Guatemala Adventure 2010

April 1

2010-04-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

Today was Jueves Santo de la Cena del Señor or Holy Thursday. We went to Parque Central just before noon for lunch and found the municipal band playing one of two concerts scheduled for the day.

After lunch, we walked over to the cathedral to try to find out what time the Holy Thursday Mass would be held and found a procession leaving the church and proceeding around Parque Central. (Note: this was one of three processions held this day.)

Like in La Antigua, they also create alfombras (decorative carpets of flowers and sawdust) in the streets.

We went back later in the afternoon, before going to the church and found the municipal band playing again in the shade of Parque Central.

We never did find out what time the Holy Thursday Mass was being held, but did see a notice that there were weekday Masses at 6:00 p.m., so we decided to arrive at 5:30 p.m. to make sure we had as seat. On our way to the church, I took this picture of the front of the cathedral.

The church was fairly empty when we arrived, but there were other people there who were also unsure when the service would start. Here's a picture of the sanctuary prior to Mass.

We had no problem getting a good seat, since the service didn't actually start until 8:00 p.m. Please note, that there were quite a few Guatemalans in the church with us while we were waiting. Here's a photo showing the crowd that attended, as it was a full church.

Other than the fact that the Mass was in Spanish, it was identical to others that we've attended in past years, with the exception being that it was celebrated by the Archbishop.

After Mass, we walked back to our guesthouse.

March 31

2010-04-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Buying those crutch tips was only part of our challenge. We now had to get them to Joan in San Antonio Palopó, which was no small task.

They do have a postal system here in Guatemala. We've heard that mail even gets delivered...sometimes. We had used the post office in La Antigua to mail a postcard to Linda's mother on Ash Wednesday. To date, it still hasn't arrived. I imagine it's now decorating some postal employees wall.

Our first task today was locating the post office. We eventually found it, but didn't recognize it as the walls were plastered with Tigo (a cell phone company) signs. The young woman "working" there, who never stood up the entire time we were there, let us know that we had come to the right place.

I foolishly thought that they would sell mailing envelopes, like our post offices do in the states. How silly of me. We left to find something to put the crutch tips in so that we could mail them.

Our first stop was a papelería (stationary store), where I purchased a manila-like envelope for Q0.50 (6 cents). It promptly tore when I pushed the box into it. The clerk assured me that they didn't have anything else that would work.

We then headed over to a well-know Guatemalan restaurant, Casa Ut'z Hua, for comida tipica, or so I thought. While the food was fine and the serving was appropriate for comida tipica, the service was lacking and the cost was strictly for gringos - Q95 ($11.90). Typical comida tipica costs Q20-25 each.

Leaving the tourist trap, we located Trama Textiles, the weaving cooperative where Linda intends to learn how to use a backstrap loom as soon as Semana Santa is over.

Walking on towards Parque Benito Juarez, we tried several other papelerías with no better results. Finally, we went into the Paiz Super Mercado in Mont Blanc and bought a kraft paper gift bag and some tape and I got out my Swiss Army knife and used the scissors to take it apart, so that we could wrap and prepare the package for mailing.

That done, we walked back to Parque Benito Juarez and took a microbus heading for Parque Central, where we then walked to the post office to mail the package. This time the young woman did stand up so that she could walk across the room to weigh our package. Having done that, she then sat down, filled out the receipt for postage, took our payment of Q30 ($3.60) and our package for mailing. Now, if only a miracle will occur and it gets delivered!

As is often the case, we then walked over to Despensa Familiar to pick up a few things that we needed and headed back to the to our guest house. This trip only took us about three hours.

All in all, those crutch tips cost us about $10.00 and at least eight hours of our time. Thank heavens most things are so much cheaper here in Guatemala.

During the evening, we once again heard a processional band playing, but couldn't locate it, so we didn't bother trying to track it down.

Note on Processions

2010-04-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Although we had to stumble on them, we did find two guides to Semana Santa processions in Xela. The first, produced by Pollo Campero, only told what was happening, but didn't show any routes on the map that was included. The other, produced by the municipal government, included a listing of processions and also had a map, stolen from the Xelapages website and edited to remove any reference to Xelapages, except the red square and arrow pointing to in adjacent to Parque Calvario, did show routes.

What amazes us is that the times shown on both schedules seem to have absolutely no basis in fact. It seems that the individuals managing these processions start them when they are ready to do so and couldn't be bothered by any printed schedule. If we had relied on these schedules, we probably wouldn't have seen anything. Instead, pure luck has worked well for us.

March 30

2010-04-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

Today we are going to find crutch tips. Late last week, I had emailed Tom (Xelapages) to ask if he new where we could find them. He was at the beach with his family over the weekend, but, on Monday after he returned to Xela, he wrote to let us know that he would find out for us.

We walked over to Xelapages, which is across from Parque Calvario, to get our directions and then took a microbus to Parque Benito Juarez. After lunch, we started waking toward the medical supply store, which is near the hospital in Zona 3.

We had a map, actually about four maps, but soon got turned around. Streets in Xela, as in La Antigua, often lack street signs, so it's somewhat difficult to know where you are at times or how to get where we want to be.

Nevertheless, we did find the medical supply store and purchased the crutch tips for only Q30 ($3.60) and it only took us about three hours to do it. Our mission accomplished, we walked back to Mont Blanc, to pick up some things at the Paiz Super Mercado and decided that we would walk back to the guest house. We had done it before and, belive it or not, actually knew how to get there.

On the way, however, we sidetracked to stop at the Bake Shop, the Mennonite bakery that is only open on Tuesday and Friday. We picked up some more cheddar cheese, as this is about the only place in Xela to buy it.

The route back to our guest house brought us to Parque Calvario, so we stopped by Xelapages to let Tom know that we had been successful in our mission. We then went back to the guest house.

This evening, while working on our computers, we heard music. Rushing to the front gate of our guest house, we discovered another procession passing down our street. This was indeed a bonus, as we didn't have to track it down.

March 29

2010-04-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Today's adventure involved microbuses, those vans that are used primarily for public transportation in Xela.

We decided to be smart, so we went over to Parque Calvario, which is only a short walk from our guest house, to find a microbus heading towards Parque Benito Juarez. After find one, we soon found ourselves at our destination.

After having lunch at Pollo Campero (They're having some great promotions right now. Each day there's a different special for only Q20-Q25), we walked over to Mont Blanc. I needed some cash and the ATM's at Mont Blanc are regarded a very secure, since the building is locked up each night and crooks can't sneak in and attach devices to the to steal card numbers, as can happen in unsecured sites. We also picked up a few things we needed at the Paiz Super Mercado that is located there. We also spent some time looking for crutch tips for Joan (owner of the B&B we stayed at on Lake Atitlán), but didn't find any.

Ready to head back to the guest house, we didn't find any microbuses heading for Parque Calvario at the last place we had taken one. We then walked over to Parque Benito Juarez and couldn't find any heading for Parque Calvario. To make a long story short, we never found a microbus heading to Parque Calvario. Instead, we decided to settle for a microbus going to Parque Central, which we knew we could find. After a short walk from there, we managed to make it back to the guest house.

Later that evening, we heard music and left the guest house to find another small procession coming from Parque Calvario. It's amazing to see what intensity these Guatemalans put into celebrating Semana Santa. In La Antigua, you can attribute it to tourism, but here in Xela, they are doing this primarily for themselves.

March 28

2010-04-03T08:28:00.001-07:00

This morning we left for church around 10:00 a.m. and when we reached Parque Central, we noticed a small women's procession turning the corner next to the cathedral. Today is Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday), the official start of Semana Santa (Holy Week). We're finally to the last week of Cuaresma (Lent). After viewing this first procession in Xela (they don't start as early as La Antigua), we headed over to the cathedral for the 10:30 a.m. Mass.

As we approached the church, vendors were selling special palm creations with flowers. We got one for Linda, but I picked up a free one, without flowers, as we entered the church, which was starting to fill up. We were fortunate to find seats close to the front, which helps us keep up. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our Spanish misselettes or our English translations of the readings this morning.

It was soon time for Mass to begin and the procession started coming down the main aisle. We were pleased to see that the Archbishop was presiding this morning. He came up the aisle with only eight altar servers (two designated to hold his miter and his shepherd's staff), although he did have about eight Eucharistic ministers, six readers and an adult attendant dressed in a white alb. As he came up the aisle, he bless all the palms with a large aspergil (sprinkler) made out of bound palms. After he had passed, it was necessary to dry our glasses.

Even without our missellettes, which are not used often we've discovered, we had no trouble following the Mass or understanding what was going on. The Archbishop's sermon was even somewhat understandable, although that could have been due to the unique features of the feast.

I was impressed with the way that the Archbishop presided this morning. He wasn't just present while others did their thing, he actively presided at the Mass and gave his own sermon. You could tell, buy the reaction of the congregation, that he is highly regarded by his flock.

After Mass, we had lunch and returned to our guest house, after stopping at Despensa Familiar for some things that we needed.

For supper, rather than cook, we decided to head over to Parque Central for dinner. Once there, we stumbled on yet another procession.

New Approach

2010-04-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Now that we are in Xela, we're not running around as much. I'm therefore going to change how I'm blogging and only report new and interesting things that are happening to us.

After all, we're getting up at about the same time each morning (7:00 a.m.), having breakfast (usually oatmeal) and work on our computers until about 10:00-noon. I'm still doing a daily job search (applied for two more this week) and am working on a grant proposal and letters of inquiry (requesting the opportunity to submit a proposal) for funding for Primeros Pasos. After this coming week (Semana Santa - Holy Week), I will probably be doing some computer work for Entremundos, a local non-profit that works with other local non-profits, and that could lead to doing similar computer work with some of their affiliate non-profits.

Rest assured, there are still going to be plenty of adventures, but I've had it with reporting the daily life routine, since for the next five weeks we are "living" in Xela, not just visiting here.

I Surrender!

2010-03-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to upload photos with each of my blog entries, but have finally faced the fact that the Internet service we have here in our guest house, while adequate for many things, it a real bummer for uploading photos.

I'll try to find a WiFi site or Internet cafe where I can upload them in a reasonable amount of time.

March 27

2010-03-27T18:06:00.002-07:00

This morning I'm up and working on the computer until about 10:00 a.m., at which time I took our laundry down the street to the lavandaria.

When I got back to the guest house, Linda and I started walking down to Parque Calvario, by way of the Vrisa Bookstore, where we returned a rental book Linda had checked out.

From there we walked to Parque Central and stopped in at Pollo Campero to get a soft-serve ice cream cone, however they weren't selling them yet. Instead, we walked around the area on the east side of Parque Calvario. We checked out the area on the east side of the Palacio Municipal (city hall) to see if there was a market going on, but it was locked up. We walked through the Commercial Mercado, a two-story, semi-open air building with a basement (actually it's street level on one side), but most businesses were closed. We walked to the front of the Palacio Municipal to see of the town band (two marimbas, a snare drum and a string bass) were playing, but they weren't.

We sat in Parque Central on a bench in the shade for about a half an hour and only had to say "no, gracias" about five times. From there, we walked over to the site of a restaurant that offers live marimba music (or so we read), but got confused by the street names. The site we wanted was in Zona 1, where we were, but the address I used, which worked, albeit incorrectly, was in Zona 3.

Frustrated, we went to Pollo Campero for lunch and further study of our maps and location information. After lunch, we walked to the correct location for the restaurant we were seeking. It was across the street from Dispensa Familiar, so we went into the grocery and picked up some items we needed.

We then walked home and dropped off our purchases. I went to pick up our laundry. Today's laundry, which included our bed sheets, sweats and most of our clothing and towels, cost only Q40 ($4.80). After taking the laundry back to the guest house, Linda put it away while I went to the mercado on the corner to pick up some fruit and vegetables we needed.

Back at the apartment, I sterilized the fruit and vegetables I had purchased with Sanavida and put them away. I tried to work on the computer, but our connection was so bad I shut it down and read a mystery we had purchased at one of the used book stores we had visited.

Around 5:00 p.m., it was so pleasant outside, that we decided to go for a walk before fixing supper. We walked from our guest house to Parque Calvario, from there almost to Parque Central and then returned to the guest house to prepare supper.

Not long after supper, the third young woman living in our guest house, Saskia, a native of the Netherlands, returned from a three-week trip to El Salvador. We introduced ourselves and soon she and Paula were chatting away in Dutch.

Later, I tried to work on-line, but got frustrated and decided to upload all my completed blog entries and worry about adding the photos to them later.

March 26

2010-03-27T18:06:00.001-07:00

This morning, after breakfast, I worked on the computer until about 10:00 a.m. At that time, we decided that we needed to go on another adventure.

While we were preparing to leave, Ariana called to tell me that my USB drive was ready to return. She had transferred the files to it that she wanted to give me. We arranged to meet around 10:10 a.m. by La Torre Rosada (the Pink Tower), which is in the middle of the street near her apartment.

I have no idea what the story is behind La Torre Rosada. It's a tower with a pitched roof standing in the middle of the intersection of three streets. When I asked back in 2007, I was told that it probably was put there when they introduced electricity to this part of Xela. Other than that, no one knows much about it.

After picking up my USB drive, we walked toward Parque Central to catch a microbus heading for Hiper Paiz and Pradera Mall. We were looking for some cough medicine for Linda and thought that we might have more selection there.

Wonder of wonders, we did get to our destination without a problem. Once there, even though we had eaten a good breakfast, we were both hungry, so we headed for the food court and had a Q25 ($3.00) shrimp special at Pollo Campero.

After our early lunch, we walked through the mall and stopped by several shops selling computers to see if there was an external antenna that could be used with a laptop to increase the strength of a WiFi signal. (I later learned that there are, but that they are primarily used with external WiFi cards. There's really no way to use such things with internal WiFi cards, like you find in most laptops, unless you have a great deal of electronics experience and knowledge.)

We walked through Hiper Paiz looking for the cough medicine and were soon referred to the pharmacy department, where we found some Vicks Formula 44. When we showed it to the pharmacist, he recommended that we try a different product. It is a German preparation called Abrilar Jarabe (April Syrup), which contains an extract of Hedera Helix (Common Ivy).

We then headed over to the Pollo Campero on the street in front of the mall and had a soft-serve ice cream. From there, we crossed the four-lane highway by the elevated walkway and walked down the road to where the Burger King was situated. We had heard that there was a branch of the Bake Shop located there. We never found it, although we did find another strip mall with a very interesting fitness center in the middle of it's entrance.

Walking back towards Pradera Mall, we crossed the four-lane again by the elevated walkway and looked for a microbus heading for Parque Democracia, which isn't far from the original Bake Shop.

The Bake Shop, by the way, is a bakery that is operated by a group of Mennonites who live in the mountains surrounding Xela. It's only open two days a week (Tuesday and Friday), because it 's so difficult for them to make the trip into town. It's the only place in town to get American-style baked goods and real cheddar cheese. We purchased some cheddar and a loaf of delicious banana bread.

After getting our goodies, we begin to look for a microbus that will take us to Parque Calvario, near where our guest house is located. We start by looking where we had gotten one just yesterday, but saw none. We soon discovered that the routes were disrupted today by a parade and market day. We tried six different locations before we conceded defeat and soon found a microbus heading towards Parque Central. Once there, we decided to have an early supper. another shrimp special for Q25, at Pollo Campero.

After eating, we headed over to the Dispensa Familar to pick up some items we needed and then headed back to the guest house. Once there, we worked on our computers and read until it was time to call it a night.

March 25

2010-03-27T18:05:00.003-07:00

This morning, after breakfast, I spent the morning reviewing documents I've received from Primeros Pasos. This is primarily background information dealing with their history, objectives and results. I'll need this backgrounding if I'm to prepare grant applications and letters of inquiry.

Late in the morning, I ran across a funding source in Houston that got my interest. Rather than call them directly, I turned to my daughter in Missouri city, Susan, to make the inquiry for me. I later heard that she had gone through quite a workout before she was able to leave a voicemail message. She's hoping that a carbon-based unit (i.e. human) will return her call.

Mid-morning, Ariana emailed me and said that if I dropped off my USB drive, she could get the files she wanted to give me transferred to it. It was such a nice day that Linda walked with me over to the Torre Rosada (Pink Tower), which was adjacent to Ariana's apartment. On our way back, we stopped by our corner mercado and picked up a dozen eggs. I had brought the empty carton from our last dozen and used it, since eggs are usually sold in a flat of 30. We also bought two avocados and bananas. We then returned to our guest house to put away our provisions and I continued working on my document review.

Just before noon, we decided to walk to Parque Calvario (just around the corner and one long block away) and pick up a microbus that would take us to the Minerva Terminal (where all the chicken buses in Xela congregate), where we could walk to the Pradera Mall for lunch in the food court. There are a number of fast food restaurants there that Linda feels comfortable with after just coming off of major intestinal distress.

By the way, a microbus is typically a van, but it could be actually a small bus, minibus, that is used for public (though owned privately) transport here in Xela. A ride anywhere in town only costs Q1.25 (15 cents). Today, we think we may have witnessed a worlds record when we rode with 25 people at one time (four were standing).

When we got to Parque Calvario, we just missed both a bus and a microbus that were pulling away as we crossed the park. The next three or four microbuses were completely filled, or so we thought.

Eventually a microbus arrives and several people get off, making room for us to get on. On the windshield was a sign indicating where it went. One of the destinations was Terminal, which I assumed was the Minerva Terminal.

We rode this microbus from Parque Calvario, past Parque Juarez, past Mont Blanc (the smaller of the two shopping centers in Xela), past the Minerva mercado and, just as we expected it to turn right to go to Terminal, it turned left. We ended up about as far out in Xela as we could get and still be considered in town. By this time the microbus had emptied except for us and when I pointed to the sign and said that we wanted to go to Terminal, the driver just shook his head.

Instead, he drove us on until he found another microbus waiting by the side of the road and asked them if they were going to Terminal. They said they were (should I believe them?) and we changed microbuses. This one took a different route back and before we knew it, we were back at Parque Calvario, where we had started not so long ago.

We decided to take our chances and repeated the route we had earlier taken, but, this time, we got off at Parque Juarez, as we had spied a Pollo Campero on the corner. That we saw it was somewhat of a miracle, since both sidewalks along side the restaurant were filled with stalls selling shoes.

We went into Pollo Campero and were surprised to find almost every table filled and it was only 1:30 p.m., which is early for lunch in Guatemala. Since Linda's blood sugar was only 105 this morning, we celebrated by ordering fried chicken. Mine was extra crispy, while Linda ordered tradicional. We ordered the dinner (2 pieces of chicken, french fries, roll and beverage) and were only charged Q30 ($3.60) each.

After we finished lunch, we walked along Parque Calvario and continued on to Mont Blanc, the smaller of Xela's two shopping malls. Like Pradera Mall, it's two stories, but not as long. We went there for two purposes: first, I needed an ATM to replenish our funds and second, we needed some groceries and there is a Supertienda Paiz, which is smaller than a Hiper Paiz (think Walmart Superstore), but larger than a Dispensa Familiar (think small grocery store).

After getting our groceries, we walked back outside and returned to the street that the microbuses were using. The usual street, in front of Mont Blanc, is under reconstruction.

It wasn't long before a bus appeared. I asked if they were going to Parque Calvario and got a negative response. I got the same response from the next vehicle, a microbus. Finally, a minibus appeared and when I asked if it was going to Parque Calvario, the auydante replied vuelta (return), so we got on. We rode on this minibus to the end of the route and then it returned right to Parque Calvario and we got off right in front of Calvario Church.

On our walk back to our guest house, we once again stopped by he mercado for some additional fruits and vegetables that we would need for supper.

While Linda fixed supper, I started reviewing possible funding sources for Primeros Pasos projects. I took a break when supper was ready and resumed my search after I had eaten. When I finally stopped searching, I had identified seven possible funding sources, not including the one Susan is checking on. While most of them have submission deadlines next fall and winter, several have submission deadlines as early as May and, in two cases, no submission deadlines.

My final task this evening was to record my daily activity for posting on my blog. I'm still behind on my postings, but at least the text is practically finished.

March 24

2010-03-27T18:05:00.001-07:00

Today we were up early, had breakfast and headed over to Parque Calvario, where we are meeting Ariana to take a chicken bus to Tierra Colorada Baja, the location of the Primeros Pasos medical clinic, for which I will be doing some fund development consulting. We met up with Ariana at about 8:50 a.m., but discovered that chicken buses heading the direction we wanted to take were few and far between. I even headed over to a tienda thinking that would cause one to appear quickly. It didn't! Finally, a chicken bus does appear going the direction we want and we get on board around 9:40 a.m.

It was really different from the chicken buses we rode in the La Antigua area. Those chicken buses were bursting with passengers most of the time, while this one was practically empty. The trip took about 15 minutes and cost Q2 (24 cents).

Once at the clinic, Ariana gave us a quick tour and took us to the "salon de salud" (health room), where we observed a first grade class being taught about intestinal parasites and how to avoid them. This is a significant problem for about 20% of the people in this part of Guatemala. When the lecture was over, each child got to look through a microscope at a parasite and then received a tooth brush.

After the lesson was over and the children had left, we talked with one of the children's health volunteers from Houston. She said that she typically went to the participating schools and did three 40 minute health presentations for each grade level. Unfortunately, her team partner had returned home, so she was helping with children's health presentations at the clinic for the time being.

While waiting to meet with the education coordinator, we felt the ground move, but didn't think too much about it. Later, we learned that there had been an earthquake (4.9 on the Richter Scale) on the Guatamalan Pacific coast.

When we met with the education coordinator, we learned that each school sends each of their classes to the Primeros Pasos clinic once each year for a physical examination, a dental check and a health lesson. They also do health lessons in each of the ten participating schools. In addition, there are women's educational classes. Of course, the clinic is available at a modest cost for anyone needing medical attention.

Soon after noon, we began waiting for a chicken bus to take us back to Parque Calvario. Ariana had given me a large folder of additional information that I will use in my fund development work and I wanted to drop it off at our guest house.

On the way, we stopped by the corner mercado to pick up some vegetables to make soup for supper and a mop (actually a handle with a wire mechanism that allows you to attach a towel to the end).

After dropping off the material, we walked to Parque Central to have a grilled chicken caesar burrito with fries and a drink at Pollo Campero. They are quite tasty and, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they only cost Q20 ($2.40).

After lunch, we went to Dispensa Familiar to pick up some needed items and returned to our guest house, where Linda took a nap and I worked on the computer doing my daily job search and working on my blog.

Supper was an excellent soup, followed by more blogging. Actually, the blogging goes fairly fast. It's the picture loading that takes time, especially when the daily blog that I loaded today has seventeen photos.

March 23

2010-03-27T18:04:00.001-07:00

Slept in. Worked on those questions for that job application. At 10:00 a.m., I took our laundry down the street to be washed and, after I returned, we walked over to INEPAS and found the outside door open, but the inner door locked. We rang the bell and the owner came out and let us in. Supposedly, she was to be my contact for the village computer project. After discovering that she didn't (or wouldn't) speak English, we pieced together what she told us in Spanish. Evidently they have computer labs in 40 villages and each village lab has from 35 to 40 computers. In other words, we're talking about 1,400 to 1,600 computers. Furthermore, she let us know that our Spanish wasn't good enough to work with them and that next week, Semana Santa (Holy Week), everything would be shut down anyway. To cut to the chase, we thanked her for her hospitality, informed her that we probably couldn't accomplish much and left intending to check with Entremundos later.

