Water + Metal + Electricity

I have a love hate relationship with taking showers here. The love comes from the ability, with very few exceptions, to enjoy a hot-ish shower on a daily bases. The hate comes is really more of a constant fear of the shower otherwise known as the death trap.

See Picture:

Directions: Turn on water with enough pressure to riase a sometimes hidden metal piece in order to create a complete circut able to heat water passing by. I admit, despite my fear, I have actually only been electricuted once although it was memorable. While raising my pink, slightly failing apart loofa to be rinsed, those pesky charged electrons jumped through the wires, suds, into my fingers and surged out through my elbow.

For all I know, showers opperate in the same or similar fashion in the US- the difference is that the web of wires running from the shower head to the power source are nicely hidden behind a wall so that I can lather in ignorance.

The best (or worst) specamin showerhead yet we encountered on our most recent trip to Xela. It is clearly an older version.

Luke had to duck under it. The metal faucet was next to the frayed wires so that you had to get right up into its business of flowing electrified water just to turn it on & off. The best part was the huge spark that flashed indicating that the circut was indeed completed.

Favorite memories from our trip to Mexico and Xela.




- Eating kick arse tacos in Tapachula, Mexico! The peso is very weak even compared to the quetzal. In fact my memories of Tapapchula are good food, wedding dress stores, VW bugs, the fleet of public minibuses, and they are much taller people than guatemalans. And oh do they love their neon paint!



- Xela Natural History Museum's floor to ceiling collection of stuffed, pickled, and dried animals. They had everything from the shocking 8 legged baby goat, dozens of corn snakes in jars, a chow chow dog on top of two lions, and many large birds held together with conspicuous amounts of tape. Not to mention the holy Quetzal bird in a gold-leaved show case, (if only the living ones were this protected.)Does it get any better! I had tears in my eyes I laughed so hard! I guess I'm sort of a freak as well...

- Incredible views while riding through the western highlands of Guate. Rolling fog, small farming villages, new beautiful textiles and faces, the occasional forest, and shear drops of hundreds of feet inches from our ferocious chicken bus.

Andrea's new fashion sun glasses rhine stones and all made me laugh as much as anything this trip!

- Xela has a great local brew called "Cabro" started by german migrants in the late 1800's. There is an odd german influence in Xela as many germans fled there before and after the war years. It has since been bought out by Gallo sad but true.

- Our hotel in Xela had a "shockingly" hot shower in it! Eventually we had the courage to actually try it Luke first of course, and some how survived.




- In Xela we visited a modern mall in order to see a movie, and we were suprised that the majority of people were traditional mayan women shopping and working there. The scene provided many ironic moments ie a group of traditionally dressed mayan woman balancing huge piles of cardboard boxes on their heads while window shopping at the pet store. Mixed feeling with that for sure... Memories of Ï Heart Huckabees¨ and I quote ¨You don´t think Steven and his family couldn´t use some suburban sprall?¨

Around Town

statue of Maria at night

a favorite entrance

looking down

looking up at the birthday cake church

f is for frio

texture

conche stairs

who goes there?

Subimos Agua


After months of staring 12,240 feet up at our beloved Volcàn de Agua, we finally climbed the volcano, albiet last minute and a bit hung over. With our friends Pete and Kevin caught the trail in Santa Maria de Jesùs and slowly picked our way over a rocky and trash strewn path. There were so many memorable parts. It was a windy day so at times the clouds were zooming past us at incredible speeds. About half way up, the landscape changed from a green canopy to rocky cliffs covered with fuzzy tuffs of ornamental grass. There is one great scar of a canyon to cross that reminded me of the eternal abis from "Garden State". We came across plants that we had never seen before including a really cool dragon-foot flower. The views absolutely were amazing from that high up and it was entertaining to pick out familiar places below. The crater is sadly trashed with litter and broken bottles around a rocky soccer field (where better to play soccer?) and a little chapel that is home to squatters. We were, however, too pooped at the sumit to climb the other rim to see the Pacific Ocean on the other side. I fully realized how long the climb was only when we ran back down hoping to catch the last bus and beat sunset. Bus long gone, a group of eleven of us jumped in the back of a pick up and speed back to Antigua, squealing around blind turns and holding on for dear life (definately the most dangerous and scary part of the journey).

Home is always a great return . We aren´t too sore today but definately looking forward to tomorrow and the opportunity to sit all day on the bus to Mexico.


luke chillin´at Jean Luis´ incredible house with Volcàn Agua ever in the background

Thank you for smoking
We are far removed from smoking bans in bars and restaurnats! On the contrary, I am often fighting over ash trays with the waiters (we try to keep at least two on every table). I was watching a health and beauty show the other day on tv warning viewers that your skin absorbs whatever is in your envirnonment! Yikes- I have fried chicken fingers and marlboro reds building castels in my pores! I enjoy quite a hearty chuckle at the cigarette holders that have been afixed atop toiltet paper dispersers all thoughout this country- Heaven forbid you have to put out at light before you "shake out the spiders". It is a sad sight when you encounter a shriveled up and melted toilet paper dispenser, or countertop for that matter, that was not given the gift of an ashtray. I once had a very good friend (unnamed) drive me home (don´t worry mom- not very far), in his five speed, with a open can of Gallo beer in one hand and a cigarrette in the other- and all the while warning me that drinking coffee was bad for my health. I´ll stick to coffee- make it an expresso.

