As we left the apartment, we looked up and saw that Fuego was really smoking this morning.
We headed into La Antigua by chicken bus at about 8:15 a.m. and were waiting in front of the cathedral for him to pick us up to see the property at 9:00 a.m. After getting into his van, I was surprised that he was heading towards Jocotenango, as I had assumed the property was on the road to Ciudad Vieja. Well, it turns out that there are different places around here that have the same or very similar names.
We drove through Jocotenango and were soon at the guard protected gate into the property. The apartment is where John and his wife Yesica lived while they built their dream home both behind, above and beside the apartment. The apartment is beautiful, spacious and well equipped. Here's a link to the web pages describing it, which includes photos (click "View more photos"). www.sailing-diving-guatemala.com/hotels/donjuan-apartment.php appears to us to be ideal for a pair of newly “retired” gringos living on a fixed income.
John mentioned that they also have a four-bedroom house for rent in La Antigua, so we asked if we could see it also. I've applied for a job in La Antigua with a Houston-based non-profit and if it were to materialize (doubtful), we could easily afford the larger property. The house, which is also gated, although without a guard, is delightful. There are four bedrooms, four bath rooms, maids quarters and a roof-top patio. It would be a delight to live there. Here's a website describing it, which also includes photos (click "View more photos"): http://www.sailing-diving-guatemala.com/hotels/sanjose-apartment.php. The rent for this property is $525 + utilities and the house is wired for high speed Internet, although it is not currently connected. Unlike the apartment, it also includes a gated garage. This would be a great place to have friends and family from the states come to visit us, but would only be really affordable if I were working.
Following the property viewing, John dropped us off at Parque Central and we walked to the Rainbow Cafe for lunch. We had brought our netbook with us and wanted to use their Internet access since our's was on the fritz. After lunch, we headed to the mercado to pick up some limes and bananas and headed for our usual pick-up point for a bus. We boarded a bus that we thought was going to Dueñas and were surprised when it dropped us off not far from where we often board the bus in Ciudad Viejas. Obviously, the driver was concerned about our health and thought that we needed more exercise, like a 20 minute walk back to our apartment.
After supper, I reinstalled Windows XP (Spanish) on the Child Aid laptop. I also installed my three main maintenance programs: Avast Antivirus, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and Advanced SystemCare. When I couldn't get the wireless Internet to work, I realized that I would need to download special drivers from the Dell website to make sure all the laptops features actually worked. I finished up by making a quick summary of the blog entries I've not yet been able to post.