From there, we walked to the Vrisa Bookstore, where Linda found two books she wanted, one of which we're renting rather than purchasing.

We continued on to where the microbuses load to go out to Hiper Paiz and the Pradera Mall. We soon found one and left on our Q1.25 (15 cent) trip. The route was much more complex than during our last trip, since there was major road work that had to be avoided.

Eventually we were let off in front of Hiper Paiz and decided to have lunch at Pollo Comparo. Once again we ordered the Chicken Caesar burrito, but the camarero (waiter) tried to tell us something that we didn't understand. Later, when examining the promotional piece on a nearby table, I understood. The Q20 price was only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We ended up paying Q33 ($3.96) each, but they were still tasty.

Following lunch, we walked through the Pradera Mall, a two-story shopping center. We found two mugs and a knife that really cuts at one bargain store and clothes hangers at another. We then walked through Hiper Paiz, where we found some unsalted peanuts, trash bags and some live culture yogurt that Linda wanted.

We next walked over the four-lane highway on the crosswalk and found a minibus heading back towards Parque Central. After getting off downtown, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar, but didn't buy anything.

We headed back to the guest house and worked on our computers. Just after 4:00 p.m., I picked up our laundry (a large laundry bag full). The charge was Q25 ($3.00).

Supper was scrambled eggs, avocado and a banana. We spent the evening trying to catch up on our blogs. Hopefully, I'll get caught up soon. The text is almost all up-to-date. The delay is due to the time it takes to upload photos. Oh, how I long for true high speed Internet!

March 22

2010-03-27T18:03:00.004-07:00

Slept in (Note: When I write this, I'm getting up between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m., just not at 5:00 a.m.). In the morning I worked on those questions for that position I'm applying for. Around 10:15 I start walking to Ariana's office, which is in the same building as Entremundos, a local non-profit that works to support other non-profits in the area. Naturally, I can't find it, so I have to call so that she can help me find the location.

Regarding my inability to find her office, I'd like to point out that street addresses in Guatemala are very strange. For instance, the street address of the guest house we're staying at is Diagonal 12, 6-58, Zone 1. Now, "Diagonal 12" is the name of the street. "Zone 1" denotes the area of town in which the address is located. I know of at least six zones in the urbanized area of Xela, but there must be more in the rural outskirts, since I saw some land for sale in Zone 10, where ever that is.

We had a nice visit and I learned quite a bit about the project and their needs. She also promised to email me some other documents about the project that would be useful in preparing grant applications. Since we need to see the clinic that is the core of the project first-hand, we made plans to meet at 8:50 a.m. at Parque Calvario, not far from our guest house, so that we could take a chicken bus to the clinic.

I returned to the guest house, where we had some homemade soup for lunch and following lunch, walked over to INEPAS, a Spanish school, that has computer labs located in a number of villages surrounding Xela. The sign on the door stated that they would be open at 3:00 p.m., but they weren't, so I walked over to the Vrisa Bookstore, which boasts over 4,000 used books for sale. After checking it out, I walked back to INEPAS and found it still locked, so I headed over to the North & South Bookstore, which is a more conventional bookstore selling primarily new books. From there, I returned once again to INEPAS and found it still locked, so I decided to walk over to XelaPages, an Internet cafe facing Parque Calvario, to see Tom Lingenfelter.

Tom was very helpful during our last visit to xela and I wanted to ask him some questions. When I arrived, Tom was sitting at his desk by the front window in the Internet cafe he owns (he has other related businesses also). He recognized me (perhaps my hat was a giveaway), but needed help with my name, which isn't unexpected after an absence of over 2 1/2 years. I discovered, to my dismay, that Cubatenango, a restaurant that we had really enjoyed on our 2007 trip had closed because the owner had not been able to find good help. I did get other restaurant recommendations and, after telling Tom why we were in Xela, a suggestion that I contact Entremundos to see if they need any help with their computer lab. Evidently, according to Tom, they do.

After leaving Tom, I walked back towards the apartment. First, however, I picked up some fruits and vegetables that we needed at the corner mercado. As you can imagine, it's really convenient to be able to walk half a block and pick up fresh, ready to eat produce.

Back at the apartment, after sanitizing our fruits and vegetables, I once again worked on my blog and other computer tasks.

For dinner, since Linda was feeling better, we went back to Pollo Campero to try a chicken Caesar burrito for Q20 ($2.40) that we had seen advertised. We each had one and enjoyed them so much, we ordered another to split.

After dinner, we returned to the guest house and I continued working on those questions for the latest job opportunity I've located and continued on that project until about 10:00 p.m.

March 21

2010-03-27T18:03:00.003-07:00

Slept in. Linda was feeling better this morning, although still weak from her ordeal.

We started walking to Parque Central at about 10:10 a.m. to find out what time the next Mass would be. As we arrived at the cathedral, a nun was walking in, so we followed her and attended the 10:30 a.m. Mass.

Compared to Ciudad Vieja, it was undermanned. There were only six altar servers. There was a real organ, however, and the congregation did sing. In fact, it was a sung Mass with the priest and congregation chanting the Mass parts.

Once again, at the sign of peace, everyone in front and behind us wanted to shake the gringos hands. At communion time, it's almost like rush hour in Los Angeles. People get up and go, no matter where they are sitting. It would make a U.S. church usher cringe.

After Mass, we walked over to the nearby Pollo Campero, which isn't as nice as the one in La Antigua. The staff are nice, however. We ordered grilled chicken, which wouldn't be ready for 20 minutes and the manager sent a complimentary plate of papas fritas (french fries) to our table for us to munch on while we waited.

After lunch, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar to pick up some items we needed and headed back to our guest house. We're both feeling the effects of the altitude of Xela. It's about 7,500 feet, so we're taking it easy as we acclimate ourselves to it.

By the way, I read in a local give-away magazine, Xela-Who, that in Europe, Canada or the United States, if we were this high, we'd be walking through snow.

The rest of the day, I worked on my blog and started preparing to apply for another position. This one has a list of ten questions that need to be answered for consideration. Even if I don't get considered, it should be an excellent form of mental exercise.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with Ariana at Primeros Pasos, the health project I'm going to be doing some grant writing for. It will be interesting to see what kind of financial needs they have and whether I'm able to help them find funding to meet them.

March 20

2010-03-27T18:03:00.001-07:00

Slept in. Linda came down with a stomach problem (sounds like classic Montezuma's Revenge) and decided to stay in bed (as much as is possible with those symptoms).

Dropped off laundry at lavandaria, picked up groceries at Dispensa Familiar, got cash at an ATM across from Parque Central, returned to the guest house.

After putting away the groceries, headed down to the market on the corner to pick up some fruit and vegetables.

Returned to the guest house to have a light lunch. Linda was ready for something bland, so I boiled some potatoes for her.

After lunch, I worked on the computer and tried to bring my blog up to date. Fortunately, when I have been without adequate Internet service, I've been keeping my blog text in a file, so that I can upload it when I have better access. The hard thing to do, with the quality of the Internet service I've encountered, is upload the photos to the blog entires.

Around 4:00 p.m., just as I was getting ready to go pick up our laundry, we had a mild earthquake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it was rated at 5.3 Richter scale with IV intensity - light shaking and no damage. Guatemala is certainly a rockin' place.

With Linda under the weather, I fixed scrambled eggs for supper. After doing the dishes, I returned to work on my blog. I'm finally catching up. I'm only a week behind now.

March 19

2010-03-27T18:02:00.001-07:00

This morning we were up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for our trip to Pana that was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to pick up our 9:00 a.m. shuttle to Xela. After getting ready to go, we finished packing the final items we would be taking. I'm not sure I've mentioned what we carry with us, so here goes: two large rolling duffles, two rollerboard carryon bags (primarily with books), two backpacks with our two computers, a medicine bag, my breathing machine and Linda's coccina (kitchen equipment we've picked up while here). It's quite a load. One of the reasons we're taking a shuttle is that they drop you off right at the door to your lodging.

Our truck for our trip into Pana finally arrived about 7:45 a.m. After loading, we started the trek. A short distance down the road, the driver stopped to pick up a man and two Maya women going to market. I had assumed that we had contracted to use the truck exclusively, but stopping to pick up more passengers must be a genetic trait in these drivers. Linda tells me that Joan admonished him not to stop for anyone else, as we needed to get to our departure point for Xela.

We soon arrive at Pana's main crossroad and out three extra riders depart. Turning down Calle Santander, we're soon at the travel agency, which is closed! We had also wanted to eat before we left, so we drug our luggage into the restaurant next door to the travel agency and ordered our breakfast. While we were eating, the travel agency opens for business and I drag our luggage through the connecting door to the travel agency.

9:00 a.m. comes and goes, so I ask the young woman at the travel agency when the shuttle will arrive and she told me, "9:00 a.m." It finally arrived at 9:15 a.m. and we helped the driver load our small mountain of luggage. I assume that we'll drive around town picking up other passengers, but the driver drives right out of Pana. I ask the driver if we'll be picking up other passengers at Los Encuentros (the place on the InterAmerican Highway where passenger switches are often made) and he tells me that we're going directly to Xela. It finally dawned on me that we have this shuttle (an 11 passenger van) all to ourselves. Well, almost all to ourselves. At Nahuala (the driver's hometown), we stop to pick up his father and a friend, who evidently are going to Xela.

We finally arrive in Xela and are taken immediately to Casa Latina, where we are shown to our bedroom. We're on a floor with three other bedrooms (two young women from the Netherlands and another from Michigan). We share a kitchen, bathroom, dining area and living room with television. There is also wireless Internet. All this for only Q1350 ($187) per month.

After unpacking, we head over to our favorite restaurant, Cubatenango, to discover that it's evidently has either moved or closed. Instead, we walk to Parque Central to eat at McDonalds, since we haven't yet located safe places to eat. After eating, we walk over to Dispensa Familiar to pick up some items we need, such as oatmeal, instant milk, tea, limes, bananas, oil (for popcorn) and bath towels. We lug these items back to the guest house and Linda takes a nap, while I use the Internet access. Susan and Max are on-line, so we try to video conference, but it keeps freezing up. We finally are able to audio chat with no problem. Maybe it wil work better tomorrow.

For supper, we walk back to confirm that Cubatenango was still closed (hope springs eternal) and end up walking back to Parque Central for another hamburger at McDonalds. Afterwards, I spot the Pollo Campero just down the street from it and wish we had seen it earlier.

After walking back to the guest house, Linda wasn't feeling well (altitude?) and decided to rest and I decided to work on my blog. Tomorrow will be a relaxed day, hopefully. I do want to see if the municipal marimba band plays tomorrow morning. When we were here in 2007, we aplauded when they finished a beautiful tune and they responded by playing the "Stars and Stripes Forever" for us.

March 18

2010-03-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

Since we're on vacation, we got up late and had a leisurely breakfast with Joan. It was a beautiful, clear morning. We could easily see across the lake to Volcan San Pedro and the Cerro del Oro (small hump in the middle of the picture.

As was the case most mornings, there were fishermen on the lake,

women washing clothes

and boats waiting for their owner to take them out.

Afterwards, Joan called a driver she knows to take us into Panajachel. Here's a picture of Linda in the back of the pickup

and here's one of me.

She wants to pick up some plants for her garden and we intend to do some things on our own. When we reach Pana, we discover that there is a public transporation strike underway. A large number of tuk-tuk drivers have blocked the street and are talking, most likely, about the need to increase the city-approved tuk-tuk fee, currently about Q5 (60 cents) per person for most locations in town. I consulted my map and suggested to the driver that we drive around to the other road out of Pana and come in by the mercado. He didn't think we could do that, due to the heavy traffic around the mercado. Eventually, watching the other drivers turn around to take the alternative route, he decided to try it himself. It was a slightly longer route, but it did get us into Pana.

Once in Pana, Joan had the driver stop so that she could make a withdrawal from an ATM and we got out (we'd been riding in the back of the pickup) and told Joan that we would find our own way back.

We first began looking for the Adrenalina travel agency. Yesteday, while checking options for getting to Xela, we picked up a map (with advertising) for Xela. We had noticed that the standard charge for a shuttle to Xela was $20 (Q160). Not seeing any variation on the price, we concentrated on departure options. Most shuttles leave at 6:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. Adrenalina, however, offers a 9:00 a.m. shuttle, which we preferred. Furthermore, that map we had picked up had two 10% discount coupons. We finally found them and booked our ride to Xela.

We next walked down towards the playa, where we strolled along the promenade. We finally headed own to the dock where the launch to San Pedro La Laguna departs.

Once there, we boarded a launch (chicken boat) for a direct trip across the lake. The fare was Q25 ($3.00) each (one way).

The trip across the lake took about 25 minutes, once we departed. These boats don't usually leave until at least 11-12 passengers have boarded. The lake was smooth and it was a pleasant trip. In the distance, we could see the taxi launch that runs along the shore

stopping at all of the villages.

It's funny, when you look across the lake, it looks so small. When you cross it in a launch, however, it seems so big.

We were soon approaching San Pedro La Laguna

and the village dock.

After docking, we exited the launch and began walking up the mountain.

San Pedro is build on the side of a mountain, like most villages on Lake Atitlan. The main street goes almost straight up.

After about a vertical block, we decide to turn left and go through gringolandia, where the restaurants and businesses targeting the gringos are located.

we soon walk through there and begin what turns out to be a very long and roundabout walk, often at steep inclines, to find a crossing street that will bring us back to the center of town. Once we found the mercado and the church,

we decided to look for some place to have lunch. In the process, we find ourselves heading out of town.

We turn around and finally make our way back to that vertical main street. While many Guatemalans are Catholic, there are many Protestant (all are called Evangelical here) churches. Here's a photo of a very modest Baptist church.

We continue our walk down the mountain until we get to the cross street into gringolandia. We look at the lunch options and decide to eat at Fata Morgana, where we had a delicious thin crust Hawaiian pizza. Isn't Guatemalan food great! We also had the best limonada (limeade) we've found yet in Guatemala.

After stuffing ourselves on pizza, we head back to the dock and get ready to board a launch that will be returning to Pana. While we're waiting to board, these two women get off a launch, pick up their load and head up the mountain.

Once again, we wait until we have 11-12 passengers. In fact, we end up making the trip with 13 passengers.

This trip, which also took about 25 minutes, was not as pleasant as the earlier one. While Lake Atitlan is very smooth in the morning, after noon it becomes very choppy and launch pilots, like their chicken bus counterparts, try to go as fast as they can to maximize the number of trips they can make. The result is a very rough ride.

Once back in Pana, we head up hill (everything seems to be uphill in Guatemala) to find a tuk-tuk to take us across town to Dispensa Familiar, where the buses heading to San Antonio Palopo congregate. After calling Joan to find out what we needed for dinner, we picked up our groceries and boarded a pickup ready to leave.

This trip I made standing up. The view was awesome, especially as I held on tight as we rounded the many tight curves. Once back in San Antonio Palopo, we got down from the truck at the bottom of the steep hill up to the church and took the fairly level, buy Guatemalan standards, street back to Casa Sonrisas.

Dinner was good and, afterwards, I continued working with Joan's computer and printer. It was almost 9:00 p.m. when I finished, but they were working correctly by that time.

We bid Joan goodnight and headed back to our room to pack and get ready for a good night's sleep.

March 17

2010-03-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! They say in the U.S. that on St. Patrick's Day everyone's Irish. Evidently Guatemala didn't get the message. In fact the two gringos we wished Happy St. Patrick's Day to looked at us and said, "it is?"

This morning we woke up to find that onions were being washed in the lake below our B&B

and fishermen were already out on the lake.

After breakfast, I puttered around with Joan's printer. It had been out of ink, so we picked up some yesterday. I installed the new cartridge, but it didn't work well. This morning I proceeded to clean the printhead several times and finally got "Print Test Page" to produce some clean copy. I wasn't able to align it properly, since there wasn't a color cartridge with ink and Joan didn't want one, so I decided to put it aside until later in the afternoon.

Mid-morning we decided to climb up the mountain to the church where we could pick up a truck going into Panajachel.

Believe me when I tell you that it's a steep climb.

to the street in front of the Catholic church.

There we located a pick-up truck with wooden bench seats in the back and a welded frame that would take us to Panajachel for Q5 (60 cents) each. Today was the day that we were originally going to Las Canoas to work on their computers, but after being told that it would cost about $50 to make the trip there and back, I reconsidered. I don't mind doing volunteer work, but I don't want to have to spend big bucks to do so.

While we were waiting to leave, these two Kaqchikel men in ropa tipica (typical village clothing) stopped so I could take their picture.

From the road in front of the Catholic Church, you can see Casa Sonrisas. It's the gate with the yellow flowers over it.

Here's a closer look at the gate.

Once we arrive in Panajachel, we started walking. We had three objectives: 1) locate transportation to Xela for Friday, 2) investigate the availability of tours to villages on the lake and 3) have lunch. We also needed to pick up a couple of used books to read, which we did first. Afterwards, we noticed a cafe across the courtyard, so we decided to check it out. Their menu included a chicken burrito for Q44, which we ordered, intending to split it. When it came, we had two plates, each with a burrito, pico de gallo and guacamole. I assumed that they had intentionally misunderstood what we wanted to inflate the bill. After starting to eat the meal, I decided that if that was the case, I could live with it since it was quite good. When we were finished, I was amazed to find that we had only been charged for a single order, two drinks and lime, for a total of Q69 ($8.64). Color me amazed and delighted.

Following lunch, we started walking down the street towards the playa (beach). As we walked, we checked out the various craft shops. It's amazing. In the U.S. we tell businesses that they have to differentiate their product to increase market share. Guatemala must teach that similiarity breeds success, because, almost without exception, every craft shop is a dead ringer for every other craft shop. Now, there are exceptions, but they ARE the exception.

On our walk to the playa (really more of a shoreline), we got to practice our "No gracias!" (no thank you) as we were targeted by street vendor after street vendor. Now I'm starting to add "Mi zapatos no es cuero" (my shoes are not leather) to the shoe shine boys and men, and "No tengo la musica" (I don't have music) to the vendors selling flutes. Today, a women tried to sell us an apron. I held it up to my body and told her "No me gusta!" (I don't like it), while she yelled "Es para una mujer" (It's for a woman!). To be honest, we did buy several things today, but we just don't have room in our luggage to bring Panajachel out of the recession all by ourselves.

When we arrived at the playa, we walked along the promenade before going down to walk along the playa itself.

From there we walked to the east end of the playa, where we walked back towards where we descended to the playa. We stopped to rest and noticed that there was a helado (ice cream) stand looking lonely in front of us, so we purchased some ice cream bars.

After our rest, we began our trek back to the business district because we heard thunder in the distance. I had read that it would rain today, but no one believed me because we are in the dry season. As is so often the case in Guatemala, there were many beautiful flowers on display.

On our way back we noticed this very strange Olympic-style runner on top of a pillar.

we stopped by an ATM to get Q2000 (about $250) for Joan. That's the most you can get with your ATM card on any one day. We also checked out a possible site where Joan can get replacement end caps for her crutches. We think we found it and will stop by tomorrow with her as we are going to Panajachel for breakfast. That done, we headed over to the Dispensa Familiar to pick up some sugar and find a truck heading back to San Antonio Palopó. Believe it or not, the same driver who took us back yesterday saw us and asked if we wanted to go to San Antonio Palopó. We said yes and hopped in the back for the trip back, during which I stood the entire way holding on to the center brace. We had felt a few drops of rain in Panajachel and felt a few more on the trip back, but arrived without any problem. Looking across the lake, however, we could see the clouds moving in.

Once back, I continued my attempt to discover why Joan's printer doesn't print and had just found out that HP color printers had to have a usable color ink cartridge to work. About this time it started raining and kept raining...very hard, which is very unusual, especially in the dry season. It actually rained harder than I've seen it rain in a very long time and, according to Joan, it's never rained this hard here in the two years she's lived here.

To add insult to injury, we soon discovered that the electricty had gone off. This forced us to stop working on the printer, since it couldn't work without electricty, and begin getting supper together, while we still had enough light to eat by.

Supper was shrimp and crab (probably that artificial type) cerviche, from a stand down the street, avocado and crackers. It was much better than I expected, since the fish and seafood isn't cooked, except by the acid in the lime juice that it's prepared with. Here's a recipe to give you an idea of how it's prepared: http://buhos.myislamujeres.com/communicating/recipes.asp?event=&id={603D92CB-14DA-480E-A26D-2A63239D01AF}

With the lights out, we decided to head to our room, where we could record our daily blog entry. Of course, we would have to upload it once we were in Xela, since Joan's Internet service works but isn't that fast, especially for uploading pictures.

We had no sooner started than the lights came on, so I plugged in my laptop. Linda had to use the netbook on battery, since we don't have an adapter (three prong to two prong) for it. Fortunately, it has a 10 hour battery, although I doubt that it would last that long. It will definitely last long enough to record her blog.

Now that my blogging is done, I'm going to take my shower. I had decided to wait until tomorrow morning, since the shower in our room has one of those Guatemalan "widow maker" shower heads that heat the water as it come out.

After my shower, I'll do some reading and still be asleep early tonight.

March 16

2010-03-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

After a pleasant night's sleep, we were up in time for breakfast at about 8:00 a.m. All of our meals at the B&B were on the covered terrace overlooking Lake Atitlán.

Afterwards, Linda did our laundry, while I tried to determine why Joan's printer wasn't printing. After some research, I became convinced that the reason it didn't print was that it didn't have any ink. You'd think that printer manufacturers would include a simple indicator to show that there wasn't any ink in the cartridge, but of course they don't.

About 11:00 a.m., we all decided to head to Panajachel. We started walking and soon hitched a ride with one of Joan's friends who was heading to Pana. Joan needed to drop off a large poster of her son (he died in a skate-boarding accident in California last year) that one of his friends had sent her. We waited with the tuk-tuk,

while Joan met with the man who would do the framing.

We also had lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront, stopped by a bookstore and the bank, picked up an inkjet cartridge and get some groceries. We returned to San Antonio Palopo in a pick-up truck with bench seats and a metal frame that dropped us off right at her gate.

After returning, Linda got the laundry in, while I worked on getting our laptop to work with Joan's Tigo dongle. This is a device that looks like a USB memory stick, but lets you connect to the Internet through the Tigo cellular phone network. It's not as fast as I would like, but is better than nothing. Of course, I'll need to wait until we get to Xela before I can upload my latest blogs with pictures.

These four days will be our Guatemalan vacation. We intend to just take it easy. We're not going to push ourselves, as there's plenty of time to do that when we get to Xela.

Here are some additional photos of the bed and breakfast we are staying at on the shore of Lake Atitlán. First, our bedroom's the one on the left

and here's an interior shot. The fellow in the mirror is a prowler.

Here's a view of a fisherman from the deck.

After supper tonight, we're going to hit the sack early and probably do some reading. I have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, we'll give it some thought.

March 15

2010-03-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the day we head for San Antonio Palopó on Lake Atitlán. Our alarm clock issued its cheery greeting at 4:30 a.m. (ugh!). After an early breakfast, we finished packing, straightened up the apartment for the final time and hauled our luggage down to the front door. As we were waiting at the front door, we noticed something that we had not seen before. There was smoke coming out of one of the peaks of Volcan Acatenango.