Tuk Tuks
Tuk Tuks are little motorized tuna cans that, for a small fee, rattle you all the way home. They have only recently been imported from Thailand into Central America. Six adults sharing one tuk tuk my personal record to date. The squish factor is actually a zillion times more comfortable than riding solo and being tumbled as in a dryer against every interior surface as the driver races over the cobble stones. I also prefer tuk tuks with actual metal doors even if it is only to my waist, also for the anti tumble out effect. The velcro plastic flap can only resist so much bouncing. Our good friend Pirate Pete has a dream of making an ultimate tuk tuk video game. Apparently, in Thailand, these bad boys are hooked up with car engines and become monster truck tin cans. Pick your color and race around town, picking up passangers and other odd tasks while dodging packs of stray dogs, chicken busses, or other pedestrians. There could be the night time series or rainy-season level for the more advanced players. Most tuk tuks are also equiped with a siren of some sort- not too loud and along the lines of video game. Talented drivers can start and stop the siren so that it whistles at the pretty girls they passby. Now is that hot or what!

Duck tape has 101 uses.
If it was more readily available in Guatemala, an additional 1001 uses would be discovered in the first week and it would grow nine lives to boot. Instead, plastic bags fill the void of the "use for just about anything" and "you´d better not leave home without it" category. Plastic bags are used with ingenuity and absudaty alike. Like most places in the US, everything you every buy is put in a bag but a day at the market means that I visit 20 stalls and recieve a bag from each. At Chritmas time, plastic bags were used to make wreaths, bows and other adornments on buildings. I´ve seen them as hair ties, wallets, signs, hats, rope, flags, holding live wires together, soccer ref flags, and kites to name a few. It is an art to drink soda from an open plastic bag, thankfully with the aid of a straw especially while driving a chicken bus, doing paperwork, or even nursing your baby. Oh- and side note- I have yet to see the use of a SLIP KNOT with any of the bags tied firmly shut before handed across the counter- so little chance of actually using the bag as a bag another time. The bag must be transformed into another creation with each use.

More Proyecto Photos

Those are my fellow Gardeners Benedicto, Anderson, and Nelson in the top left. The rest are pictures of other parts of the grounds including a tile mural and my favorite iguana.

Nuestras Aijhados Photos

I took these photo´s late in the afternoon when most people had already left for the day. All these areas are accessible to the children and if you look closely you can see my fish ¨Lucas¨in the bottom left corner of the fish tank photo!

Nuestros Ahijados

Andrea and I began volunteering at a "proyecto" (as we call them) at the beginning of January. The name is Nuestros Ahijados, in English it translates to "our godchildren." It's primary vision is to provide comprehensive education to the children who would normally be unable to pay to attend a quality school. A group of people from Bismark, N. Dakota started the proyecto and seem to be the primary supporters. Its been going for quite a while and has continued to expand into other pueblos bringing education, housing, and family health facilities. We volunteer at the main "campus" which is just a short walk to the northern outskirts of Antigua on the road to San Felipe. What is attractive to us is the really incredible gardens they have and maintain for the children, as well as the after school reading programs in their large library. The gardens are a wonderful mix of natural play areas, water falls, murals, quite spaces, and even terrariums with reptiles and fish. Hopefully the pictures do it justice. Incredibly the place is bursting with blooming trees, vines, and tropical foliage even in this dry season. I have enjoyed working with the 3 full-time gardeners Nelson, Benedicto, and Anderson. Although I can hardly ever understand Anderson as he comes from a Mayan village and barely speaks Spanish. Generally we talk about how much money they can make if they emigrate to the US and whether or not so and so is gay and what I think about Guatemaltecas. Limited thus far, but its still in Spanish ya know! Also I have started stocking the beautiful fish pond with koi, as it has been empty for 5 months. Naturally they named the first one "Lucas" after me, and on a side note "to be lucas" also means to be crazy in slang here. Always a good laugh.

Andrea has been volunteering in the large library reading to children three afternoons a week. She has really enjoyed this individual time with the children as well as practicing her spanish. She will have to include some of her stories soon, as she is taking a break from Nuestros Ahijados and working for PLFM as the substitute Director! When does she sleep! Not much actually, but she's hanging in there.

Feliz Dia del Cariños!

Andrea and I want to say happy St. Valentines day to all you friends and lovers out there! The one...OK the first day of each year where your permitted and indeed encouraged to enjoy classy chocolates and fine wine. This of course is the mandate for all of us, whether we are F.L.A.F.F. (foot-loose and fancy free- shout out to Nikky Naf), married, dating, or have 39 cats and an "I live to knit" bumper sticker on our car.

So may this day bring a large measure of "spicy food and spicy amor."

Toasted

After more than two months without leaving the ten block grid of Antigua, we headed for a day of hammocks, sun and naps on the Pacific coast. As much as I love the skyline of mountains in their steadfastness, I relished the movement of sand beneath my feet and the magic of the tides.

The ferry to MonteRico beach is its own marvel.








Model Luke
Gleeful Andrea

The tequilla sun set as the full moon awoke above the palms, as if in perfect balance with each other.

Another Earthquake...

I sat down a few minutes ago excited to check email, take care of some online business and most of all write a new blog entry! Just as I was about to begin my new post another earthquake (or tremble if your tough and have lived through major destruction). IT REALLY FREAKS ME OUT!!! Seriously I can´t remember what I was going to write before, and honestly its been 5 minutes and my eyes are still sort of swimming off-balance. I shutter every 30 seconds becuase I´m sort of jumpy...aghhhh. I know there is a reason so much of Antigua is in ruins. I like to think some terrible war or bizarre one time thing happened hundreds of years ago never to return. Of course the truth is there has been countless earthquakes here- many which have leveled Guatemala over and over, the last one 40 years ago. In 6 months, Andrea and I have easily experienced 6 little shakers and 2 others that registered around 5.5 on the scale of shakes. I cling to a dilusional belief that the government has strick ¨earthquake proof¨building requirments in place. Well I will try to write a more coherent post soon updating our volunteer efforts and general comings and goings. Much love to my people. Luke