eye opening. So anyway, that is, I think. going to be this podcast. It jumped around a lot, and I hope that, I hope you guys are liking the format. Let me know if you hate it or if it's just too jumpy. Am I too much like ADHD J? Am I just like going off too many topics here?

This is probably the longest one too, I just had a lot to say and there was a lot going on I'm just so elated that we had this incredible trip we got to have this incredible Super Bowl. And I know there's going to be people out there that don't give two shits about the Super Bowl because you either hate the Eagles, you hate Kansas, you hate football, whatever it is.

It's just been a hell of a ride. If you guys want to leave me comments, reviews, feel free to reach out to me on socials, I got a request to do something about the Grammys, but at this point it was just so far from when the Grammys were. I really just didn't feel right because I didn't have time to watch it I was traveling and it was there was just so much going on, but I do want to shout out Jaden Hogwarts Castle Smith. That was a bold move you made. I really loved the castle on your face.

I don't know what the representation of it was. Was it just a pick me moment I don't know, but I just want to say that was brave I want to figure out how to show my love of Harry Potter as much as you did on such a big stage, so if we can blow up this podcast, let's do it. Let's get it out there.

Let's get more people to listen to it and I'll show my Hogwarts pride. I'll put a castle on my fucking face. I don't care. I'll do it. I'll put Jaden Smith on my fucking face, but let's get this podcast out to the masses and see where it goes from there. I just want to say thanks for listening I really appreciate it.

I hope we had some fun talking some shit today. I know I had fun talking some shit and until next time, keep talking shit.

 And I'm going to catch you next week. Until then, I hope you have a great day and don't forget, keep talking shit. Okay. Bye.