Our taxi driver was scheduled to arrive at 6:15 a.m., which he did, so that we could get to the parqueo (parking lot) where the pullman to Panajachel would be loading in plenty of time. The pullman usually arrives around 6:50 a.m. for a departure around 7:00 a.m. While we were waiting, a strange man came up to those of us who were waiting and told us that the pullman was not coming. Most of them left to find alternative transportation, probably chicken buses. One of the individuals waiting, however, told us that a backup bus would be coming soon, so we decided to wait. We needed (stress needed) some snacks for the trip, so I walked over to the Bodegona, which had just opened. In addition to the snacks, I stopped at the cell phone booth and asked if today was triple saldo (triple minute) day for Tigo. It was, so I loaded Q100 into my account, which gives me 300 minutes.

When I returned to where Linda was waiting with the luggage, she told me that she had been told that no bus would be going to Panajachel today. It was time to put our Guatemala survival skills into action and find alternative transportation. I started walking towards the center of town, but only found closed travel agencies. At the first intersection, for some reason unknown to me, I decided to turn right. Within a half block I found a travel agency that was open and discovered that they had a tourist bus heading for Panajachel at 8:00 a.m. I quickly purchased two tickets for Q100 ($12.00) each, quite a bit more than the Q36 ($3.60) we had planned to spend, but definitely not out of our budget. The travel agent asked me to stay at the office until a bus arrived to take me to pick up Linda and the baggage. Soon a small bus appeared and I was taken to where Linda and the luggage was patiently waiting. We then went to pick up more passengers and their luggage before returning to the travel agency, where a much larger bus was waiting to load.

It was about 8:20 a.m. when we finally were on the road, but at least we were moving in the right direction. The scenery on the route was breathtaking. We finally arrived in Panajachel at about 11:30 a.m. and called Joan to let here know where we were. She found us with two tuk-tuks, which proceeded to take all of us and our luggage from Panajachel to San Antonio Palopo (accent). The trip took about 30-45 minutes, but the views were awesome. All the roads around Lake Atitlan hug the side of the mountains that surround it. We soon arrived at the gate to Casa Sonrisa, the B&B that we're staying at for the next four days.

Casa Sonrisa is right on the lake and is really very lovely. We have a lovely bedroom with private bath (Guatemalan showerhead). The dining area is open air, as is another deck. The B&B hugs the side of the mountain from the road through town to the lake. A hotel up the street quotes a price of $150 per night for their rooms. Joan, who owns Casa Sonrisa, quoted me a price of Q100 ($12.00) per night, although I insisted on paying Q150 ($18.00) per night. She only has two rooms for rent and I suspect that she does it as much for the company as for any thought of profit.

Soon after we arrived, we had lunch. In addition to a juice (much too sweet) made of hyasinths (???) and mineral water, we had puppessas (spelling), an El Salvadoran dish which included a fried cheese-filed quesadilla with a type of cole slaw on top. I've had it before in Ottumwa at an El Salvadoran restaurant. We also had sliced papaya.

Looking out over the lake, I saw a women doing laundry

And a man out in the unique type of boat used on Lake Atitlán.

After lunch, Joan insisted that we walk up the road

to meet Ken Edwards, an award winning ceramicist (http://www.kentonala.com/quienes.htm), who lives and works here. He's from the United States, but has worked professionally in a number of countries, including Mexico and Guatemala. He's also 85 years old. We had an interesting conversation in which he explained the different motivations of gringos and Guatemalans.

We finally returned to the B&B, so that Joan and Linda could nap and I could work on my blog entry for the day surrounded by beautiful flowers.

We had a late dinner with Joan and soon returned to our room where we got to bed early since we were exhausted.

March 14

2010-03-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

This morning was rather relaxed. I worked on my blog before church. It was about 10:30 a.m. when we headed down to the highway to find a chicken bus.

Because of our late start, we walked part-way to Ciudad Vieja before picking up a chicken bus. To our surprise, Driver stopped in Ciudad Vieja by the gas station for some reason and got off the bus. Soon, another bus came along and we jumped off our chicken bus and took the one that was moving. We just made it to church at the Ciudad Vieja cathedral at 10:55 a.m.

Mass this morning wasn't as elaborate as last week, there were only 10 altar servers. Father Andre was the celebrant and we understood more of his sermon this week, not all, but more.

After Mass, I examined the processional barge that was stored in one of the side chapels of the church.

It's really quite a massive structure.

It may be hard to believe, but it takes fifty men (changed about every block) to carry this structure through the streets of La Antigua (starting and ending in Ciudad Vieja) from about 11:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m.

As we had planned last Sunday, we joined Fathers Andre and Bernard for lunch in LA. We went to a small restaurant, La Cuevita de lo Urquizu (The Little Cave or Cellar of the Urquizu, whatever that is?), that had probably 12 meat choices (stewed, roasted, fried, etc.) all cooked in traditional clay pots and an equal number of vegetable and salad choices. Of course, there were corn tortillas. It was quite good.

Following lunch, we continued on to Santo Domingo, a former Dominican monastery that has now been recreated as a Five-Star hotel. In addition to the hotel and dining facilities, there are also colonial museums and preserved ruins.

At one time the chuch that stood on this site (now only a shell with a tent-like roof) was one of the largest in La Antigua. It was a fully functioning monastery that was destroyed by one or more of La Antigua's many earthquakes. Here's a view of the monastery crypt

and here is what's left of the monastery kitchen.

After enjoying coffee and chocolate con leche and enjoying the parrots,

they took us back to our apartment, as we have to be packed and ready to leave to meet our bus in La Antigua at about 6:15 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Since Linda has not been feeling her best and I'm basically lazy, I decided to ask Art if he could find us someone to clean our apartment after we leave. One of the downsides of living near an active volcano is the presence of volcanic ash. At dinner last night, Art told me that he had someone lined up for us and that it would cost Q45 ($5.60). Sounds to me like I made an excellent decision. Unfortunately, I didn't have change, so I had to walk into CV to get some. The simplest way to get change is to go to a tienda (small store) and buy something, so I did. I purchased some diet Coke (600 ml or 20 oz) for Q5 (60 cents) each. On my way, I called my mother and chatted with her until I lost the connection for the second time. It took me a while to realize that I had run out of minutes. I'd have to call back on Linda's phone when I returned to the apartment.

On my way back, there was an older policeman on my side of the road. He asked where I was walking, so I told him to our apartmento. He asked if I was from the EEUU (los estados unidos), and I said that I was. I also said I was from Iowa, which usually leads to a blank stare, so I said oeste (West) of Chicago and he nodded. He asked what the lump on my backpack strap was and I showed him my anti-nausea wristbands. I told him they were for enfermo de montana (use circumfex on second n) or mountain sickness.

Back at the apartment, I used Linda's phone to call my mother and Bill. they had just returned from Amarillo, where they had attended a family funeral. I suggested that Los Angeles and a visit with Syd, Nic and the twins wasn't much farther. We soon started packing and decided that it would be a miracle if we could get everything to San Antonio Palopo (accent on final o) and eventually to Xela. We are definitely going to have to jettison some stuff before we return to Iowa.

March 13

2010-03-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today Linda was still not feeling up to par and elected to stay in bed for most of the day. However, since we were almost out of groceries, I elected to go into La Antigua for supplies.

I took a chicken bus into town and got the groceries we needed at Bodegona. Since it was lunch, I decided to have lunch at Pollo Campero and pick up a take-out order for Linda, since her appetite had returned. I had intended on taking a tuk-tuk back to the apartment to save time, but Alameda Santa Lucia was jam packed with traffic and nothing was moving.

Knowing that the chicken buses used back streets to get out of town, I found one heading for Alotenango and soon was on my way. Surprisingly, Linda's lunch was still somewhat warm when I returned to the apartment.

Fortunately, Linda was feeling better when it was time to leave for dinner. Our landlords, Art and Rosa, had invited us to dinner at the home they're renting in La Antigua. If you remember, they lived at their bed and breakfast (next to our apartment), but had rented it to a family with ten children (8 boys and 2 girls) as a home. The dinner Rosa prepared was delightful. We enjoyed the conversation also, as it gave us new insight into the life of an expat. Following dinner, Art graciously took us back to our apartment.

March 12

2010-03-20T17:14:00.001-07:00

Today, we once again slept in and then surfed the Internet and worked on our blogs. Mid-afternoon, Linda started to feel nauseaus. She decided to go to bed, hoping that it would pass and we ended up spending all day at the apartment, .

My only outing was to walk into Ciudad Viejas to pick up some Coke light. Walking back, I greeted the police at the intersection by the cemetery and they greeted me back.

March 11

2010-03-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

This morning we got on a chicken bus for La Antigua around 8:30 a.m. We needed to drop off our laundry at the lavandaria and also wanted to attend the 9:00 a.m. expat breakfast at Café Contessa. This week it was almost standing room only.

After breakfast, Carl invited us to join him, Claire (his wife) and Patsy (a friend) on a trip to the mall in Chimaltenango. Having nothing better to do, while we waited for our laundry to get done, we readily accepted.

The purpose of the trip was to go to the Maxi-Bodegona (a better stocked grocery store) and look for a computer keyboard for Patsy's laptop. The built-in keyboard on her laptop was giving her problems and, being three years old, probably wasn't cost effective to repair.

The trip to Chimaltenango was uneventful. The only keyboard available in the mall was much too expensive, but the grocery store, to our surprise, had one much cheaper. After finishing our shopping, we returned to La Antigua for lunch.

After parking in La Antigua, we walked past the park in front of La Merced Church and noticed that the fountain was decorated with flowers.

Lunch was at Frida's, named after the artist and wife of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, a Mexican cafe. According to Carl, they have the best nachos in La Antigua. While I'm not sure they are the best, however, they very well may be the biggest nacho plate. After our appetizer, we had other entrees, such as a tortilla soup or tacos.

After lunch, which was later than we usually eat, Carl drove Patsy home and then took us to get our laundry. We had intended on taking a chicken bus back to our apartment, but Carl graciously insisted on driving us home.

Dinner was scrambled eggs, followed by video conferencing and blogging.

March 10

2010-03-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a catch-up day. I spent part of the morning working on my blog and got really excited when our Internet access finally started working well.

With the Internet access working well, I immediately downloaded all of the drivers (18) that I needed to finish working on the Child Aid laptop. By the time I finished, it was time for lunch, which we ate at the apartment.

After lunch, we headed into La Antigua and had a strange ride. We were walking into Ciudad Viejas and were just at the crossroads by the cemetery, when a chicken bus with two passengers, a mother and child, stopped to pick us up. Instead of driving through Ciudad Viejas, the driver took the (fairly) new highway that connects to the Central American (Pan American) Highway to the east of Chimaltenango. He then takes the unpaved shortcut to La Antigua and doesn't stop at the terminal, as we had expected. Afraid that he would keep on driving out of La Antigua, we bailed across from La Recolección Monestery, which appears to have been one of the larger one in La Antigua.

The church interior is almost completely filled with debris from whatever earthquake destroyed it.

Other parts of the monastery have evidently been cleared of rubble, but give an impression of the size of the facility.

As we were leaving the grounds, we noticed this tree which undoubtedly was here when the monastery was founded.

After leaving the monastery, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar to use the ATM machine and then headed over to the Rainbow Cafe for an afternoon snack. From there we headed over to the Paca, a part of the mercado where clothing can be purchased for as little as Q1 (12 cents). We've been told that "hay ganga allí" (there are bargains there), but we didn't find any.

After leaving the Paca, we picked up some bananas and plums at a stall in the mercado and headed over to McDonalds for a light, early supper. On the way, we saw this man pounding down cobblestones that had just been reset.

We headed back to our apartment and, for once, we let off right at the street to our apartment. That evening, I installed those 18 drivers on the Child Aid laptop and downloaded other updates. We also find time to video chat with Nic, Gia, Cos and Donna in California, after which I worked on my blog.

March 9

2010-03-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

This morning we slept in, as we were just about done with our Child Aid project. About 11:00 a.m. we took a chicken bus into La Antigua and had lunch at the Rainbow Cafe. Since it was a nice day, we decided to take that trip to Guatemala City that we had skipped on Sunday.

We found a chicken bus heading to Guate (shorthand for Guatemala City) and soon found ourselves leaving La Antigua. The trip from La Antigua to Guate is has a lot of curves that tend to bring out the worst in chicken bus drivers. I commented to Linda that it was like Disneyland's Space Mountain with the lights on.

In about 45 minutes we were at Hiper Paiz. There are several in Guate, but this is the closest one to La Antigua. The expats tell me that you can drive here and return to La Antigua without actually driving in Guatemala City.

Hiper Paiz is the WalMart Superstore of Guatemala. In fact, WalMart is part owner of the Hiper Paiz chain. This is probably why there aren't any actual WalMart stores in Guatemala.

On the inside, it looks much like any "big box" store you've ever seen.
Anything you could find at a WalMart Superstore, can probably be found here.

After leaving Hiper (pronounced Aye-per), we walked across the highway on an elevated walkway to visit a shopping center. This is also the side of the highway where we will catch our return chicken bus to La Antiga.

Before long it was about 3:00 p.m., so we headed over to where the chicken buses load by the highway. We needed to get back to La Antigua around 4:15 p.m. to deliver a CD and a DVD of Linux distributions (complete operating system and programs) for children. I had promised John and Yesika that we would drop them off when they brought their young son into La Antigua for his gym class (some type of martial arts).

After dropping off the disks, we grabbed a quick supper at McDonalds and soon were on our way back to our apartment for the evening.

March 8

2010-03-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning we had an appointment with John, an expat, who has a one bedroom apartment in a gated community for rent for $275 per month + utilities + $25 per month for high speed Internet.

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.

Where are the blog entries?

2010-03-16T15:56:00.001-07:00

Last week I got behind in my blogging and this week I don't have access to high speed broadband. I'm actually using a cell phone connection to post this message.

I am keeping my blogging notes and hope to get caught up this weekend when we arrive in Xela.

If you need to reach us, we will be checking our email periodically.

March 7

2010-03-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Once again we slept in and had to scramble to get ready to hit the highway, so that we could get to church on time. Both Fuego and Acatenango were in rare form, so I decided to show them separately. First, here's Fuego

and here's Acatenango.

I'm going to really miss these volcanoes when we leave Guatemala.

Afterwards, we planned to go into Guatemala City to check out Hiper Paiz and the shopping center on the other side of the highway that we had been told about. First, however, we were going to Ciudad Vieja to go to the 11:00 a.m. Mass. Here's a view towards Volcan Agua down the main street in Ciudad Vieja.

Here's a side view of the cathedral with the parish offices, classrooms and rectory to the right.

We had a few minutes to spare and walked around the plaza dedicated to the Immaculate Conception,

which is next to the cathedral. I had read that the only thing remaining of the original capital was a tree and assume that this is it, as it's the largest tree in the plaza.

It was about 10:50 a.m. when we walked into the Old Cathedral in Ciudad Vieja. To the right of the entrance is a plaque commemorating the fact that Ciudad Vieja was the first capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala.

I found this strange, as everything I've read mentioned that Ciudad Vieja was the second capital of Guatemala.

As we entered the church, we found a pew near the front and waited for Mass to start. While we were waiting, a priest came down the side aisle and stopped to ask us where we were from. We told him and he told us that his name was Father Bernardo (actually Bernard) and that he was in residence here for six months learning Spanish. He's a priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto in Canada. He mentioned that after Mass on Sunday, he goes into La Antigua for lunch. We asked if we could join him and he readily agreed.

Mass was much like our first Sunday attending church here. There was a loud choral group in the choir loft, fourteen altar servers, four lectors, six eucharistic ministers and a church packed to overflowing. In fact, later we discovered that there was an actual overflow area in the parish center (a large patio adjacent to the church) next to the church.

At the end of Mass, while most of the altar servers, lectors and eucharistic ministers process out, Father Bernard, like every priest I've ever known, enjoyed sprinkling the congregation with holy water. Note, there was not the mass exodus we often see towards the end of Mass in the United States. Unlike Father Patrick, our Pastor back at St. John and Paul Catholic Church in Burlington, Father Bernard and the other priests at the CV Cathedral don't use a dinky aspergillum or similar object, they use one-liter squeeze bottles and have two altar servers accompany them with back-up bottles.

Once he had finished dampening the congregation, Father Bernard came back to see us and told us that he needed about 10 minutes to get ready to go. While waiting, I took this photo of the main altar

and this one of the back of the church with the choir loft.

I wonder if they would be open to hosting a visit by the world famous St. Paul's Choir from Burlington, Iowa.

When Father Bernard returned, he told us that another priest, Father Andre, would be joining us and, who, it turned out, had a car for us to ride in.

We walked through the rectory, which has an open design (very chilly, according to Father Bernard) and entered the garage, where Father Andre's care was parked. After meeting Father Andre, who appeared to be Asian, we discovered that both priests were from Korea. Father Andre had been in Guatemala for two years learning Spanish, which he speaks fluently with a sing-song Korean accent. Just recently, his bishop has been talking to the bishop of the Birmingham, Alabama diocese about Father Andre going there to work with Latinos. Nothing is definite, but he's hoping things work out. That Father Bernard was Korean surprised us, as we assumed that he was of Latin American ancestry.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant in La Antigua called “Las Antorches” (The Torches). This wasn't a cheap restaurant by any standards, but was the food ever good! All four of us had the house special (Q125 - $15), which was a huge vertical shish-ka-bob (tender beef, tomato, bell pepper, and onions), a salad, a mound of rice with mushroom gravy and a plate of papas fritas (sounds better than french fries). Everything came on a wrought iron stand with the salad and fries suspended with the shish-ka-bob hanging between. I wasn't thinking or I would have taken a picture. To correct his omission, Linda and I will return to this restaurant and force ourselves to share one of these masterpieces. It's really enough food for two. This time I promise I'll take a picture so that you can see what it really looks like. By the way, the final bill for our foursome was about Q650 ($80.00), which I paid. You'll find out later why this turned out to be a good decision on my part. Unfortunately, the food was do good that I neglected to take any pictures of it or the restaurant.

Following lunch, Father Andre drove us to the south side of La Antigua to a plant nursery that also had a cafe. We first explored the many flowering plants in the nursery. Here are a few of the ones that I took.

Afterwards, the priests and Linda had café (coffee), while I had chocolate con leche (hot chocolate).

After consulting the map and schedule for the Sunday Lenten procession, we returned to Father Andre's car and headed back towards the center of La Antigua to find a parking place. Once parked, we walked towards where the procession would be heading. These are serious processions. They start around 11:30 a.m. and don't end until about 11:30 p.m. They are what you might call an “industrial strength” version of the Stations of the Cross. As with previous processions, there were alfombras (rugs) placed in the street made of pine needles, flowers and saw dust.

Just before the procession started, I managed to take a picture of Linda with Fathers Bernard (one the right)and Andre (on the left).

I have no idea who the strange guy in the back is.

The procession begins with a fanfare by Roman soldiers, incense, and stations of the cross on poles. All ages participate.

The main platform this evening required 50 men to carry it. We were standing at a corner where they needed to make a turn and it was quite a process to see.

Following the main barge were people also taking part in the procession and a band, which provided appropriate music.

There are also smaller platforms carried by women, with the help of some men, that required fewer people.

Following the two larger barges, were several statues on smaller platforms. They were followed by the second band of the procession.

Once the procession had passed, we hurried back to the car and the priests graciously delivered us to our apartment. Before they left, they invited us to be their guest for lunch next Sunday in La Antigua.

Once back a the apartment, we decided to skip supper, since we were still stuffed from lunch. Instead, we had pop-corn, which was sufficient after the heavy lunch.

About this time I began looking for my wallet. Eventually, it dawned on me that I didn't have it. I had been the victim of a pick-pocket. As I think back, I remember that a small woman was standing with us on the side of my body where I kept my wallet (right front pocket). She must have lifted it while I was admiring the Lenten procession.

Making toll-free calls from here is difficult with my level of Spanish, so I called Susan in Houston to get her to help me get my debit card cancelled. Unfortunately, Susan was sick herself, as was Scott. They think that Max, our six year old grandson, brought something home from school. He had been home sick himself, not long before they contracted it. Susan suggested that I call Robyn, which I did and Robyn called Shazam to cancel our card.

At this time, I wasn't too concerned. I had lost about Q500 ($60.00), which I will consider tuition in the school of smart living in Guatemala. I also lost my debit card, my drivers license (soon to expire, but totally unneeded here), and my three medical cards. Fortunately, we have three other debit cards with us and Linda has duplicate copies of our medical cards, should we need them. As for my drivers license, I'll need to renew it when I get back to Iowa anyway.

Update: When I was again able to check my First Federal account information on-line, I discovered that the thief had used my card to charge about $400 in Guatemala City. After contacting my banker back in Iowa, I've been assured that these charges will be dropped from my account.

March 6

2010-03-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

Today we slept in and once awake, lounged around the apartment. About 11:00 a.m., we realized that we needed to do laundry or find a source of fig leaves, like Adam and Eve. We quickly loaded our laundry into two laundry bags and headed out to the highway. Both Volcan Fuego and Acatenango were in full view.

Once again, we had to walk to the edge of Cuidad Vieja before a chicken bus appeared that wasn't already packed like a sardine can. We found a place to sit near the back of the bus, while our laundry was placed under the dashboard. We wondered if it would still be there when we arrived in La Antigua. Today our chicken bus had a most effective stereo system (read loud) playing a tune that should be the anthem for all Guatemalan chicken buses, the 70's disco hit “Stayin' Alive!” sung by the original Bee Gees. We disco danced all the way into town, while other passengers ignored it or napped.

When we arrived in La Antigua, we had to exit by the back door once again. I hurried to the front door and the ayudante handed me our two bags of laundry, which we soon had dropped off at the lavandaria. We then walked over to the Rainbow Cafe for lunch (chicken quesadillas, quite good). After lunch, we proceeded to the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, which we've learned is the former Spanish Embassy. As we've mentioned in the past, it's a wonderful place to sit and read, surrounded by beautiful flowers in a quiet courtyard. They also have clean restrooms.

We had asked for our laundry to be ready at 3:00 p.m. Around 2:00 p.m. we headed over to Bodegona, Dispensa Familiar and the mercado for needed groceries. Once we had picked up our laundry, we headed over to where we pick up a bus back to the apartment. The first one to appear was a Dueñas bus and we boarded it knowing that we would need to walk the length of the cemetery when we got off.

We were surprised when the bus turned around in Ciudad Viejas, dropped all the passengers off and prepared to return to La Antigua. Grabbing our laundry and our groceries, we began the walk back to the apartment. The walk was only a little bit more than when we catch a bus at the parada (bus stop) on the south side of CV. Furthermore, exercise is good for your health. We say that a lot down here.

Supper was a scrambled egg quasi-omelet, basically scrambled eggs with vegetables. Afterwards, I tried to work on that laptop, but needed information that I could only get over the Internet. Unfortunately, our Internet had been (insert appropriate invective here) since last Wednesday night. We watched a movie instead.

March 5

2010-03-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Today, we are going to meet with Kristen at her apartment to work on Child Aid computers, including her own personal laptop. Because of the previous night's adventure, it was 9:30 a.m. before we arrived.

We had expected to find three laptops to work on, not including Kristen's, but only one was there. It seems that the other two had not been available and, consequently, may not receive the attention of the computer shaman. I started by installing 2 GB of new memory in Kristen's laptop (it had only had 512 KB previously), which significantly improved its performance. I then ran MalwareBytes Anti-Malware program and removed some nasties that had been missed by Norton.

That done, I fired up the Child Aid laptop and discovered that the CMOS battery was evidently dead (later I discovered that Dell uses a rechargable type CMOS back-up battery and it was just discharged). Complicating things was the fact that it had sat in a closet unused for the past two years. After getting it booted up, I began running my program triad. While it was cranking away, Linda and I walked down to Pollo Campero for lunch on the patio, while Kristen worked on a class assignment for a course she's taking on-line. For the first time, we decided to eat our lunch on the outside covered patio, since it was warmer than in the restaurant. While waiting for our food, I saw an emergency exit that presented a contradiction.

Here's a close-up view.

When we returned to Kristen's after lunch, I continued to work on the laptop, but soon aborted the whole process when I realized that the laptop I was working on had an English-based operating system and would be used by a Spanish -only staff member. It makes more sense to wipe the hard drive and reinstall with Spanish-based software. Since I was dragging, we decided to haul it back to our apartment and do the work there. Once back at the apartment, I took a two-hour nap. Supper was homemade soup, once again, and bedtime was much earlier.

March 4

2010-03-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

This morning we headed into La Antigua so that we could attend the weekly breakfast of the local expat group. We attended last week and met some interesting people, all of whom have moved to the La Antigua area for one reason or another. A number of them have Guatemalan wives, but I doubt if that's an option for me, although it does make it easier to get residency here.

One couple we met this morning was John and Anna Maria, who moved here from Cedar Rapids four years ago. John is retired from Alliant and Anna Maria was head of the Spanish Department at Kirkwood Community College for 10 years. They gave us quite a few tips about living here, including how to get into Guatemala City to the Hiper Piaz (think WalMart Super Store). We've decided to go there, but haven't decided when, yet. They told us that the best days (least crowded) are Sunday and Tuesday – Thursday. We also met Rosa, Art's wife. We're renting their apartment for these six weeks in La Antigua. We also saw Carl, who told us that he had managed to get his church's computer repaired and wondered if I had time to take a look at it. By the way, I was wrong about the problem. It's wasn't a video problem, as I had suspected. It had actually been a bad power switch that had only cost Q100 ($12.00) to fix.

After breakfast, we walked over to where Carl had parked his car and drove to the church (actually a former restaurant/swimming pool/recreation area) in San Lorenzo El Cubo, a quiet and dusty little village outside La Antigua. Once there, I installed and ran Advanced SystemCare which would significantly speed up later scans. It ran well until it began defragging the hard drive. This proved to be a real yawn to watch, so Carl mentioned that he wanted to drive up to Chimaltenango to pick some things up at the grocery there. We were in Chimal at the mall where the grocery was located (the same one we had stopped at with John when returning from Las Canoas). Since it was lunch time, we headed over to the food court for lunch. On the way, we stopped by the restrooms, which had signs in both International graphics and the local Mayan dialect. Here's the general restroom sign.

Women need to look for this sign,

while men should look for this one.

After a typical fast food lunch, we headed over to the grocery. It reminded us of the grocery department at WalMart. We were impressed by the variety of products available, especially when compared with the haphazardly stocked and arranged Bodegona and the minimally stocked and cramped Dispensa Familiar in La Antigua. By the way, there have been attempts to bring a larger, modern grocery to La Antigua, but politics and influence have prevented it.

When we returned to the church, the computer had finished defragging and was working significantly better. I then ran Avast to clean off any viruses, which I knew would be resident. They were there as expected. Finally, I ran Malwarebytes Anti-Malware program and eliminated some more nasties. All this time, Carl was impatiently waiting. Unfortunately, that's what you have to do – wait and let the programs do their job. We finally finished and Carl dropped us off at our apartment.

Supper was homemade soup again. Afterwards, at about 4:30 p.m., I began to have severe chills, aches and a fever. I soon began the 10 yard dash, which continued until about 4:30 a.m. Finally, after 4:30 a.m. I fell asleep and, except for the extreme exhaustion and generally aprehensive stomach, I was fine. Now some may think that I had what they call “Montezuma's Revenge” up in Mexico, but I doubt it. I manged to Google “12 hour flu” later and found numerous examples that matched my symptoms. In most cases, it was attributed to a rotovirus infection, which makes sense since we had been at two schools (Melotto in Chimaltenango and Socorro in La Antigua) that week and rotovirus is very common in school settings, both in the U.S. and, evidently, in Guatemala.

March 3

2010-03-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

This morning we got a later start, as we were returning to Socorro School for possibly our last visit. We walked down to the highway and decided to walk into Ciudad Viejas and catch our morning bus at the parada (bus stop). It was a cool, pleasant morning.

We soon were on a chicken bus heading to La Antigua. It was a strange ride compared to what we've experienced so many times before. The bus was not packed to capacity and the driver didn't drive like a wanna-be race car driver.

We got off the bus once it had reached La Antigua and began looking for a tuk-tuk to take us to Socorro School.

The trip to Socorro on the tuk-tuk was the typical bouncing experience thanks to the cobblestoned streets of La Antigua. Here's a short video I took to give you an idea of what it's like.

At Socorro, I virtualized (converted from CD to virtual CD) three CDs that accompanied recent reference books received by the library. They were an encyclopedic dictionary, a biographical encyclopedia and a world atlas. They can now be used on the library computer without the need for the physical CD. Of course, they are all in Spanish.

After leaving Socorro around noon, we walked down the street a short distance until we found a tuk-tuk for a bumpy ride to McDonalds for lunch. (Feel free to view the previous video of a tuk-tuk ride.)

Following lunch, we decided to visit a new bookstore that we had just discovered on one of the tourist maps that are given away in La Antigua. Unfortunately, we misread the map and walked much farther than we really needed. The unnecessary trip was not without interest, as we visited a part of La Antigua that we had not seen before, found a new church ruin (Santa Teresa) to add to our list,

located another neighborhood park with a fountain.

Fountains are big things here. It makes you wish you could of had the fountain concession many long years ago.

We also discovered a “supertienda” that was so organized that it put both the Bodegona and the Dispensa Familiar to shame. We finally found that bookstore and were most unimpressed.

As is often the case, we stopped by the Bodegona, Dispensa Familiar and the mercado to pick up needed items and then boarded a chicken bus heading for Alotenango right at the terminal. We've discovered that we can get better seating by being one of the first passengers on the bus. Of course, sometimes it's just easier to pick up a bus as it heads out of town.

Evening was frustrating, as our Internet service was (insert appropriate expletive here).

All is AOK

2010-03-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the two crazy gringos from Iowa are AOK in Guatemala. While we've had several interesting adventures, we've had terrible Internet access at our apartment. Tomorrow we will haul the netbook into La Antigua and sit ourselves down in a cafe with Internet access and update our blog. We'll probably drink lots of chocolate con leche and limonada.

March 2

2010-03-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to Melotto School in Chimaltenango, hopefully for the last time. Once again we had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to take the 7:00 a.m. Pullman that's going to Panajachel. They drop us off right at the street to the school and pick us up on the Pan American Highway on their return trip from Pana to La Antigua around 1:15 p.m.

As we walked out the front door of our apartment, we were delighted to see that Fuego and Acatenango were in full view. In addition, the moon was suspended in the sky over them.

Agua was also fully visible.

After watching two overfilled chicken buses pass by our road, we once again walked the short distance into Ciudad Vieja, where we soon boarded a bus to La Antigua.

By 6:45 a.m., we had made it to the parking lot where the Pana bus loads. It finally arrived about 6:55 p.m. By a little after 7:00 a.m., we were on our way. It was somewhat strange, as no backpackers had boarded the bus for the trip.

We had just reached Pastores when we found the highway blocked. We took the bypass, including a short tunnel under the new highway to Chimaltenange that we'll take on our return trip. We soon returned to our original route, since there were passengers on board for a number of regular stops. We had another delay, due to road reconstruction, but arrived at our regular stop at a gas station in Chimal. This is where the driver and ayudante pick up their mid-morning snack. We were back on the road just after 8:00 a.m. and shortly afterwards had been dropped off at the street to the school.

We arrived at the school, greeted the librarian, let the office and director know we were on the grounds and then walked to the computer room. To our delight, it was filled with a room-full of young students learning about the parts of a computer and using Microsoft Paint to create neat pictures.

After the class returned to their regular classroom, the computer teacher showed us four "new" computers they had received and asked if we could put the Spanish keyboard typing tutor program on them. We said that we would as well as conduct some additional scans for malware.

We ran the additional scans and on all but one computer found at least 3 and, in one case, 11 malware issues. After they were cleaned, we loaded the typing tutor program. There are now seven computers in the lab that have both a Spanish keyboard typing tutor program, some version of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Paint. Two computers, one that just appeared and the one that was rebuilt on our last visit, are useless. The rebuilt one, for some strange reason, refuses to recognize the CD drive, the floppy drive and the USB ports. One other computer that just arrived is locked down with a program called "Deep Freeze," which prevents changes in the setup, including installation of new programs. I considered doing a fresh install, but discovered that the tower did not have a CD drive. Neither of these last two computers will be of much use in the lab.

Shortly before 1:00 p.m., we walked down the street to the Pan American Highway to wait for our bus to return from Pana. It finally arrived at 1:15 p.m. and, in thirty minutes, we were back in La Antigua.

Once back, we walked through the outdoor portion of the mercado so that we could pick up some avocados, bananas and cooking oil. We then went to Pollo Campero for a soft-serve ice cream cone.

We returned to the terminal to find a chicken bus heading for Alotenango. Boarding the bus there gave us a much better chance of getting a seat near the front, which made getting off at our road much easier. We soon found our bus and were the first to load, which gave us our pick of seats. While waiting, I took this picture showing how the driver has customized his command center.

We departed about 2:30 p.m. and before 3:00 p.m. were back in our apartment.

This evening we had dinner with Sam, John and Kristen. Kristen, you know, is the Program Coordinator we've been working with, John is the In-Country Director and Sam is the Executive Director for Child Aid and is from Oregon. After cleaning up and changing clothes, we had a video chat with Susan, Max and Erik. Around 5:30 p.m. we headed back to the highway to find another chicken bus heading to La Antigua.

We managed to get the second one we saw to stop and pick us up. By 6:10 p.m., we were back in La Antigua. Dinner was supposed to be at the Rainbow Cafe, but there was a lecture going on. Soon John arrived, followed by Kristen and Sam and we learned that we would be eating at La Peña de Sol Latino (Latin Sun Club), where we had enjoyed the children doing the Mayan ceremonial and folk dances several weeks ago.

Dinner was fine and the conversation interesting, but it appears that Child Aid has no interest in branching out into the area of computer literacy. They are interested in my assistance in researching new funding opportunities using a subscription they've just obtained to an on-line foundation directory. I agreed to assist them with the understanding that I could use the database to also research health-related funding for Primeros Pasos in Xela.

After dinner, John offered to drop us off at the apartment to save us the expense of a taxi. We were back home by 8:00 p.m. in time to blog and watch a movie. Tomorrow we'll go back to Socorro School and should be able to finish that project.

March 1

2010-03-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

Today we go to Socorro School to hopefully finish up in the school library. We walked down to get a chicken bus to La Antigua around 9:15 a.m., but decided to walk towards Ciudad Vieja to increase of chances of getting picked up. Several buses passed without stopping, but it was obvious that they were already packed.

At the edge of Ciudad Vieja, we were finally picked up by an empty chicken bus just beginning his run to La Antigua. For some reason, we traveled through a majority of the town without finding any more passengers. Finally, other passengers began to appear and, by the time we reached La Antigua, we had a decent load, not jam packed, but decent.

Since this was laundry day for us, we were hauling two laundry bags with us. After arriving in La Antigua, we walked over to our usual lavandaria and dropped it off. We then walked back to Alameda Santa Lucia (the main drag on the west side of La Antigua) to find a tuk-tuk to take us across town to the school.

After finding a tuk-tuk, we were at Socorro by 10:00 a.m., which is the time of the official Guatemalan country-wide snack time. We went immediately to the library and found the librarian using the computer I had recently cleaned.

My task today was to create an iso file (a special type of file used to burn CDs and DVDs) that could be mounted in a virtual CD cd drive. I'd done this for years in my computer lab back in Iowa. It both speeds up cd access and eliminates potential theft of the CD, since is is not in the real CD drive.

I decided to start with an atlas CD that came with a new world atlas the library recently acquired. I created the iso file and then loaded a program called DAEMON, which creates the virtual CD drive environment. For some reason, I couldn't get it to work. Finally, around noon, I decided that more research was needed (there we go again) and we left to go find lunch.

We walked across La Antigua to a small comedor across the street from the Bodegona and had a typical Guatemalan meal. It wasn't bad and also wasn't very expensive. Afterwards, we walked over to the mercado to see what we could see. Believe it or now, we once again found parts of the mercado that we had never seen before.

By this time, we were getting fatigued, so we headed over to McDonalds to sit on the patio and read the latest copy of Revue, a free English language Guatemalan magazine with special emphasis on La Antigua. While reading, we did some research by eating a McDonalds soft-serve ice cream cone. At this time, our evidence indicates that we prefer the ice cream at Pollo Campero, which is also Q1 (12 cents) cheaper (obviously irrelevant).

While reading the Revue, we found an ad for a second-hand store called Tienda Segundos, which just happens to share a location with Revue Magazine. Since it was only about half-way across town and we still had time to kill before picking up our laundry, we decided to check it out.

We found a number of interesting things at Tienda Segundos, but are finding that we hesitate to add any weight to what we have to lug around both now and in the future. Since nothing fell into the "must have" category, we headed over to the lavandaria to pick up our laundry.

It was just being finished, so we sat down and waited for it. Once it was ready, we paid and headed over to our chicken bus pick-up location, which was just a block away. We tried to get a bus to Alotenango and let at least one Dueñas bus leave without us. Finally, not seeing an Alotenango bus, we took a Dueñas bus, which dropped us off at the beginning of the cemetery.

After greeting our friendly state police, who seem to live on this particular corner, we walked the length of the cemetery to get back to our apartment. Back at the apartment, we had to put our laundry away and remake the bed, as we had washed our sheets again. We then had dinner and watched some movies. Lights out will be early tonight, as we have to be up by 5:00 a.m. to be able to make the 7:00 a.m. bus that will drop us off at Melotto School in Chimaltenango on its way to Panajachel. We'll pick up the same bus on its way back from Pana when it passes the road to Melotto School at about 1:05 p.m. Tomorrow night, we're having dinner in La Antigua with Kristen, John and Sam. While we've mentioned Kristen and John before, we'll be meeting Sam for the first time. He's the Executive Director for Child Aid in Oregon and is in Guatemala doing a periodic program review. I'm looking forward to discussing how computer literacy is complementary to the literacy work already being done in Guatemala by Child Aid.

By the way, this evening I tried mounting that same iso file on my laptop using the same DAEMON software and achieved the same results. It looks like more research is needed.

February 28

2010-02-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today marks the end of our first four weeks in Guatemala. So far it's been a wonderful experience and we're looking forward to our remaining nine weeks. It's Sunday and since we enjoyed our experience at the 1534 original Guatemalan cathedral in Ciudad Vieja, we decided to go back. Unfortunately, time got away from us and we almost were forced to arrive late.

As we walked out the front door of our apartment, we noticed that Volcan Fuego was looking good.

Rather than walk, we decided to take a chicken bus to the intersection just down from the church. Unfortunately, no one had alerted the chicken bus drivers, so we began walking into Ciudad Vieja, where we would increase our chance of finding a bus once we passed the intersection in front of the cemetery.

We were just on the edge of Ciudad Vieja when a bus appeared and stopped to pick us up. We didn't need to go far, but it was just too far to walk and be on time. As it was, we arrived only about five minutes prior to the start of Mass and had to sit about two-thirds back from the front of the church.

A children's choir sung this morning...loud...with a clavinova pretending to be an organ...loud also. Occasionally they were even on-key. They were spirited, however, and the congregation sang along with them.

After Mass, I did the tourist thing and took a photo of the sacristy.

I have to admit that the congregation, at least those members sitting near us, were most welcoming. At the sign of peace, we had to shake hands with everyone in our pew and in the two pews in front of us and also in back of us.

After Mass, we walked down to the corner and took the next bus heading for La Antigua. It was about 12:30 p.m. when we arrived, so we headed over to Pollo Campero for lunch. We made a mistake when we ordered. We decided to order the shrimp plate and asked for a Caesar salad with it instead of the fries. Linda then decided that she wanted some fries also, as it seemed to help with her altitude sickness. We thought that we had asked for two orders, but only one arrived. We called the waiter over and asked for the second order, but only got a second soda. Finally trying again, we got another order, with salad and with an extra order of fries. We wondered how they were going to figure out the bill on this one. I decided what I thought we should be charged at the maximum and if they got anywhere in the ballpark, I wasn't going to make a fuss. As it was, they charged us about Q10 less than I expected. All in all, it was a good laugh and a good lesson. We should never try to make changes to set orders. Change isn't something that folks here seem to handle well.

Following lunch, we headed over to Parque Central where the pan pipe bank was playing once again. They had played on Valentine's day also.

While sitting in Parque Central and fending off the wandering vendors, we saw an information kiosk for the Lenten processions and picked up maps and other information.

You may have seen photos or read about these Lenten processions. If so, I doubt if you really realize the seriousness with which they are approached. They start at a church just outside of La Antigua, where the platforms with the sacred images are stored, at 1:00 p.m. They walk a defined route through the city and return to their starting point at 11 p.m.

Along the route, various families prepared alfombras (rugs) in the street on the path the procession will take.

One little girl even decided to make her own alfombra using the leftover material from her parents efforts.

Soon the street vendors appeared, a sure sign that something was going to happen.

The first true indication that the procession was coming was the arrival of the Roman soldiers.

Soon a procession of purple robed attendants appeared. Many of the older ones take turns carrying the large platforms through the streets.

Not long after the attendants appear, the processional platform comes around the corner.

While this is a large platform, it only had thirty attendants carrying it at one time.

The statue of Jesus on the platform is very similar to the one above the altar in the old cathedral in Ciudad Vieja.

We're told that the larger platforms, which will be used during Semana Santa (Holy Week) will require fifty attendants.

In addition to the main platform, two smaller platforms are also carried in this procession.

After the procession has passed, the city cleaning crew arrives to pick up everything that doesn't belong in the street, i.e. trash, alfombras that have been walked on, etc.

We walked several blocks to once again view the procession. I took a short video that gives a good view of what we saw.

After leaving the procession, it was past 4:00 p.m., so we decided to have dinner before returning to the apartment. After eating, we headed over to the outdoor part of the mercado to pick up some fruit. We then went looking for a chicken bus heading towards Alotenango. We soon found one, boarded it and were soon exiting right at the road to our apartment. It had been a good day.

February 27

2010-02-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

We had originally decided to bus down to Escuintla, but after considering the opportunity to travel two hours by chicken bus, we decided to forgo the pleasure. Instead, we relaxed at the apartment until about 10:30 a.m. and then headed down to the highway where we quickly were picked up by a chicken bus heading to La Antigua. We even managed to snag part of a seat to sit on.

Once in La Antigua, we headed over to McDonalds for a quick lunch. Following lunch, we headed over to the mercado to continue our hopeless search for the elusive dining ware. We also tried a number of shops along Alameda Santa Lucia, the main road that runs past the mercado, to no avail.

After a consolatory soft-serve ice cream at Pollo, we decided to follow the directions given in my Rough Guide to Guatemala and walk to San Felipe de Jesus. On the way, we stopped in the park in front of La Merced to rest and watch the crowd. Afterwards, we toured the monastery attached to La Merced for a Q5 admission fee (60 cents). The ruins are in excellent shape and within the central courtyard, there is a massive and well preserved fountain, much like the one at San Francisco El Grande.

From the second floor (that's all there is up there), you can get some good views across La Antigua, such as this apartment building that the owner thinks may need to be expanded,

this courtyard surrounded by church offices,

or this language school that labels their study areas in both Arabic numerals and one of the Mayan dialects.

You can also get close enough to the dome of La Merced to see the animals that have been placed around it. Can you tell what they are?

They animals around the dome are actually lions created by artisans who obviously had never seen a lion.

From La Merced, we continued our walk following the directions in our Rough Guide. Obviously, I can't follow directions, as we soon found ourselves on the highway to Jocotenango. After a consolatory chocobanana (frozen banana dipped in chocolate), we hopped on a chicken bus heading for Joco.

At the Azotea Cultural Center (where we went last Saturday), there was going to be a traditional Mayan ball game. The only difference, of course, being that the losers would not be sacrificed. Actually, most Mayans disagree with the opinion of many scholars that such practices took place. They think it paints their culture with a bad brush and say that more research is needed to determine if indeed such practices did take place. It always comes back to needing more research, doesn't it. Here is the backboard with the goal (ring).

The game consisted of three parts. The first was preliminary invocation to the Mayan gods.

The second part is what we usually think of as a Mayan ball game. The warriors taking part can only use their elbows, stomachs, knees and forearms to move the ball. The object was to get it through the vertical hoop on the wall.

The third part was called "fire ball" and looked much like hockey, but with a burning ball in place of the puck.

Following the conclusion of the game, we walked back to the highway and took another chicken bus back to La Antigua. Since it was late, we went ahead and went to a restaurant for supper. Afterwards, we went looking for a chicken bus to take us back to the apartment. While walking through the chicken bus terminal, we spied this heavily modified bus.

It wasn't long before a chicken bus heading for Dueñas appeared and we headed home. This trip was strange, since we started off with few passengers and, once filled, every passenger except us exited before our stop. We expected to be dumped somewhere in Ciudad Viejas, but our driver dropped us off at the cemetery as we had requested upon boarding. He then headed back to La Antigua for another load.

We relaxed, did on-line research and watched another movie in English with Spanish subtitles. We're starting to critique the Spanish subtitles. Often, they say something significantly different from what we're hearing in English. What do you know, maybe we're learning something.

Earthquakes and Tsunamis

2010-02-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone is concerned, we are not in any danger from the earthquake that hit Chile as it is about 5,000 miles to the south of where we are located. We did feel the effects of a 5.6 strength earthquake earlier this week, but have heard of no damage or injury that resulted. Obviously, earthquakes are quite common, both here and elsewhere in the world, including Illinois, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Alaska and California. Here's a link to see world-wide earthquake activity during the past 24 hours and past week: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/

Regarding the tsunamis that are heading for the Pacific coasts, we are also in no danger from that threat as we are at over 5,000 feet of altitude. We are considering taking a trip down to a Guatemalan city, Escuintla, which is only 1,167 feet above sea level, but it should be safe enough also.

February 26

2010-02-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Today was an unusual day. We needed to go to Socorro School in La Antigua, but knew that we needed to be there just after school let out for the day, because I needed to do a preliminary assessment of the condition of their computer lab.

We finally walked down to the highway around 10:00 a.m. and soon caught a very full chicken bus heading into La Antigua. We were fortunate to find seats, although they were aisle seats as the third passenger in the seat, which means that one cheek is unsupported.

We arrived in La Antigua around 10:30 a.m. and decided to go to McDonalds for an early lunch, but had to wait until they changed from their breakfast menu at 11:10 a.m. before we could order.

While we were waiting I took a photo of their fountain,

their fountain with their main trademark,

some of the beautiful plantings and

other beautiful plantings. Is your McDonald's this lovely?

Following our lunch, we walked across town to Socorro School and were in the library by noon. I didn't have much to do, but wanted to run several additional malware elimination programs and fix the Microsoft Office 2003 that was not installed properly originally. All these tasks were completed by about 1:00 p.m., so I headed up to the third floor computer lab. There are twenty-three computers in the lab. I booted up one and determined that the installed antivirus software was about a year and a half out of date. I installed Avast, the free antivirus software that I've been using, and started it checking the status of that system. For this, I was using a computer security CD I had burned with a variety of fee and open source tools. While this computer was running, I decided to check another one and discovered that it didn't have a CD drive. I pulled out my half-gig USB drive and plugged it in without thinking. Before long, it was obvious that the young woman in charge of the computer lab was done with her end of school day chores. These did not include dealing with computer security issues, but rather involved sweeping and mopping the floor, dusting the computer tables and the window sill and covering each monitor, tower and keyboard with a protective cover. These are good things to do, but I was finding from my virus scan that the computers in the lab were significantly compromised. Her cleaning tasks completed, I could tell that she was ready to leave, so I pulled out my USB drive, aborted my virus scan and shut down both computers. Later, when I scanned my USB drive with the anti-virus software on my laptop, I discovered it infested with trojans. I had to reformat it and reload the software I keep on it. I also need to find a way to make it read-only, so it can't get infected again.

Leaving the school, we started walking back across La Antigua. One of the interesting things about La Antigua and Guatemala, for that matter, is the sidewalks. Sidewalks, in most places are designed to promote walking. I'm not sure what their purpose in in Guatemala, as this next photo shows.

Truthfully, some sidewalks are smooth and level, but they tend to be the exception here.

Soon after leaving the school, we passed one of the many colegios (private schools) in La Antigua where the parents were lined up in their cars to pick up their children so that they could take them home. I thought Susan and Donna would enjoy this photo, since they do so much of this themselves.

As we continued our walk to Pollo Campero for our traditional soft-serve ice cream cone, we passed one of the many restaurants you can find in La Antigua.

It's truly amazing how many different types of restaurants, including ethnically different, you can find in this city.

After enjoying our ice cream at Pollo, I headed over to the Bodegona to see if I could find a mousepad. None of the computers I've been working on have mousepads and I wanted one to carry with me, since many of the tables that are used do not work well with mice. I had to go to the second floor of the Bodegona, which could more properly be called a mezzanine. I wondered over to the area where computer stuff is sold and eventually a young man asked if he could assist me. I tried to ask for a mousepad in Spanish and he replied, "Oh, a mousepad" in English. He didn't know where they were, so he asked a young woman who worked in the department if they had any. She pointed to a locked case attached to a post that held USB drives and other stuff. In the bottom were placed some mousepads. The young man checked his database and told me the price. I nodded and the began to look for the key to the case. He couldn't find it, so he asked the young woman, who threw him her keys. He opened the case and I pulled out a very plain, blue mousepad. Having a fancy design wouldn't improve my mouse work. He locked the case again looked up this particular mousepad. It was Q10 ($1.20) less than the one he originally quoted me. The then took an order pad (triplicate style) and wrote up the purchase. He had me write in my name (don't know why?), which I did in an unreadable fashion. He didn't seem to care. I pulled out the money and gave it to him. He then asked me to wait, as he went into the back to complete the transaction. Several minutes later he returned, put the mousepad and my receipt in a bag and handed them to me. All this was for a Q6 (72 cent) purchase.

I headed back to Pollo and we decided to go over to the mercado on an exploratory trip. Linda has taken a liking to the knives we have in our apartment. We learned from our landlord, that they had been purchased in the mercado. He and his wife had tried to find them, but failed. We tried for about an hour and also failed, although we did see many things and areas of the mercado that we had missed on previous visits. Unfortunately, we'll probably never be able to find them in the future.

It was almost 4:00 p.m., so we decided to have an early supper at Pollo Campero. They have an excellent grilled chicken plate with a pseudo-Caesar salad and a beverage for Q39 ($4.88). It was a good thing that we had eaten, because it turned out that finding a bus back to the apartment was going to be an adventure.

We went to a street where buses heading our direction pass and also stop to load and soon had one appear. Linda, however, has been irritated by the practice of overfilling the buses and decided to let the first one go on without us, as it was too full. The next one to come our way was about 20 minutes later and we decided to take it, even if it too was heavily filled or so we thought. Evidently, the driver was of a different opinion, as he continued to pick up passengers until they were hanging out the front door.

When we got to our road, the bus was so packed that we couldn't get near the door to exit, in fact, we couldn't even move down the aisle to try to exit. So we decided to ride the bus to the end of the route in Alotenango and take it back to our apartment from there. Sure enough, when we got to Alotenango, everyone exited except us. We moved to the front seat behind the driver, who turned around and saw us. He asked why we hadn't exited and we told him that it has been impossible to do so when we passed our road.

The bus started back towards La Antigua and when the ayudante came by to collect fares, he shook his head at us indicating that we didn't have to pay this time. Soon we were at our apartment and the driver dropped us off right at our road. You could get upset over things like this, but what would it accomplish? I much prefer laughing about things like this and enjoy seeing more of Guatemala.

Back at the apartment, as I mentioned earlier, I cleaned and reloaded my half-gig USB drive and did some on-line research. Later we did some video chatting with Donna, Sal, Nic, Cos and Gia in California. We really enjoy seeing them, especially the twins who are convinced that we live in their computer and get irritated when we don't appear whenever they want to see us.

Tomorrow we're thinking about going to a seafood restaurant in Escuintla recommended by someone we met at the expat breakfast. It's only about 20 miles south of our apartment. In the afternoon, we're going to Jocotenango, which is on the north side of La Antigua, for a traditional Mayan ball game as played in ancient times. There will be one difference, I learned. The losers will not be beheaded.

What's In A Name?

2010-02-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

For the past twenty-five days that we've been in Guatemala, we have been in and around a very famous city that goes by a variety of names. Some people call it Antigua, which is actually incorrect and misleading. Antigua is an island that is part of a country in the Caribbean called Antigua and Barbuda.

It's more correct to call it La Antigua, which means "the old one," which is a reduction of it's full modern name, La Antigua de Guatemala, which means "the old Guatemala." Guatemala, of course, is the name of the current capital of Guatemala, often also called Guatemala City or La Ciudad de Guatemala.

The original Spanish name of the city of La Antigua is a bit more boastful. They called it "La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad De Santiago De Los Caballeros De Guatemala" or "The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Santiago of the Knights of Guatemala." I don't think I'll be using that one very often.

February 25

2010-02-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Today we were able to attend the weekly expat breakfast at Cafe Condessa, on the west side of Parque Central. Around 8:00 a.m., we were waiting on the highway when a chicken bus appeared and stopped to pick us up.

When the ayudante came around, I once again paid Q5 for the trip into La Antigua. The research continues. Arriving in La Antigua, we walked to Parque Central and the Cafe Condessa. There was a small group already there when we arrived at 8:35 a.m. and others continued to arrive for the next hour.

There was no program, merely introductions and pleasant conversation. One individual, whose wife is returning to Guatemala from Tennessee, has been coming to Guatemala for fifteen years and has lived here permanently for the past four years. Others we met came here from Houston and New York. There were many others with whom we didn't have time to visit this time.

I did have the opportunity to visit other parts of the restaurant, including an historic pila (colonial washing machine)

and a lovely fountain in a patio area.

We did solve two mysteries. If you remember the blog entry in which I described the woman in ropa tipica with the perfect English, I now know more about here. It seems that she is originally from Brooklyn (N.Y., not Iowa) and has lived at Santa Catarina Palopó for the past twenty years and has, as is said, gone native in adopting Mayan dress.

Another individual, also in ropa tipica, who we saw at Nim P'ot, surprised us with her fair skin and blond hair. It turns out that she is an albino, of which there are a number in some of the outlying villages.

During breakfast, we explained to the people sitting with us why we were in Guatemala and what we were doing while here. One of the men sitting across from us, named Carl, told us that he was in Guatemala volunteering with the Church of Christ. He invited us to one of their prayer meetings and we thanked him, but noted that we were attending the cathedral in Ciudad Viejas. He went on to tell us that the computer his church had was not working and I offered to check it out for him.

We first walked over to this house, which was where his car was parked. On the way, we passed the headquarters for the tourist police.

We soon were on the road to San Lorenzo el Cubo, where the church was located. Once there, we checked all the connections, plugged it in and turned it on. The tower seemed to start, but the monitor did not respond to the video output. I got out our netbook, connected the monitor to it and soon had an image on the screen. We popped the cover of the tower, cleaned out all the dust and decided that the problem might lie with the connection on the motherboard from the external video port. The external video port was wobbley, as if it had been stressed too many times. I suggested that a separate video card might solve the problem. Carl mentioned that he had a desktop at home, so we hauled the tower to Carl's house in La Antigua.

Carl's house was a very neat one-bedroom house with a loft on a quiet side street on the west side of La Antigua. I asked him what his rent was and he told me to guess. I guessed $500 and he said that I was correct. The house shares a walled enclosure with another house, and comes fully furnished with a maid and gardener. There is also space to park at least one and maybe two small cars.

We opened up Carl's home computer, cleaned out most of the dust (didn't have any compressed air) and quickly determined that it also had integrated audio. I replaced the cover, reattached all the cords and cables and booted it up. I then installed Advanced SystemCare and ran it. Carl now holds the record for the most fragmented hard drive I've yet encountered. Fortunately, Carl runs an excellent anti-virus program and the system was fairly clean, although cleaner after ASC was run.

We were ready to go to lunch and Carl invited us to join him as his guests. He took us to La Fonda, which I assumed was the same restaurant we had eaten at with Kristen on our first night in La Antigua. I was wrong. There are three La Fonda restaurants, all in the same general area of La Antigua. There's got to be a reason for this, but we don't have a clue what it would be.

The La Fonda we visited this time turned up to be the same one that Bill Clinton had eaten in in 1999. Here's a photo of his chair to prove it.

Please disregard my comment that the earlier La Fonda had been the one he had eaten it. I was the victim of incorrect information.

Lunch was a delightful, typically Guatemalan lamb stew with rice, a Guatemalan tamale (without the filling you find in Mexican tamales) and corn tortillas in a lovely patio area.

When we had finished eating, I told Carl to let me know if the new video card worked so I could do the system cleaning I had volunteered to do for him. After thanking him for the wonderful lunch, we headed over to the mercado to pick up some fruit and vegetables that we needed. After an Alice in Wonderland exploration of the mercado, we found a stand that had what we wanted and quickly purchased Q50 ($6.00) of produce. We then headed over to Pollo Campero for a soft-serve ice cream cone and a clean restroom.

From Pollo, we picked up a dozen eggs at Dispensa Familiar and headed over to our bus pickup area. On our way, we met up with Mark, who lives downstairs. His Mercedes, the one that picked us up at La Aurora Airport almost four weeks ago, has decided that it needs a new transmission, so he's reduced to riding chicken buses just like us.

The trip back was uneventful, but cost us Q6 for the fare to our apartment. Once back, we discovered that our electricty was out. Since I started this blog, it's come on for about 2 seconds and went out again. If you can't read this blog entry, it's probably because our electricity is still out.

At least being without electricty doesn't affect our air conditioning. The window is still fully open and the temperature in our apartment is a pleasant 70 degrees. Later, we may have to partially shut it to avoid being chilled.

Tonight, after dinner, we will probably watch another English language movie with Spanish subtitles, do Internet research, finish blogging and try to have another video chat with the kids...if we once again have electricty. Otherwise, we'll be going to bed very, very early.

Update: Our electricity did come back on, but soon went off once again. Our neighbor from downstairs, Mark, came up to make sure we had a candle, which we did...actually two. According to him, this is the worst outage he's experienced in the 16 months he's been here.

February 24

2010-02-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

Today, since Linda still wasn't feeling good, I ended up going into La Antigua on my own. Since it was laundry day, I hauled a laundry bag with me to drop off at the lavandaria we use and used in 2007, when we were last in La Antigua.

I didn't have to wait long for a chicken bus to appear and the ayudante grabbed my laundry bag and put it under the dash as I found my seat. When he came by to collect the fare, I once again handed over Q3 (36 cents), but this time I got no change. Maybe my theory of being accepted is incorrect. Obviously, more research is needed.

When I arrived in La Antigua and started to exit the bus, the ayudante grabbed my laundry and handed it to me once I was off the bus. I've seen this with others who bring large objects on the bus that are stowed in the front, but it was the first time it had happened to me. Very considerate, it was. (Sounds like Yoda, doesn't it?)

In no time, I walked over to our lavandaria, dropped off the laundry and arranged to pick it up around 3:00 p.m. I then walked across town to Socorro School enjoying the beautiful weather. I didn't see any snow or ice anywhere.

I arrived at the school around 9:30 a.m., rang the buzzer and was quickly admitted. Waving at the school secretary, I headed to the library. Once there, I booted the library computer. After logging in, it was up and running in less than 2 minutes. Not really believing that I had really solved its problems, I ran several programs that reported that there was no malware present.

I did have one problem that I wanted to work on. The computer has Microsoft Office 2003 installed on it. When I first tried to use it, it insisted that it needed to complete the installation process. I tried several things to deal with this irritation, but to no avail. Unfortunately, there is no installation disk for this or any computer I've yet to work on and without one, it will probably be impossible to deal with this issue. One possibility would be to install Open Office, but that would probably introduce its own set of issues.

About noon, I decided that I had done all I could do for the day with this particular computer. I do have a lab of about 20 computers on the floor above the library, but I'll probably have to work there afternoons when there aren't any students aren't in school.

It took me about a half hour to walk across town to Pollo Campero, where I had lunch, since they offer free Internet access. I ordered lunch and unpacked my netbook, which I had with me. I needed to do some grocery shopping at the Bodegona, but didn't want to be hauling around groceries until it was time to pick up our laundry.

After about an hour, I went by the Dispensa Familiar to get my second weekly infusion of cash. I then walked over to the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española and studied Spanish for about an hour. I then went to the Bodegona to pick up the things on my shopping list. After checking out, I headed over to the lavandaria to find that our laundry was just about packed in our laundry bag. After paying for our laundry, I lugged it and my groceries over to where the buses heading back to the apartment load.

The first bus to appear was an Esmeralda heading for Dueña and I decided to take it. Once again, my laundry was placed in the front of the bus under the dash. This time, when the ayudante came by collecting fares, I received 50 centavos change for the Q3 I handed him. Go figure! Obviously more research is needed.

I got off at the intersection and lugged my groceries and laundry the length of the cemetery to the road leading up to our apartment. It was a little after 4:00 p.m. and I was tired.

We had an early dinner of scrambled eggs with onion and güisquil (pronounced: “weeskeel”), which is related to the cucumber and the squash. Here's a link to more information on güisquil: http://revuemag.com/2009/09/guisquil/ . I believe that I provided this link earlier in my blog, but you must not have been paying attention or I wouldn't be providing it again.

Our evening was spent watching a movie on television, doing on-line research, testing Edubuntu and video chatting twice with Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia. Nic and Gia got their hair cut today and we were able to check back to see the results.

Tomorrow we're joining a local expat group for breakfast at Cafe Condessa, which is on the west side of Parque Central. It will be interesting to meet them and find out why they moved to Guatemala and what keeps them here.

February 23

2010-02-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Because of the trouble I've been having with that library computer at Socorro School, I decided to try to get there earlier to give me more time to become frustrated. Linda wasn't feeling well (possibe altitude sickness - we at about 6,000 feet), she stayed at the apartment, while I went in by myself.

As I walked out the front door, I saw that Fuego was looking rather calm. (Note: this was before I had discovered that he had been falsely accused of being the source of Sunday night's loud noise.) I quickly walked down to the highway and, almost immediately, a chicken bus appeared and stopped to pick me up. It was only partially filled. There were three people in each seat, but the aisle was half empty. I stood for a short while until someone got off and I was able to rest one of my cheeks.

Soon the ayudante came by to collect fares and I experienced the first surprise of the day. I handed him my Q3 (36 cents) fare and he gave me 50 centavos (6 cents) in change. This had never happened before. Could it be that we had moved from being mere gringos to being accepted as part of the community? It's really too early to say. More research is required.

We quickly arrived in La Antigua and I decided to walk to the school. I arrived there at about 9:00 a.m. and buzzed for admission. After identifying myself, the secretary buzzed the new electric lock and I was able to enter. This new lock was one of the first changes instituted by the new director. I guess you could call it her first accomplishment.

After greeting the secretary, I headed up to the library, where I immediately booted the computer I'd already spent so much time on. To my delight and surprise, it actually booted in a reasonable length of time.

For the next two hours I ran about four separate programs, some multiple times, designed to clean different types of malware from computers. In the end I had removed 14 rootkits, 1 worm, 26 spyware programs and numerous virsuses. When finished, the computer worked much more efficiently and even booted from the off state in less than 2 minutes.

About 9:15 a.m., I felt a strange rumble and asked the librarian if that had been an earthquake. She acknowledged that it probably had been. Almost immediately, a much stronger earthquake occurred, later labeled by USGS as 5.4 on the Richter Scale, that made me feel as if I was encased in one of those jello molds that are wiggle when placed on a plate.

Fortunately, there was no damage and no one was injured. This was my second surprise of the day.

At about 11:00 a.m., I had done everything I could do on the library computer for the time being, so I decided to leave for the day. Although only two hours, I had accomplished more that day than I had done in most of the past week. This was my third surprise of the day.

On the walk back, I called my mother in Beaumont, Texas and chatted with her about what we were doing in Guatemala. She even rode with me on a chicken bus for a short time. Soon the ayudante came by to collect tolls and I once again handed him the Q3 that I understood to be the standard fare. Once again I was handed 50 centavos in change. This was my fourth surprise of the day.

Now with the reduced fares I'd had and an additional 10 centavos coin I had found on the ground while waiting for the bus to return to the apartment, I was up a cool Q1.10 (13 cents) for the day. If this trend continues, I can see real wealth on the horizon!

My fifth surprise was that the bus was so empty, that I had an entire seat to myself. Of course, because of that, I took my backpack off and laid down my walking stick. Later, when I started to get off, one of the other passengers hurried to the front of the bus to return my walking stick. This is just another example of how friendly and caring the people of Guatemala have been to this particular gringo.

My sixth surprise of the day was my success in managing to get dropped off right at the road to our apartment. Of course, an alternative explanation could be that they also dropped off another woman at the same time who turned out to be our downstair neighbor's maid. Oh well, it was still a surprise.

Back at the apartment, I had my lunch and eventually decided to take an afternoon nap. Later in the afternoon, thanks to a heads-up from Susan, I manged to call my step-father and wish him a happy 86th. birthday.

Supper, computer maintenance (I've got to take care of our computers, too.), video conferencing with Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia in California, on-line research and blogging took place during the rest of the evening. Tomorrow, we have to take the laundry in, do grocery shopping and begin tackleing the computer lab on the floor above the school library.

Correction

2010-02-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've just learned that the "belch" we heard on Sunday evening was not Volcan Fuego. Instead, it was the Space Shuttle Endeavor breaking the sound barrier as it prepared to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Evidently bad weather in the U.S. caused it to take the more southerly route over El Salvador.

I would like to extend my sincere apologies to Volcan Fuego for unfairly and incorrectly blaming him for the disgusting noise. Now, can he stop with the stink?

Earthquake?

2010-02-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

Evidently, there was an earthquake this morning on the Mexico-Guatemalan border according to INSIVUMEH (Instituto Nacional De Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meterologia E Hidrologia) - that name reminds me of when I answered the telephone with "Iowa State University Extension - Des Moines County," only more so). It was evidently felt in Guatemala City, although it didn't disturb my sleep. From the lack of response near where we are, it's obvious that I wasn't the only one who slept through it.

By the way, we could smell Fuego this morning. We had assumed that the burning smell came from the finca next door. Soon after we arrived they had been doing some burning, but we haven't seen any more burning for several weeks. The smells have continued on an on and off basis. Now we know, it's our friendly neighborhood volcano.

February 22

2010-02-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Today, because I had to finish up the blogging I couldn't complete last night, we didn't get away as early as we would have wished. While finishing my morning blogging, Fuego once again belched, although not as loud as last night.

How loud was it last night? Well, for family in Texas and California, it sounded like a refinery had exploded. For folks back in Iowa, it sounded like the IAAP might sound if all their munitions were to go off at the same time. It was truly a "get your attention" kind of sound, but I've seen nothing on-line about it, except for some expats blogging about it.

This morning's belch was significantly less than last nights - more like a train wreck. Maybe now Fuego will calm down and play nice for the remainder of our stay.

As we walked out our front door, we could see that Fuego was still unsettled.

After reaching La Antigua, we caught a tuk-tuk and "enjoyed" the vibrations form the cobblestones all the way to Socorro School. On our way in to the library, we saw the director, who was much more outgoing to us. On Friday, I had presented her with my old ISU business card. The same thing happened to us in 2007, when I presented my business card, which indicated that I was a "director," almost immediately we received more respect. Guatemalans have a high level of respect for directors.

The morning's work on the library computer was once again slow going. I once again installed updated anti-virus software via a read-only CD. This was to prevent the spread of the infected files, of which this computer has a bunch. Around 11:30 a.m., which is when we like to eat lunch, rather than the 2:00 p.m. favored by Guatemalans, the anti-virus program was functioning well, so we headed over to the ruins of the Franciscan Monastery

on the grounds of San Francisco el Grande Church.

Admission was Q5 (60 cents) each, but we enjoyed visiting the museum again and walking through the grounds. The ruins are all that is left from the original monastery after numerous earthquakes.

You can get a feeling for the size of the monastery, by the size of their kitchen.

Thoughout the La Antigua area, there are numerous depictions of St. Michael the Archangel and the old Franciscan monastery is no exception.

There are still Franciscan monks on-site, but they have a much smaller and probably more modern monastery next to the church.

After eating lunch, we headed back to the school to continue battle with the library computer. It finally finished around 2:00 p.m., so I began running other programs that might find additional trojans, viruses, and worms. They did, but continued to lock up before completing their assignment. Finally, soon after four, when the computer locked up once again, we decided to call it a day, packed up and headed out.

When we got to the front door, we discovered that the lock was a new electronic lock that didn't seem to have a way to open manually. I went back to the office and finally got the secretary to press the button that would let us leave. As we exited, we were joined by a small, elderly nun who had also been in the office when I asked for the door to be open.

Once outside, the small nun invited us to see their home, which is attached to the Belen Church, not far from the school. Not knowing what to expect, we were led into a beautiful and well appointed conference center. Evidently, a hotel had been built in the ruins of the Bethlehemite monastery and they were able to purchase it. The facility has lodging, group dining facilities, a lovely chapel, meeting rooms and a garden that is out of this world. It was hard to believe that we were still in La Antigua, with its noise and bustle.

The nun led us on a tour of the garden area and then led us into an enclosed area with plantings, but unrestored walls. At the end of the walkway, we were shown a small, monk's cell and told, in Spanish, that this was where Hermano Pedro, Guatemala's saint, had died in 1667. There were a number of plaques around the entrance commemorating this fact.

We then walked back through the peaceful gardens, through the conference center and to the front door, where we thanked the nun for her hospitality and left. As we walked down the street, we were pleased to see a tuk-tuk approaching, so we flagged him down.

Since it was well after 5:00 p.m., we headed to McDonald's (Remember, Hermano Pedro is their patron saint here. They have his statue on display.) for dinner. Afterwards, we walked over to the street where our buses load, found one heading for Alotenango and boarded. At this time of day, the bus was filled by the time we loaded it and well filled after making several more stops for additional passengers.

Once again, there were people waiting at the cemetery to board, so we decided to exit and walk the short distance to our apartment. Tonight, we rested, did Internet research, blogged and made a large pot of soup for the coming days. Tomorrow, we will try to make an earlier start so I'll have more time to spend cleaning up that library computer. I'd really like to be finished with it, as I have another computer lab at Socorro that I haven't even seen. If its computers are as bad as the other computers I've found here, I may have my final three weeks in La Antigua already booked.

February 21

2010-02-22T05:22:00.000-08:00

Today we once again slept late. When we did get up, we must have been in slow mode, because it was about 9:00 a.m. when we realized that it was time to go to church. Because of our experience in getting chicken buses and our need to usually walk into Ciudad Vieja, we realized that it was possible that we might not make it to San Francisco Church (on the east side of La Antigua) on time. Rather than risk being late, we decided to walk into Ciudad Vieja and attend Mass at Iglesia de La Virgen de Concepción de la Ciudad Vieja, which was founded in 1534 and was the original cathedral in Guatemala.

Ciudad Vieja was established as the second capital of Guatemala after the Spanish were encouraged by an indigenous uprising. The name, Ciudad Vieja, means “old city,” which is interesting, because the Spanish moved the capital to La Antigua de Guatemala, which means “The old Guatemala,” after the original Ciudad Vieja was lost under a massive mud slide. By the way, the “new” Guatemala (City) is the current capital. The current church in Ciudad Vieja was obviously built after that massive mud slide, since some guidebooks note that only a single tree is left standing of the original town. Here's a photo of the town clocktower.

Enough for that digression. We decided to walk to the church (we'll never do that again), which turned out to be quite a distance through Ciudad Vieja. The people we met were very pleasant and smiled to see us, as we were the only gringos around. We arrived at the church about 10:45 a.m. and were pleased to find out that there was an 11:00 a.m. Mass. Our backup plan, had there not been an 11:00 a.m. Mass was to go on the La Antigua, where we could have attended the noon Mass at San Francisco el Grande.

The church is beautiful and the people we met were very welcoming. When the Mass started, we were amazed to see fourteen (14) altar servers process in, followed by six or seven Eucharistic ministers and two lectors, one being a boy. The priest followed this parade in visiting with the congregation all the way.

The music was provided by a slightly too loud Clavicord with three miked singers. Actually, they did a fairly good job and at least on one of the sung Mass parts, we found that we could sing along. We found the Mass very easy to follow, as the priest and the lectors spoke very clearly. We didn't get much of the sermon, because of our limited Spanish, but did enjoy his practice of getting active feedback from his congregation. As we left the church, we knew we would be back.

Walking down to the highway, not far from the church, we waited for the next available chicken bus to La Antigua, which soon arrived. There was a detour prior to arriving at our normal drop-off spot and we ended up getting off the bus at the terminal, behind the mercado.

We immediately went to Pollo Campero for dessert (a soft-serve ice cream cone), but more so for access to clean restrooms and on the sidewalk stopped to listen to a family band.

From Pollo, we went to our favorite comedor for another helping of Chicken Pepian for only Q20 ($2.40) each.

After lunch, we went back to the terminal and found a chicken bus heading to Jocotenango, a village on the north side of La Antigua. We got off at Jocotenango's Parque Central and saw a depiction of the official village vegetable

and started following the signs to the Mariposario, a butterfly garden. On our way, we saw a woman drying clothes on top of her house

and the entrance to a gated community, just across the street.

Just when we were about to give up, we found it and immediately saw a bus identical to the one we had been riding drive right past it. Oh, well. We needed the exercise.

We were the only visitors to the Mariposario, which had a Q40 ($4.80) entrance fee per person, but the attendant gave us a fairly complete and understandable explanation of the stages in a butterfly's life in Spanish.

It felt good to know, once again, that we were understanding Spanish, even if it was “más despacio” (more slowly). After the initial lecture, the attendant led us into the butterfly enclosure, a large net tent filled with plants that attract and/or feed butterflies.

We spent about an hour trying to take photographs of mainly non-cooperative butterflies.

Often, before we could snap the photo, they would be gone.

There were some lovely flowers in the enclosure,

Including this flowering banana tree.

One brave butterfly even decided to become my buddy.

After leaving the Mariposario, we went out to the street and waited, with some locals, for the next chicken bus to arrive. As we had noted before, it was on the same route as the bus that had brought us to Jocotenango. It soon returned us to the terminal in La Antigua.

We've gotten into the practice of eating supper in La Antigua when we're there at or after 4:00 p.m. Since it was only 3:30 p.m., we decided to walk over to El Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, where we could sit in the shade in one of their patios and read some Spanish books we had brought with us.

After 4:00 p.m., we headed over to that famous Guatemalan restaurant, McDonalds, and had one of their combos. Once again, although I had a winning scratch-off coupon, I didn't win a free round-trip to South Africa for the World Cup (fútbol). Oh, well. Better luck next time.

We had heard a band playing earlier and had seen men, both young and old, dressed in purple robes, but had not made the connection. As we were heading for a bus back to our apartment, we saw one of the Lenten processions with the large wooden float that are carried on the shoulders of a whole bunch (hows that for precision) of men, while a band plays religious hymns. Unfortunately, it was about two blocks away from us and the sidewalks were packed, so we decided to try to catch one of these processions next weekend.

Because of the processions, the bus routes were all changed up and some buses were delayed. We finally got a bus supposedly heading for Alotenango, but were surprised when it turned around in Ciudad Vieja and had everyone exit. I guess I should have known something like this was going to happen, when the ayudante hadn't charged me as much as I had expected him to do.

We walked the remainder of the way back to our apartment and spent the rest of our evening relaxing, watching television, working on our blogs and reading. Unfortunantly, our Internet connection was flaky, so, if you haven't gotten this installment of my blog, that's the reason.

Just as I was going to save this entry, we heard a very loud, roaring noise and felt vibration. We looked out our windows and didn't see anything. I got our front door key and opened the front door to look out and saw nothing. When I got back upstairs, our neighbor Jackie was talking with Linda and told us that the sound we heard was Volcan Fuego. We had seen it smoking during the past three weeks, but had not yet heard or felt it belch. Now we have. Unfortunately, because of cloud cover, it's impossible to see anything. I'll let you know if we can see anything tomorrow. Note, for family especially, we are far enough away from Volcan Fuego so as not to be in any danger from it, however, related earthquakes could be a different story.

It appears that we aren't the only ones to be concerned about last night's belch from Volcan Fuego. Here is a link to a blog maintained by our downstairs neighbor, Mark, in which he comments on last night's noise: .

We've been smelling something that seems to be burning during the past week. It's very likely that we have been smelling "Fragrance de Fuego." We'll keep you updates, should anything else occur.

February 20

2010-02-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today we slept in until about 8:00 a.m. After breakfast, we took it easy until deciding to go into La Antigua and take a shuttle to Jocotenango, a village north of La Antigua, where there was a museum complex on the grounds of a coffee finca (farm).

As we walked out our front door, Agua could be seen to the south.

Fuego and Acatenango were especially clear today.

Going down to the highway and not seeing any buses, we decided to walk into Ciudad Vieja, where we knew we would find a chicken bus into town. Sure enough, just as we reach C.V., a chicken bus, still looking like an American school bus, pulled up in front of us. The ayudante looked towards us to see if we were looking for a ride and we nodded our heads and hurried to board. When we boarded the bus, we were surprised to find it completely empty, except for the driver and the ayudante, who boarded after us.

It wasn't long, however, before the bus started filling up, since the driver was anxious for passengers. He actually waited for people coming from some distance away who indicated that they wanted to board.

Once we arrived in La Antigua, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar to get some cash. Because of a woman having trouble with the ATM, but persistently continuing to try, we soon headed over to the Bodegona, where I made my withdrawal in no time.

Walking over to Parque Central, we headed towards the Cathedral, as that was where we thought the shuttle picked up for the tour. We soon saw it loading to the west of the Ayuntamiento (city hall),

and hurried over thinking that the van was already at capacity.

I had temporarily forgotten that this was Guatemala, when the driver began rearranging the passengers to make room for us. The other passengers, Germans, did not seem amused. We soon left and took a strange route, which soon became obvious, when we stopped by a hotel to pick up a final passenger.

We soon arrived at La Azotea Cultural Center, which is a group of three museums on the grounds of a coffee finca. The first museum was devoted to Mayan music and we learned about all of the different musical instruments used in Mayan music from the conch shell to the Marimba.

Our tour guide, a young Mayan woman, spoke clear, distinct Spanish, which neither Linda nor I had any problem understanding. It was worth the price of admission to know that we were making progress in learning Spanish. Our German companions evidently did not know Spanish, as they had brought their own interpreter.

The second museum was devoted to the ropa tipica (traditional Mayan native dress) of the department (state) of Sacatepéquez, of which La Antigua is the department capital.

The third museum describes and celebrates the history of the La Azotea coffee finca and the process of growing and processing the coffee bean. It reminded us of the weekend we had spent on a coffee and macademia finca in 2007. After reviewing the processing of the coffee bean, we took a stroll through the coffee growing area.

We also saw a coffee plant in bloom. The fragrance of its blossoms are somewhat like jasmine, but much more subtle.

It turned out that the last passenger loaded on the bus was a younger woman from England named Jane. She was just finishing up a three-month tour of South and Central America and had decided, at the last minute, to take in Guatemala. Like us, she was in awe of the beauty of the country.

Not speaking German, we began talking with Jane and ended up inviting her to join us for lunch in our favorite comedor in the mercado. She accepted and we soon reloaded our van for the return trip to La Antigua. To our surprise, we were not taken back to the site from which we had departed, but instead were dropped off in front of a restaurant a few blocks away. We weren't irritated, because the driver handed each of us a coupon good for a free glass of wine at the restaurant. Of the group, only Linda, Jane and I decided to take them up on the offer. Not wanting to look cheap, I ordered us a Nacho Supreme appetizer that claimed to feed three or four. The wine was soon brought to our table and, to our surprise, was quite good. When the appetizer arrived, we were once again surprised, because it was both large and tasty. After finishing the appetizer and the wine, we decided that we were no longer hungry, so we invited Jane to join us as we did some needed shopping in the mercado.

At the mercado, we quickly located the fruits and vegetables we needed and Jane was able to find some moisturizing lotion that she wanted. Even with the small time spent in the mercado, she was amazed at its size, as we continue to be.

Leaving the mercado, we walked over to Pollo Campero for one of their Q4 (50 cent) soft-serve ice cream cones. After enjoying that, we took her to the Bodegona, since I needed to pick up another CD to burn copies of antivirus and spyware programs I needed Monday for the infected library computer at Socorro School. Leaving the Bodegona, we showed her where the 7:00 a.m. Pullman bus to Panajachel departed and noted that the Q36 ($3.60) fare was much less than the $20 fare charged for the tourist shuttles.

At this point, Jane left to make her reservation for a Volcan Pacaya trip, which we took in 2007, and we headed over to where our buses load for the trip back to our apartment. As is so often the case, even when we try to leave earlier, it was 4:00 p.m.

The trip back was fairly quick and we were soon back at our apartment, where we enjoyed a delightful soup Linda had made, worked on our blogs, video chatted with Donna and the twins in California and watched an English movie with Spanish subtitles. Life is good here. It didn't snow all day.

Volcanos

2010-02-19T16:10:00.001-08:00

One of the delights of living where we are (just southwest of Ciudad Vieja) are the neighboring volcanos. To the south, we have a view of Volcan Agua (water),

after which our apartment is named. To the west, we view Volcan Fuego (fire), the only active one of the three, and Volcan Acatenango (supposedly, place of nothing).

Many mornings all or part of all three volcanoes are covered in clouds. Sometimes, however, they appear in all their glory.

Both Agua and Acatenango are dormant. Fuego, however ocassionally puts on a show.

Agua is also easily visible from Antigua.

Thus far, our volcanos have been very quiet and polite neighbors.

February 19

2010-02-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Today was a total waste of time! The weather was beautiful, however, no snow or ice and plenty of sunshine.

We were so tired from yesterday's activities, that we had a slow start this morning. We didn't make it down to the highway until around 9:00 a.m. It wasn't long before a chicken bus arrived, which fortunately wasn't over filled, and we were quickly in La Antigua. We had brought our laundry, as we were once again running out of things to wear.

Once in La Antigua, after dropping off our laundry, we decided to walk to Socorro School. It's all the way across town, but insures that we get sufficient exercise. We arrived to find that there was no school today. We never did figure out what the reason was, even though we were told. Nevertheless, we were able to get admitted to the library, where I began working with the library computer.

Digression: Child Aid works with Socorro School to improve their library and provide workshop for the indigenous young women (grades 10-12), who are studying to become teachers in their home villages. The library at Socorro was not very reader friendly. It even had a long counter with window slits to separate the readers from the reading material. Child Aid informed them that for their library assistance to continue, the counter had to go. On Wednesday, the director and two other nuns had held a spirited discussion, which we couldn't understand, concerning the counter. Today it was gone. The point goes to Child Aid.

Back to the story line: Let me rephrase that previous statement (before the digression). I began fighting with the library computer. It was almost as if everything I had done last Wednesday was for naught. Very strange. I had checked, but had found no trace of that evil "Deep Freeze" program that plagued me in the other lab.

Around 1:00 p.m., I finally had installed and started the Avast antivirus program. It was really, really slow. Since there wasn't much to do in the meantime, we decided to go to lunch at McDonalds. We intended to take a tuk-tuk, so I used my magic phrase three times, "a tuk, a tuk, my kingdom for a tuk-tuk." We finally saw one, but he didn't see us, so we walked...all the way across town. After we had eaten, we decided to walk back...all the way across town.

Back at the school, I discovered that the antivirus program wasn't performing too well. It had only completed 1% of the disk scan. I stopped it and decided to try running that Advanced SystemCare program. It hung on the spyware removal phase, so I changed over to the system diagnosis side. As I had expected, it looked like I hadn't done anything to the system the last time I ran it.

Around 2:00 p.m. we were getting frustrated. When the school director arrived to check on our progress, we tried to explain that I still hadn't managed to discover the problem. We finally decided to call it a day and left.

Once again, we looked for a tuk-tuk, but didn't see one. About two blocks from the school, we nabbed one and headed back to Pollo Campera for an ice cream and a potty break. Once that was finished, we headed over to the lavandaria to pick up our laundry and then proceeded to the pick-up point for our trip home.

It wasn't long before a bus for Alotenango pulled up and we boarded. Fortunately, it wasn't full to the gill slits. We were quickly dropped off across from our apartment. We're looking forward to a relaxed weekend.

February 18

2010-02-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Today we once again were up at 5:00 a.m., but not to go to Melotto School. Instead, we were to meet John, the In-Country Director for Child Aid, and travel with him to Las Canoas, a village near Lake Atitlan.

This is the location of that computer lab with sixteen computers that we were told "no functiona." I was intrigued by the challenge, since I could think of no good reason for all sixteen computers to fail at the same time.

The trip to Las Canoas took about two hours and covered some very rugged and beautiful terrain. We arrived around 9:00 a.m. and after formally being welcomed by the director and her staff, who were in a staff meeting, we were led to the school computer lab. There we found the sixteen computers we had been told about.

I started by booting the first computer and was amazed to find that it worked! like most school computers I have seen in Guatemala, there isn't enough memory to waste with useless frills so I make some simple changes to reduce memory usage. I then loaded my favorite optimization utility, Advance SystemCare 3, which is both free and effective in enhancing computer performance. It cleans up a lot of junk, removes spyware, cleans up the registry, eliminates junk files, optimizes the system, defrags the hard drive and cooks supper. O.K., it doesn't really cook supper, but it's still a great utility. When it was done, I uninstalled a number of obsolete and useless programs and installed Avast, which is an excellent and free antivirus program. As a final flourish, I installed a neat typing tutor program that is designed for the Spanish keyboard, which is what is used in Latin America. This process was repeated on each computer in the lab that would boot.

In the end, we had fourteen computers that were operating significantly better than they had prior to our arrival. One computer had almost 400 viruses removed. Quite a few had severely fragmented hard drives. Only two computers and three monitors were non-functioning and the computers can probably be used for spare parts.

While we were finishing up, the school treated us to a most delicious meal prepared by the owner of a local comedor. I really wish we were close enough to eat at her comedor on a frequent basis, the meal was that good.

I had been led to believe that the public schools in Guatemala were rather backwards in their approach to education and that only the private schools were doing a good job in preparing their students for their future lives.

Now, I only have experience with three schools in Guatemala and I admit that, for purposes of research, my data set is much too small, but both Linda and I were impressed with the education that we saw going on at the Las Canoas School.

They are definitely doing an excellent job with the limited resources they have available.

The trip back took about two and a half hours, since John needed to stop at a shopping mall in Chimaltenango. Once again, we passed some fantistic scenery on our way.

We arrived back in La Antigua around 4:00 p.m. and decided to have dinner prior to doing a grocery run at the Bodegona and Dispensa Familiar. Once that was done, we headed to our favorite bus stop and took the first bus heading to Alotenango.

Lately, the chicken bus drivers have been stuffing their bus to excess capacity. At one point this morning, there were three people hanging out the front door (not us). Coming back this afternoon, every seat was filled with three passengers, the aisle was packed and even the front of the bus was filled with passengers. Nevertheless, the driver did deliver us to the road leading to our apartment and gave us time to squeeze out from the middle of the bus. We're thinking that we may have to start returning home at an earlier hour, say 3:00 p.m., to avoid this problem. It's getting so bad that the locals are starting to complain.

Tomorrow we return to Socorro School to finish up our work with the library computer. I was having a problem uninstalling an obsolete antivirus program the last time we were there and ran into the same problem on four computers at the Las Canoas School. Fortunately, I had a copy of Puppy Linux with me, so I booted it on each computer with the problem, used it to access the hard drive and changed the name of the subdirectory the obsolete antivirus program resided in. When I rebooted Windows, the program couldn't load and I was able to install the up-to-date antivirus program I had brought with me. I'm looking forward to trying this same trick on the library computer.

You might ask why I would need to use such tricks on these computers. Why didn't I just do a simple update? The answer is quite simple. None of these school have had Internet access. Without it, it's impossible to do an on-line update and alternative tactics have to be employed.

February 17

2010-02-17T18:39:00.001-08:00

Today we got to sleep in...until about 7:00 a.m., since we were going to Socorro School in La Antigua. We were out the door by 8:30 a.m. and walked to Ciudad Vieja, where we picked up a chicken bus to La Antigua. It was such a beautiful day, that we walked across town to the school, checked in around 9:15 a.m. and went up to the lab.

Today I was going to try to disable that Deep Freeze program that was preventing any changes to the computers. I was also going to try to test Edubuntu Linux on the one computer that didn't have a fully installed version of Windows. I managed to get Ubuntu running on it and was simultaneously trying to get Puppy Linux (a small memory resident version of Linux) running on one of the other lab computers, when Kristen and Norma stopped by. Norma had visited with the new director regarding her desires regarding the computer lab, especially since Probigua (a local language school) has it's name splashed all over it. It turned out that she had no interest in doing anything with this computer lab for the time being. She did ask that we check out the computer in their library and the other computer lab, which served the children in their K-6 program. We shut everything down, locked the lab, dropped off the key and headed to the library to begin there.

Like every other computer I've encountered in Guatemala, excepting the two we brought with us, maintenance is an unknown term. The library computer was no exception. We booted it up and the librarian logged in for me. From there, it was as if I was walking through a pool of molasses syrup. For the next two hours, I did battle with it and pretty much lost every one of them. (I'm seated at the computer behind the counter.)

Finally, just before we decided to have lunch, I logged in and let it running. I thought that if some program was starting at log-in, perhaps it would be finished by the time we returned from a light lunch. We ate in the school courtyard, near the playground.

For the most part, it was more accessible after lunch and I finally was able to run my Advance SystemCare 3 (ASC3) software that does such a good job of cleaning up computer garbage. It also defrags the hard drive, which was especially needed as this computer was the most fragmented I've yet encountered. After ASC3 finished running, the computer was much more responsive. I then tried to uninstall the antivirus program that was installed, since it was about six months out of date. Unfortunately, the school does not have Internet access. I wanted to replace it with Avast, which I just downloaded, but every time I tried to uninstall it, it spontaneously rebooted prior to finishing the uninstallation. I finally gave up on it just after 2:00 p.m., vowing to return on Friday to continue battle.

Leaving the school, we walked back to the part of town near the mercado, while looking for a bookstore that Linda wanted to visit. We found another book store, which we visited, and were just about ready to give up when we found the one we've been looking for for the past two weeks.

From there we went to Pollo Campero for a second lunch or an early dinner, since our first lunch had been light. I also wanted to do some on-line research with our netbook, which I'd been lugging around. I'd hoped to find a downloadable virus signature file for the antivirus program installed on the library computer, but couldn't find one. Instead, I just downloaded the lastest version if it and will install it on Friday. That should do the trick. I was also able to determine the purpose of another program installed on the library computer.

Leaving Pollo Campero, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar for a few items, but ended up only picking up crackers to go with the soup we had made the night before. We then headed over to where we pick up the bus to return to our apartment and almost immediately boarded a chicken bus heading for Alotenango. When I paid our fare, I mentioned where we wanted to get off and was pleased when it was right at the road to our apartment. Our success might better be attributed to the fact that a local Guatemalan resident also exited when we did. While walking up the road to our apartment, we talked briefly with her. She seemed amused when I referred to us as her neighbors.

Back home, we video chatted with Donna, Max and Robyn in Houston and Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia in Los Angeles. We tried to video chat with our friend Judy, who lives across the Mississippi from Burlington in Illinois, but the combination of our Guatemalan infrastructure and her Illinois infrastructure was just too much for Gmail to deal with. We'll need to try that again.

The evening included a movie, blogging and Internet research. I've been looking for job opportunities since I've arrived and, to put it bluntly, the fishing has been pretty dismal. In the last sixteen days I've only applied for one position and it was with a nonprofit headquartered in Houston. I found it amusing that the position is located in La Antigua, Guatemala.

Tomorrow we meet John, the In-Country Director of Child Aid, to go with him to a village school near Lake Atitlan. This will be an exploratory trip for us. The school has a sixteen computer lab that "no functiona." Our job will be to try to determine if it is worth trying to make them operational or if junking them and trying to start over would make more sense. It should be an interesting excursion. If the computers have potential, we'll probably spend our seventh week in Guatemala somewhere on Lake Atitlan near the village school.

(Acknowlegement: Today's photos were all taken by Linda)

February 16

2010-02-16T19:32:00.001-08:00

Today was another trip to the Melotto School in Chimaltenango. As usual, we were up at 5:00 a.m. and on the highway walked towards Ciudad Vieja by 6:15 a.m. We got a chicken bus just outside of Ciudad Vieja and were at the pick-up point for the Pullman bus to Panajachel by 6:45 a.m. It arrived on time and we loaded, along with a large contingent of backpackers. The backpackers seemed to be primarily European, including a group of about six Dutch girls. There were also a good number of Guatemalans, primarily Mayan. Since the bus wasn't full, we continued to pick up passengers as we headed towards Chimaltenango.

Normally we would be walking up the road to the school by about 8:15 a.m., but this wasn't going to be a normal day. About 7:30 a.m., when we were about half-way between Parramos and Chimaltenango and going up a steep mountain road, the transmission on our bus decided to take a vacation.

This is the same transmission that was being repaired that day when we road a chicken bus instead. Evidently they didn't find the problem.

After trying to get the bus going for a while, they decided that it would be safer if all the passengers exited the bus.

While standing by the side of the road, not far from a blind curve, we waited.

Eventually they decided that the bus wasn't going anywhere and called for a replacement bus. The story we were told was that the replacement bus was about 20 minutes away. One of the Guatemalan passengers, a woman in ropa tipica (traditional Mayan dress), who spoke English like someone from the northeast U.S., told us that, in that case, we could expect the replacement bus within an hour to an hour and a half. While waiting, I walked a short distance up the highway and took a photo of the terrain.

Around 8:30 a.m. a car pulled off the road and Kristen's head appeared asking us if we needed a ride. She and Norma, from San Miguel Dueñas (not far from our apartment), were riding with John, the In-Country Director of Child Aid, to their weekly staff meeting at the Mollina School, where their warehouse is located. They took us to the Central American highway (Pan American highway), in Chimaltenango, where we could find transportation to the Melotto School, where we would be working that day.

On the way to our drop-off point, John asked if we were interested in joining him for a day trip to La Canoas, near Lake Atitlan, on Thursday. This is the school that has the sixteen computer lab that "no functiona" (doesn't work). Our objective for this first trip will be to do an assessment of the equipment, see if it runs and determine if it is worth trying to get working.

Before coming to Guatemala, I was impressed with the work being done by a number of non-profits that took computer systems surplused by businesses and corporations, renovated them and loaded an operating system and standard programs. Since beginning to work with Child Aid and, on the basis of my experience with two schools, I'm growing concerned that much of what is being shipped to Guatemala is just junk. Furthermore, the software that is preloaded on these computers, which seem to have very small hard drives and minimal memory, is more suited to individual or business computing than educational programming.

Education in Guatemala is problematic at best. There are two separate systems: a public school system and a private school system consisting of individual schools operated primarily, but not exclusively, by churches. These church operated schools are either Catholic or Evangelical, which is the Guatemalan term for protestant, since the label protestant connotes revolutionary.

The Melotto School in Chimaltenango is operate by the Diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango, while the Socorro de Belen School in La Antigua is operated by nuns belonging to the Bethlehemite Order, originally founded by St. Hermano Pedro. While the Melotto School has both a primary and secondary division, the Socorro school seems to be primarily a primary school with a special high school program for Mayan girls in which they are trained to return to their villages as teachers.

Child Aid is not religiously affiliated, but works with any interested school. It's probably just a coincidence that both schools we've worked with thus far have been Catholic. I have no idea what affiliation the La Canoas is, not that it matters. They have computers that need assistance and the "B Team" is on the way.

Enough for the digression. After being let out in Chimaltenango, we began looking for a way to get to Melotto. Traffic on the Central American Highway is a nightmare at the best of times, but lately they've been doing some major road work and it's really made things difficult. The last time we had changed buses here, Kristen had to try several buses before one would take us the short distance to the school. Thus, not in the mood for dealing with reluctant chicken bus drivers and their ayudantes, I uttered my "magic" phrase: "A tuk, a tuk, my kingdom for a tuk-tuk" and almost immediately one appeared. (More research is needed to determine if this is just a coincidence.) We were quickly delivered at the gate of the Melotto School and, after announcing our presence, got to work.

At our last visit, there had been no electricity, so nothing had been accomplished. Previous to that visit, we had managed to get three of the computers (two with Windows 98 and one with XP) operating. We also had a fourth (running XP) that did run, but had issues. Today I managed to tame the fourth computer, optimize both it and the other XP computer and install a Spanish language typing tutor program I had discovered on-line on all four of them. You might not realize it, but the Spanish language has a different alphabet than English and thus a different type of keyboard. For someone trained on an English QWERTY keyboard, it's fairly close, but a number of key characters are in different locations.

On our last visit, John and Kristen had brought another computer donation, but we had not had time to check it out. Today, we managed to get it working, although it seems to have issues yet to be dealt with.

Around noon, two Spanish-speaking men arrived in the computer room and from what we could understand, were there to repair one of the computers. Strangly enough, they took an empty case and filled it with a motherboard, power supply and other components that they brough with them. Surprisingly, they managed to make it work, but both Linda and I had to be vigilent to keep them from helping themselves to parts from the computers we had managed to get running. I'll need to check this sixth computer out in more detail when we next return to Melotto.

While the two Spanish-speaking computer assemblers were still at work, John and Kristen appeared with another donated monitor for our fifth computer and announced that if we wanted a ride back, we needed to be able to depart within the next three minutes. We did and we did.

Once underway, we learned that we were only going as far as the crossroad in Chimaltenago, where we would return to La Antigua by chicken bus. John, meanwhile, would continue on to Guatemala City for a dental appointment.

We got out in "downtown" Chimaltenango and quickly located a La Antigua-bound chicken bus. On the trip back, we passed the site of our Pullman breakdown that morning and found that bus down the hill and on the side of the road still awaiting a tow truck. I assume that the replacement bus had taken the remaining passengers on to their destinations.

We soon arrived back at La Antigua, exited at the chicken bus terminal and went to Kristen's apartment where we started downloading a piece of software (3+ gigabytes) that I needed on Wednesday at Socorro School. That done, Linda and I headed over to Pollo Campero for, you guessed it, another cono helado suave and a restroom break. We then decided that lunch had been early, so we headed over to McDonalds for a Mediterráneo combo. Following a quick trip to Dispensa Familar for some beef for the soup we were going to make, we headed over to the street where we boarded our homeward bound buses.

Seeing a bus loading, I asked one of the ayudantes if that were the Alo bus. He held his and up to his hear, as if holding a cell phone, and said Alo (hello). We laughed and boarded the bus, which was headed to Alotenango.

When I paid the ayudante, I started to tell him where we wanted to get off, but he indicated that he already knew. So, about 15 minutes later, we were dropped off at the front of the cemetery, not the back, which is where the road to our apartment is located. Waving to the policemen on duty at the intersection, we walked the short distance to our apartment.

This evening we blogged, did on-line research, watched a movie, video conferenced with Susan and Erik in Texas and Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia in California. Linda made our evening soup and, as good as it was, it will be great after it ages properly.

Tomorrow, we head back to Socorro School to see if I can turn their computers into usable student instructional tools. We also hope to visit with the new director to determine what objectives, if any, she has for her school's computer lab.

February 15

2010-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

Today was to be a major step forward in making the computer lab at Socorro School usable in an educational sense. "Was" is the operative verb. "Wasn't" is what we experienced.

This morning we did the chicken bus thing and got to La Antigua by 8:45 a.m. Since Linda had a blister on her toe, we decided to take a tuk-tuk to the school. Once there, we were admitted by the housekeeper, reported to the office and obtained the key to the hugh padlock on the lab door and began booting the computers that we had successfully worked on the previous Friday. That was when things started to fall apart.

On Friday, I had noticed something called "Deep Freeze" on one of the lab computers. I also noticed a small icon in the tray of all the functioning computers that I was unable to access. This morning, when the nine functioning computers had booted, I noticed, to my chagrin, that they were in exactly the same state they had been before I had worked on them the previous Friday. In other words, I had successfully failed to accomplish anything that Friday.

This being the case, I began to try to disable this "Deep Freeze" program. Since I don't have Internet access in the lab, I had to do it by using my wits. Since every attempt to disable this "Deep Freeze" program failed in Windows, I booted my trusty copy of Puppy Linux, a mini-Linux distribution that loads into memory, but contains a large number of tools and capabilities. It allowed me to access the C: drive, so I searched for the location of this "Deep Freeze" program and changed it's name in such a way that it shouldn't be able to run when I rebooted in Windows.

Rebooting once again in Windows with "Deep Freeze" hopefully disabled, I once again loaded the Avast anti-virus program and Advanced SystemCare 3 and ran both of them while we had our lunch. Once they finished their job, I once again rebooted.
Evidently, I didn't manage to achieve my objective, because upon rebooting, neither program had been retained. It was as if nothing had changed.

Faced with a lack of knowledge of how to deal with this situation and total frustration, we decided to call it a day at 1:00 p.m. Unfortunately, we had dropped our laundry off earlier that morning and couldn't pick it up until after 4:00 p.m.

Standing outside the school and not looking forward to walking all the way across La Antigua to get to where we wanted to go, I decided to paraphrase Shakespeare: "A tuk, a tuk. My kingdom for a tuk-tuk!" Evidently it worked as one almost immediately came down the street.

We headed for our favorite Pollo Campero, where we each had a cono helado suave while we figured out how we were going to spend the next three hours. We needed to go to the mercado and get some fruits and vegetables, but didn't want to lug them around for all afternoon. I needed to go to the Bodegona (this is the actual name of the store, which I've probably mangled over the last two weeks) for a CD, so that I could burn a copy of Clonezilla, a Linux-based hard drive cloning system I'd used in my lab back in Burlington. We went there first and picked up the CD for only Q3.25 (40 cents). That done, we headed over to Parque Central, found a bench in the shade and spent the next two hours reading Spanish, while beating off the vendors with our walking sticks (just kidding). Actually, all you have to do is say "no, gracias" constantly.

At about 3:30 p.m., we headed over to the mercado, where we found the produce we wanted and were willing to lug home that day. On the way back, since it was almost 4:00 p.m. and since we had eaten lunch at 11:00 a.m., we dropped in at McDonalds for one of their Big and Tasty combos, which actually live up to their name in Guatemala. Currently, McDonalds is running a scratch card promotion tied into the World Cup (fútbol, i.e. soccer), which is taking place later this year in South Africa. The big prize is one of eleven trips to the World Cup in South Africa, which I didn't win. Instead, I won a hot apple pie. Well, it's a start.

Leaving McDonalds, I decided to go to an ATM and get some cash, as our weekend had been rather pricey, for Guatemala, that is. What I found were long lines that made me remember that Monday is pay day in Guatemala and every bank and ATM in the country has long lines as workers withdraw the money they need to pay bills. I decided to wait until Tuesday afternoon to get what we needed, since we had enough for what we would be doing until then.

Our next stop was the street where we catch our bus back to our apartment, where I left Linda while I retrieved our laundry. When I returned, we quickly found a bus heading for Alotenango, which is on the road going right past our apartment. When I paid the ayudante, I told him that "Necesitamos salir el lejos fin del cemetario" and he nodded. Sure enough, when we started approaching the cemetery, one of our fellow passengers reminded me that we would need to get off soon. The ayudante, then crawled over the top of the bus, entering by the back door to help us off at our stop, which was exactly at the road to our apartment. As he was getting back on the bus, so it could depart, I told him that "estan el mejor" (they are the best), which caused him to smile.

Back in our apartment, it was time to put our produce away, work on our blogs and video chat with Susan. Tomorrow we go to Melotto School in Chimaltenango, which means a 5:00 a.m. start for the day, so we can take the 7:00 a.m. bus heading to Panajachel. I'm hoping that we can finish up this project for the time being. We might have to go back, however, as the school has applied for a computer donation from the Spanish embassy. If they get them, I hope they're not junk!

February 14

2010-02-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today being Sunday, we slept in until 7:15 a.m. After having breakfast and getting organized for the day, we headed down to the highway at 9:00 a.m. to find a chicken bus. Once again, even with the trick Jackie had shared with us (pushing down with your hand to indicate that you want them to stop), the first two buses coming down the highway refused to stop. Deciding to hedge our bets, we started walking towards Ciudad Vieja. As we approached the outskirts of the town, a chicken bus drove past, saw my signal and stopped for us. We quickly boarded for the trip to La Antigua.

Once in La Antigua, we exited the bus and began looking around for a tuk-tuk to take us to San Francisco Church. A newspaper seller on the corner saw me trying to attract a tuk-tuk and signaled to a driver he knew who quickly pulled up. We loaded and began the bumpy ride across town to the church.

We arrived at church at 9:45 a.m., just in time for the 10:00 a.m. Mass. While we may be concerned about declining church attendance back home, at this church, at least at this particular Mass, there's no problem. It was packed and the congregation participated actively. We were able to take part, to a great extent, because of a handout that included all the readings and most of the responses.

After Mass, since we still had two hours before our lunch reservation at "Real Steak," we decided to go to to El Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, adjacent to the ruin of the Compañia de Jesús Church.

This is a library and study center jointly sponsored by the Governments of Spain and Guatemala. Entrance is free and the interior is very quiet and pleasant. While waiting, we called each of our parents to update them on what we were doing.

As the time of our reservation approached, we headed down Calle de Archos (Street of the Arch) and stepped into Nim P'ot, a crafts and textile shop cooperative. There you can purchase almost any type of Mayan art or craft, from textiles to carvings to ropa tipica (typical Mayan dress).

Just before 1:00 p.m., we walked over to our restaurant expecting it to be packed. To our amazement, it wasn't. It was also much smaller than we had expected with no more than a dozen tables spread out around and on the patio. In the middle of the patio was the requisite fountain.

The marimba band was present and started to play at about 1:08 p.m., which would be early by traditional Guatemalan standards.

The music was wonderful, as was the food. We ordered a traditional Guatemalan nacho plate (think chips with dips, i.e. guacamole, refried beans, pico de gallo and several others I couldn't recognize. After finishing our appetizer, we each ordered a different style of steak with a variety of sides (potatoes, corn on the cob, rice, refried beans, guacamole, corn tortillas and sauces). I have to admit that the steaks were some of the best that I've ever had. While we were eating, the waiter came by and presented Linda and the other women present with a single rose, since it was Valentines Day or Dia del Cariño or Day of Caring.

After finishing our meal, I asked for the bill and asked if we cold move to other seating to continue enjoying the music. At my request, the band played "Los Sandales de Hermano Pedro," and bright and upbeat tune named for the patron saint of Guatemala. Without asking, they also played two other tunes that are among my favorites: "Ferrocarril de los Altos," which is about a railroad that ran from Xela (Quetzaltenango) to the coast, but no longer exists and "Luna de Xelaju," a waltz about lost love in Xela.

We left when the band took their second break. On our way out, I took a picture of the restaurant hostess. I must say that if she had been present when we made our reservations, Linda might have suggested that we find a different restaurant.

We then headed over to Parque Central, where another outdoor concert was taking place. This group was more like a Mexican Ranchero band and was very loud.

We needed to pick up a few things to take back to our apartment, so we headed to the Bodegona to get them. We then headed over to the mercado for some vegetables, but found that the produce stands were almost all closed for the day. We did get four large avocados for Q10 ($1.20).

Our shopping done, we headed over to the street where we board our buses back to the apartment and found one loading that was heading for Alotenango, which is just down the road from our apartment. When I paid our Q6 (72 cents for both of us) fare, I told the ayudante that we wanted to get off "en el lejos fin del cemetario." Evidently I'm communicating better or they now know us (more likely), because they dropped us off right at the road to our apartment.

Back at the apartment, we cleaned up, used the Internet, blogged and watched some English language movies with Spanish subtitles. We'll be getting to bed early tonight, as tomorrow we return to Socorro School and continue our work on their computer lab.

February 13

2010-02-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

Today was a more relaxed day, since we didn't have to go to a school and fight old computers. Instead, we took it easy all morning until 11:30 a.m. when we headed down to the highway to take a chicken bus to La Antigua.

It wasn't long until a bus appeared and we were soon in La Antigua. Since it was lunch time, we headed immediately for our favorite comedor in the mercado and once again had a delicious lunch of Pollo Pepian (Chicken Pepian) with a 600 ml. Coke Light for only Q40 ($4.80) for the two of us.

After lunch, we headed over to Pollo Campero for two Conos Helados Suaves (soft-serve ice cream cones). They only cost Q4 each and, since most public restrooms in La Antigua cost Q2 or Q3 (that's right, there are few free rest rooms), the ice cream is exceedingly cheap when the rest room cost is factored in.

We had read that children from a local village would be doing traditional Mayan ceremonial dances and folk dances.

There was a free-will donation, which is used to help keep the children in school. They also sold a beautiful calendar showing the children dancing for only Q75. Since similar calendars sell in La Antigua for Q180, after making a Q100 donation, I was still ahead.

The dancers were priceless, including me. :0)

After the program ended, we headed over to Parque Central and took in part of another concert, this time including guitars and pan pipes. We enjoyed it so much, we purchased a CD.

Leaving Parque Central, we headed up Calle de Arco (Street of the Arch)to check out a steak restaurant that was offering a marimba concert from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. Before we got there, we heard marimba music coming out of a hotel courtyard, walked in and sat down. A waiter appeared and we ordered two Coke Light, which cost Q44 (about $5.39), which was more than we paid for lunch, although lunch didn't offer marimba music.

After a while, we headed back up Calle de Arco, found our restaurant and made reservations for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. It will be our Valentine celebration. We have a table on the patio right in front of where the marimba band will be playing. By Guatemalan standards, the restaurant is expensive. An 8 oz. steak goes for about Q90 (about $11.00), but the concert is free and I intend to eat very, very slow!

Heading up the street towards La Merced, we stopped to listen to an indigenous marimba street band. I gave them a donation and noticed that even they had CDs for sale.

Upon reaching La Merced,

we decided to explore to the north and walked around some busy streets and some quiet streets.

One quiet area we found was a small park next to the ruins of San Sebastian Church.

We sat there for a while before walking back to Alameda Santa Lucia, the main drag in La Antigua. We stopped by Dispensa Familiar to withdraw some more cash and then decided that since it was after 4:00 p.m., we would stop at McDonalds for a Mediterráneo Combo. This is a hamburger with cilantro on the bun, yogurt sauce and a white cheese of some type. It's really quite good. While in McDonalds, I took a photo of a statue of Hermano Pedro.

How many statues of saints have you found in your McDonalds?

After eating, we picked up a sack of tangerines for Q10 ($1.20) from a street vendor in front of Dispensa Familiar. Can you imagine what HyVee would do if there were street vendors outside their front door?

Ready to return to our apartment, we headed over to the street where we pick up our bus to go home and almost immediately boarded a bus for Dueñas. Once again, I told the ayudante when I paid our fare that we wanted to be dropped off at the Ciudad Vieja Cememtery. It was on this trip that the discussion previously mentioned took place (see "How We Are Perceived").

After getting off the bus, we quickly walked back to our apartment. We passed the police pick-up at the highway intersection and greeted them. They honked their horn in reply and waved back.

Tonight we're going to watch some television (English with Spanish subtitles), do our blogging and generally take it easy. Today was a great day to be in Guatemala.

How We Are Received

2010-02-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

Today, while traveling back to our apartment from La Antigua, I had a brief conversation on the chicken bus with a local. He asked where I was from and when I said Iowa, it was obvious that he had no clue where that was. I clarified the location by saying it was to the west of Chicago. He then could place it. Before our conversation ended with him getting off the bus, he told me that it was good for Guatemala that people from the United States were coming to visit. Tourism is a major source of revenue in Guatemala, as are remittences from Guatemalan workers in the U.S. Both are down because of the world-wide recession. I thanked him for his kind words and told him that it was good for us to visit Guatemala. After all, who wouldn't prefer living in paradise to shoveling snow? :0)

Police

2010-02-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

I had a friend ask about he police situation here in Guatemala. Here's what I told him.

There are national police, department (state) police, city police, traffic police, parking police and tourist police (charged with helping tourists enjoy their stay). None have bothered us and when we see them we greet them to let them know we are their friends. They are always courteous and return our greetings. There are also private security guards who stand outside banks, businesses receiving deliveries, silver shops, grocery stores, jewelry shops, etc. They carry shotguns and tend to be rather aloof, since their firepower gives them prestige. We ignore them for the most part and they ignore us. Some restaurants, like McDonalds and Pollo Campero, have security guards, but they are unarmed. For the most part, the people are friendly and helpful. When I fell, several came up to offer their assistance. When I drop things and don't notice it, a local often retrieves it and hands it to me. Tourism is a linchpin to local economic success and they look after their tourist.

I've not seen many military this trip, but they were very present during our last trip which coincided with the presidential election. I did see three, I think, in the back of a Ciudad Vieja police pick-up truck. They were going the other way.

Personal Safety In Our Apartment

2010-02-13T06:11:00.000-08:00

I had a friend ask about our personal safety in our apartment. Here's what I told him.

Our apartment has two locks (one's a deadbolt) and the door outside has a deadbolt. There are only three residential units here: a family living downstairs in the B&B with ten children (all well behaved for the most part) who moved here from Phoenix two years ago, the woman across the hall from Calgary, Canada and yours truly. Things are so quiet that we've stopped locking our deadbolt. Everyone makes sure the deadbolt to the street is locked. There are very few others coming here, except to the family downstairs, and those are folks who work for them: a driver (Mark has a pick-up service for folks coming in at the airport) and their maid (Mom does home schooling).

Water

2010-02-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that you don't drink the water when you travel to Latin America. Instead, you drink bottled water. It's perfectly all right, however, to use tap water for bathing, washing dishes and other water-based tasks. Vegetables are soaked in tap water with a disinfectant, Sanavida, added which is actually bleach.

Water used in drinking and cooking at home comes from a five gallon bottle, called a Garafóne, that is delivered to our complex weekly. Actually, we just buy a bottle from the family living in the bed and breakfast under us. They have ten children and use a lot of water. We have a simple hand operated pump that fits on top of the bottle, so we don't have to be moving it around a lot. We use about one five-gallon bottle of water a week and pay Q10 ($1.20) for it.

February 12

2010-02-12T19:37:00.000-08:00

This morning we were able to sleep late - 6:30 a.m. After getting ready for the day, we headed down to the highway to wait for a chicken bus to pick us up. While waiting, our neighbor across the haul in the Fuego apartment, Jackie from Calgary, Canada, came down the hill to where we were waiting. We exchanged introductions and learned that she had come to Guatemala to help a friend build a house, but that the project was stalled since the necessary paperwork had not been approved. She's now looking for some other project she can do, preferably for pay.

Soon a chicken bus appeared down the road and I waved for it to stop. Jackie informed me that you hold your hand flat and press down to indicate that you want the bus to pick you up. This may be why we've been passed by so many buses during the past two weeks. We'll have to test this theory in the coming week.

The bus stopped and was already packed. There were no seats, so we had to stand and hold on for dear life. We also were directed to move to the back of the bus, which we did. When we finally got to La Antigua, we decided to exit from the back of the bus and discovered that a special step had been installed just for that purpose.

After getting off the bus, we separated from Jackie and began the walk to Socorro School, which is operated by the Bethlehemites, a religious order founded by Saint Hermano Pedro, whose home was just down the street from the school.

I had meant to hire a tuk-tuk for the trip, but Linda thought we needed the exercise.

Along the route, we passed several men making repairs to the cobblestone street.

They were using pick axes and pounding devices that looked like logs with one end carved to make a handle.

We arrived at the school around 9:00 a.m. and were admitted by the housekeeper. We headed to the office to let them know we had arrived and to get them to unlock the computer room. A nun, perhaps the director, led us upstairs to the room and tried the key.

It didn't work. I tried the key. It still didn't work. She then goes to the railing and asks another nun in the courtyard to find the key. At this time, the maintenance man appears, is consulted and hurries off to get his key. This second key works and we enter.

To call the room we were in a computer room is a stretch. It's a dark room, even with the three windows open and the two florescent fixtures lit. The computers are dirty and covered with dust. I go around pressing power buttons and find that most don't seem to work. I then notice that there are large number of UPS devices wired in and begin pressing their power buttons. Soon we begin to see some digital life in the room.

At first, only about seven of the units seem to work and some of them have defective monitors or mice. After changing out components and straightening pins on the connectors used to plug mice in, we begin to make progress. By lunchtime, it appears that we have six units working and I've installed a free anti-virus program and another systems maintenance program I like. Leaving these six units doing a full system scan, we go to lunch.

We had planned to take a tuk-tuk to the mercado for lunch at our favorite comedor, but no tuk-tuk was in sight. Instead, we walked until we found a restaurant and walked it. It was an Italian restaurant and the menu was in Italian, Spanish and English. By Guatemalan standards, it was rather pricey for lunch and all that we had was an Italian salad. It was an excellent Italian salad with a variety of lettuces and greens. The restaurant even offered free WiFi, which was rather slow, but did work.

After lunch, we walked back to the school and continued our attempt to get it functioning. By about 4:00 p.m., it appeared that ten of the twelve computers were working much better and would probably function for their intended use. That became nine when one spontaneously rebooted. It appears that I'll have to give it additional effort. We soon left and once again looked for a tuk-tuk to take us back to Pollo Campero, where we would be having our dinner. Once again, no tuk-tuk appeared, so we walked.

On our way to dinner, we walked by Parque Central and heard a band concert taking place. We stopped for about two songs before our hunger forced us to continue our walk to our dinner.

After enjoying our roasted chicken dinner at Pollo Campero, we headed over to Bodegona to pick up a few things we needed and then headed towards the street where we get the buses heading back to our apartment. This time, we take a bus heading towards Dueña. The driver and ayudante make sure to stop near the entrance to the cemetery and are probably still wondering why we want to get out at the cemetery each time we ride with them.

After a short walk, we're back at our apartment and are ready to relax after an intensive day. There's Internet research and blogging to do, but we're looking forward to the weekend.

Weather Updates

2010-02-12T05:42:00.000-08:00

As all of you back in the States know, we've had to put up with some really terrible weather since we arrived in Guatemala. Why last night it got all the way down to 57 degrees Farenheit and today it's going to skyrocket up to a oppressive 67 degrees. Of course, actual temperature is affected by humidity and other factors, so it's going to feel like 80 degrees today. We might even glisten, although we have yet to perspire. If you want to see what we're putting up with, check out the following Accuweather link: http://www.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?locCode=CAC|GT|GT016|ANTIGUA%20GUATEMALA|&metric=0

Map of Guatemala

2010-02-11T18:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a map of Guatemala. Click on it to see it in a larger size. It should give you an idea of where we go. Our first assignment was at a school on the west side of Chimaltenango. The distances are shown in kilometers, but don't give a true indication of the distance. Because of the mountains and many villages with tumulos (speed bumps), our trips to the school in Chimaltenango takes just over an hour even with an agressive chicken bus driver.

Map of Antigua

2010-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a map of Antigua. Click on it to see it in a larger size. It should give you an idea of what is there. Our second assignment is at a school south of the Belén

Church (located in the lower right hand corner of the map).

I'm Catching On

2010-02-11T17:17:00.001-08:00

You probably noticed that I included photos in today's blog post. Took me long enough, didn't it? I finally had time to figure out how to do it and discovered how truly easy it is. I'll be going back and inserting photos in my previous blog postings. See if you can find them. :0)

February 11

2010-02-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Today was to have been our last day to work at the Melotto School in Chimaltenango. It started like most Chimal (nickname for Chimaltenango) days. You know the drill. Up at 5:00 a.m. On the road walking to Ciudad Vieja, since all the buses passing by our road are filled to the gill slits. Boarding a bus in C.V. and riding to La Antigua. Today's bus was especially efficient, at least when compared with yesterday's bus. We made the trip in only 8 minutes and we still stopped to pick up any and all available passengers. Once in L.A., we walked to where we would meet the 7:00 a.m. Pullman (name they use for the Greyhound/Trailways-type buses we have in the U.S.) bus. Kristen joined us about 6:50 a.m., since her apartment is just down the street and she was doing some training at the school that day. At about 6:55 a.m. our bus arrived. It wasn't a Pullman, it was a rather ordinary chicken bus. We learned from the driver that the Pullman was in the shop having its transmission repaired. It would be back in service on Friday. After we boarded, we were annoyed by a tourist (from the U.S., most likely) who complained that he had paid for a Pullman. He also complained that he had been told that he would be picked up at his hotel down the street, which also didn't happen. Evidently he had been taken in by a creative travel agent. We explained that the fare to Pana (nickname for Panajachel) was only Q36 ($4.50) and that the bus was usually a Pullman, but that it was being repaired. After visiting with him for a while, he finally shut up, sat down and enjoyed the much rougher chicken bus ride that day with us.

We arrived at the road to the school at about 8:10 a.m. and walked to the school. After being admitted, we walked to the library to greet the librarian. I noticed that the lights were out, but thought that it was just Guatemalan economy. It was the same when we checked in with the office, but I still didn't catch on. It was only when I entered the computer room that I realized that there was no electricity. We learned that there was no power anywhere in the area and that evidently something, possibly major road repair up the road, had caused the outage. We were told that such outages usually only lasted about an hour. By noon, we still had no power, so we decided to return to L.A.

After walking to the highway, we began looking for a bus going our way. When one finally stopped, we boarded and were surprised to discover that the entire back half of the bus was solidly packed with vegetables going to market. Even Kristen admitted that she had never seen anything like this.

We got off at the intersection where we would pick up a bus heading to L.A. and discovered why we had not found a bus on a previous trip. We were at a totally different street. We could have stood on that other street for a year and not found a bus to L.A.

After walking around the corner, we found our bus and quickly boarded. A sales pitch by a health quack was underway. It is not uncommon for vendors of all types to board chicken buses to market their wares. After he finished, he was followed by another fellow who hawked his "medical" miracle all the way to Parramos, about half way to L.A.

This bus ride was especially rough. The driver drove as fast as he could, when he could. He passed other vehicles when he wanted and braked hard when he came to village tumelos (speed bumps). Linda tells me it was the worst ride she's experienced on this trip. I dozed.

I finally woke up as we were entering greater L.A. The driver continued his aggressive driving all the way to the bus terminal, where we gladly regained our acquaintance with Mother Earth. After exiting the bus, Kristen took a picture of us standing in front of a chicken bus. This was not the bus we had ridden, but it was a safer place to take the shot.

We parted from Kristen and made our way to McDonalds for a celebratory meal. We had survived the chicken bus ride from Hell! After enjoying our lunch in the lovely patio area, we decided to get our shopping done. With a small refrigerator, our limited kitchen and the fact that we have to haul our purchases back to the apartment by chicken bus, we just about need to shop on a daily basis.

When we headed for lunch, Linda had seen an outdoor annex to the mercado that we had not seen before, so we went there and quickly found what we were looking for. To celebrate this accomplishment, we headed to Pollo Campero for one of their Q4 (48 cent) cono helado suave (soft-served cone). I left Linda there and headed over to Dispensa Familiar (the other grocery in town) and picked up the other items we needed.

Returning to pick up Linda, we headed over to the street where we picked up our buses back to the apartment. It was earlier than we usually went back and we discovered that the bus was much less congested. Fortunately, it was a bus heading for Alotenango, the next village down the road from our apartment. We had ridden this bus before and managed to get them to let us get off fairly close to our road.

Once back at the apartment, we put our supplies away and rested. Tonight we'll chat with family and update our blogs. Tomorrow we return to Socorro School, the one with the locked computer room, and hopefully will be able to begin our work there. I'm told that they have 40 computers. I wonder how many actually run. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Possible Change of Itinerary

2010-02-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

We've been asked to evaluate and repair, if possible, a 16 computer lab in a village near San Lucas Toliman on the southeast coast of Lake Atitlan. It's a rather long trip from where we are living and could possibly be quite challenging. We had originally planned on visiting Flores and Tikal during the week between our six week stays in La Antigua and Xela, but may spend it on the shore of Lake Atitlan instead. More details will come as we think of them. Here's a map of Lake Atitlan. Click on it to enlarge it.

Who is Kristen?

2010-02-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to explain who this Kristen is who I keep mentioning. Kristen is a Project Coordinator for Child Aid. She conducts workshops and trainings for Guatemalan teachers in primarily private (non-government, not exclusive) schools. She's been in Guatemala for four years and has figured out the system. She also speaks very good Spanish. She's been seeking out computer-related projects for Linda and I to tackle. She goes with us to the school, introduces us to the administrators and turns us loose. Sometimes we travel together to the site, if she is doing training there that day. Other times, she's somewhere else and we're on our own. She's been a tremendous help thus far and will, no doubt, continue to be for our remaining five or six weeks.

February 10

2010-02-10T20:31:00.001-08:00

Today we could sleep in to at least 7:00 a.m., as we were starting a new assignment in a school located in La Antigua itself. Since we had the time, we started with oatmeal, which isn't very practical when we're trying to catch a 7:00 a.m. bus to Chimaltenango.

We left the apartment a little after 8:00 a.m. and began looking for a chicken bus. Not seeing one, we walked up to the intersection where the roads to Dueñas and Alototenango converge. We arrived in time to see the rear end of a Dueñas bus driving away. Continuing to walk towards Ciudad Vieja, we came up on a bus just as it was starting to pull away. I quickly yelled to the ayudante, "Va a La Antigua?" (Are you going to La Antigua?) and he stopped the driver so that we could get on board. It was almost surrealistic. Except for the driver, the ayudante, Linda and I, the bus was completely empty. This is only the second time this has happened to us. The first time was in 2007 when we boarded a chicken bus at its terminal in Guatemala City to go to Panajachel. The driver began to pick up other passengers, but stopped when he got to the gas station in town. The ayudante disappeared, probably to answer a call of nature. It must have been a rather important call, because he stayed away for quite some time, which was irritating the driver. Just before he returned, another chicken bus pulled in front of our bus, which further irritated our driver. In effect, the bus in front of our bus ended up picking up most of the passengers who would have boarded our bus. Seeing this happen, our driver started to drive very slowly to allow other potential passengers to appear. Some did, but not as many as he would have liked. He continued the slow driving all the way to La Antigua. It may have been the slowest chicken bus ride in Guatemalan history.

We finally arrive in La Antigua, exit the bus and take our laundry to the lavandaria, where it would be ready at 4:00 p.m. We meet Kristen on our way to Pollo Campero, where we had planned to meet, and begin the walk to the new school. It's a Catholic school operated by six nuns that is located south of Belén Church.

The church is adjacent to the former home (according to a plaque) of Hermano Pedro (Brother Peter), the Guatemalan canonized saint.

The church faces a small park with a statue of Hermano Pedro in the center.

The front of the church is ornately carved in stone, but the interior is almost without decoration, being white washed.

We arrive at the school, ring the bell for entry and are escorted in by the maid. We go to the school office and tell the nun behind the counter who we are and why we are here. The first word out of her mouth was "fijese," which indicated that we were going to get an excuse or justification for why we weren't going to be able to do what we were there to do. This is a common experience in Guatemala, I'm told.

The story we were told was that the computer lab was locked. The lab attendant had the key and they hadn't seen him for more than a week and didn't know how to contact him. The nun did find a basket of keys and went to the lab to try to open the door, but was unsuccessful. As a result, our first attempt to assist the school was for naught.

Rather than waste the morning, we caught a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled, motorcycle taxi) and went to Kristen's apartment. She'd been having problems with her computer and asked me to look at it. To say that it was having problems was an understatement. It operated like it was immersed in molasses. To compound the situation, I discovered that her McAfee anti-virus program was disabled. I had a USB drive with me that had Avast, an excellent and free anti-virus program, on it. I installed it and started a complete system scan. I also determined that her laptop needed more memory (it had 1/2 gig and could handle 2 gig) and had far too many programs resident in memory all the time.

Leaving Avast to do its work, we went to two stores nearby that sold computers, but neither had laptop memory of the type needed. The Executive Director of Child Aid will be coming to La Antigua in the next three weeks and Kristen may order the memory on-line and have it shipped to him, so that he can bring it with him.

We separated at this point (lunch time) and Kristen returned to her apartment to work on other projects. We headed over to the mercado and had lunch at our favorite comedor. This time we had a beef dish (Carne Guisado), with rice, a salad, corn tortillas and a Pepsi Light. The total cost for both of us was Q40 (about $4.80).

After lunch, we walked over to Pollo Campero for dessert - you guessed it - cono helado suave (a soft-serve ice cream cone) for only Q4 each (48 cents). After enjoying our dessert, we walked over to El Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, a library/study center established by the Government of Spain as a goodwill gesture. The central courtyards are very pleasant, quiet (usually) and a great place to read or study. We spent several hours studying Spanish and taking pictures of the architecture.

That morning, while walking to the school, we had seen a bookstore that we wanted to visit. Well, we tried for several hours and failed miserably. Rather than accept failure, we decided to go to the Bodegana for a few items we needed. We then went to get our laundry, only to find that it wouldn't be ready until 5:30 p.m., since the laundry owner had not had any help that day.

With time to kill, we went back to Kristen's apartment and I made an important discovery while working on her computer. She had Skype installed and, as many programs want to do, had allowed it to remain active in memory. I had tried using in on our new netbook and found that performance degraded significantly. On her laptop, with only 1/2 gig of memory, it almost brought her to a full stop. Merely exiting Skype improved her performance by an order of magnitude. I love that phrase, "by an order of magnitude." I don't know what it means, but doesn't it sound good?

Leaving Kristen's again, we went to the mercado and picked up some fruits and vegetables to take back to the apartment, continued to the lavanderia to get our laundry and went to wait for a chicken bus to take us home. The first to arrive was a bus to Dueñas, which dropped us off at the intersection in front of the cemetery, from where we walked the remaining distance to our apartment carrying two sacks of groceries, a shoulder bag, a backpack and a large bag of clean laundry. We were so glad to get back to the apartment.

Once back at the apartment, we video chatted with Nic, the twins and Donna while we fixed our supper. The rest of the evening was spent on Internet searching and our blogging. Tomorrow is another, perhaps our last, 7:00 a.m. bus trips to Chimaltenango. We'll have to be up at 5:00 a.m. to make the connections, but at least we'll sleep well tomorrow night.

Correction

2010-02-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

It seems that I misunderstood what had happened to the missing computers at Melotto School in Chimaltenango. I understood that the former principal had been fired and the computers had disappeared and somehow put the two together and deduced that the former principal had made off with the computers. Now I learn that the former principal was an O.K. guy who held the job for 21 years. He seems to have been ousted in a power struggle with the diocese. I'm told that the diocese might even have picked up the missing computers for their own use. If the truth be told, no one knows what happened to them, only that they disappeared.

It's a great loss to the students, but, in reality, without a computer curriculum and teachers who can make use of them in creative ways, they might not have been of much use anyway. As a result of this first assignment, it appears that I should begin working on a computer skills curriculum that would enhance and extend learning in other areas. In the past, I've often noticed that the obvious answer to a question was not always the relevant answer. This may be one of those times.

Earthquake

2010-02-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

An earthquake occurred this morning at 3:59 a.m. about 40 miles west of CHICAGO! Thank goodness no damage was done, either in the U.S. or Guatemala. So far we've not been threatened by earthquakes, volcanos, local cooking or chicken buses. It's good to know that we're safe down here. :0) (Iowa smiley hog)

February 9

2010-02-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Today we will go back to Melotto School in Chimaltenango to begin finishing up our work there, because Kristen tells us that she has a new project for us at a school in La Antigua.

Once again, our day began at 5:00 a.m., so that we would have time to eat breakfast and prepare to leave in time to arrive in La Antigua by 6:45 a.m. so that we could catch that 7:00 a.m. bus that was going to Panajachel, but would drop us off right at the road to the school. The morning, like the previous two, was overcast and hazy and, expecting rain again, we had brought our new umbrellas.

As on previous mornings, we began walking towards Ciudad Vieja when buses declined to stop to pick us up, because they were too full. When we got to the intersection of the roads to Alotenango and Dueñas (our cemetery is pie shaped and sits between them), we saw another in the amazing sights involving chicken buses that have occurred on this trip. A chicken bus roared past us and started to slow. A man was holding on to one of the ladders on the back and dragging a bicycle from the roof rack. He continued to climb down with the bicycle and jumped off the bus while it was still moving. He then got on his bicycle and began pedaling rapidly in the other direction as if this was the most normal thing that could happen.

We continued walking towards Ciudad Vieja and soon found ourselves with some other people waiting to ride into La Antigua. Eventually a bus pulled up, some people got off and we got on to what appeared to be a fully occupied bus. I spent most of this ride standing up. When we got to the first stop in La Antigua, we stayed on the bus planning to get off at the second stop. The bus, however, turned to the right and started heading to Guatemala City. We quickly told the ayudante that we needed to get off, so the chicken bus paused for a few seconds so that we could exit. We then walked over to where the bus to Panajachel departs to find that we were still early.

The bus to Panajachel arrived as expected and left on time. There were even some riders who had been on the bus returning to La Antigua who remembered the "La Antigua" sign we had used the day before to get back, since the driver and ayudante were convinced that we wanted to go back to the Molino School, where Child Aid has their warehouse. The trip to school was relaxed and pleasant. To our surprise, about halfway to Chimaltenago, the sky cleared and we were presented with one of the most beautiful days we have experienced since our arrival. Within about an hour we found ourselves walking down the road to the school. After we entered the gate, we went to the library to greet the librarian and to the office to greet the principal. By that time, the grounds keeper had seen us and had gone to the computer room to unlock it for us.

We spent most of our day doing clean-up, both to computer systems and their grimy cases (inside and out), monitors, and keyboards. I removed as much digital junk as possible and placed icons on the desktops for Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Paint. Five of the original computers (using the term loosely) are total junk and almost nothing in them is worth saving for future use. Three, one running XP and two running 98, are working quite well. The jury is out on the fourth one and, if I can get installation software for Windows XP and Office, I'll probably do a complete system reinstallation. I'm also going to search for some free typing tutor and math instruction software, which I'll be able to evaluate and possibly install on Thursday.

At the 1o:00 a.m. break (all of Guatemala takes a morning break at 10:00 a.m.), our room was filled with children wanting to find out what we had been doing. Linda got them involved with Microsoft Paint and they seemed to have a good time.

Around 12:30 p.m., Kristen showed up with John, the in-country director for Child Aid. They had been at a staff meeting that morning and had brought us another computer for me to get running. This one, fortunately, is of much younger vintage.

We returned to La Antigua with Kristen and John in John's car. He's been in Guatemala for about five to six years working with various development projects. During the return trip to La Antigua, we explained our reasons for being in Guatemala and our future plans. I was told that the Executive Director (top dog) of Child Aid would be in Guatemala within the next two or three weeks and would be wanting to visit with me about my fund development experience. Supposedly they have a grant writer in Oregon, which seems to be rather far from the action, both here and at their project in Oaxaca, Mexico.

As we drove through Chimaltenango on the Central American Highway, Kristen saw something that brought home to us the hopelessness of poverty in Guatemala. We were driving down the highway and she happened to glance at some buildings on the side of the road that offered certain types of personal services. Standing in front of the building, in "work" clothes, were two 13 year old girls who had been in school that morning in their school uniforms. What kind of world do we live in where children are put into situations like this? Kristen said that she would discuss what she had seen with the principal the next time she was working at the school, but doubted if anything could be done, since one of the girl's parents had most likely dropped them off at their "after school job."

Because we had a "direct flight" back to La Antigua, we found ourselves on the Alameda at 1:30 p.m., so we decided that a "cono helado suave" (soft-serve ice cream cone) at Pollo Campero was in order. While we were enjoying our treat, we planned the rest of our time in La Antigua. We first went to the mercado to buy some t-shirts in case our hand-washed shirts hadn't dried by tomorrow morning. This made it possible to drop off the rest of our laundry at a lavandaria in La Antigua on Wednesday morning.

I'm often asked if we haggle prices in the mercado and the answer is that we don't. They are already so low that we feel guilty trying to make them any lower. Here's a case in point, the t-shirts, which show a picture of a chicken bus and the slogan, "Es una gran aventura" (It's a great adventure) were Q45 ($5.63) each. Now where in the U.S. could I get a comparable souvenir shirt for less than about $15-20? The fruits and vegetables are even more reasonable. These are families trying to support their families and I just happen to come from the richest country in the world (at least it used to be). What I would save would be, to me, a small savings, while, to the vendor, it might be the difference from between a good day and a poor day of sales. I'm probably an idiot, but I sleep well at night.

After we left the mercado, we headed over to the Convent of La Compañia de Jesús (the Jesuits). The Govenment of Spain restored the ruins and has turned it into a study center. It's a delightful oasis with two inner courtyards, a fountain, balconies, and benches. We sat for about an hour studying Spanish and enjoying the peace and quiet, since the building blocks the street noises. Before we fell asleep, we went on a walking tour to find a small bookstore we had stumbled on after church on Sunday. We hadn't stopped then, since we were ready for lunch, but Linda wanted to go back to it. We're not sure we found it, but we did find two small book stores and purchased a children's version (in Spanish) of the Popol Vu, which recounts the Mayan version of creation. I have the compete version in digital form in both Spanish and English, but our Spanish isn't good enough to read that version yet.

Since it was getting close to 4:00 p.m., we returned to our usual bus stop to wait for a chicken bus heading towards Alotenango or Dueñas. We soon boarded a bus and, after getting off at the cemetery, walked the final distance to our apartment where we prepared our supper and video conferenced with Donna and the kids in California and Susan in Texas. The rest of the evening was spent doing research and downloading for my two current computer projects and updating my blog.

February 8

2010-02-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today we returned to Melotto School in Chimaltenango. Since that 7:00 a.m. bus from La Antigua is so convenient (it drops us off right at the road to the school), we once again got up at 5:00 a.m. to have breakfast and get ready to go down to the road at 6:15 a.m. to pick up an early chicken bus into La Antigua. Once again the first two buses passed us by without stopping. To increase our odds of getting picked up, we walked down to the intersection of the road to Dueñas. Not seeing much traffic, we walked into Ciudad Vieja to the parada (bus stop), which is located where three bus streams come together. Even there, several buses passed by without stopping. On was so overcrowded that the ayudante (driver's assistant) was holding on to a window frame and the front door frame with his entire body on the exterior of the bus.

Finally, a chicken bus appeared and two riders exited. Three riders (Linda, myself and another woman) boarded and had to stand, since every seat was filled to capacity. Most of that trip was made standing in the aisle holding on for dear life. We soon arrived in La Antigua and quickly walked to the boarding area for the bus to Panajachel, which would drop us off in Chimaltenango. Although we were there early, it soon arrived and we loaded. Departing around 7:00 a.m., we were walking towards the entrance gate of the school by 8:15 a.m.

Today's task was simple. We needed to determine which, if any, computers had any potential use for the school. We also need to reassemble the dead units, so that they could be removed for recycling more easily. We finally determined that there were three computers with potential use remaining and possibly four. Although I once again tried to install two Linux educational distributions (complete Linux installation package) on the two systems running XP, neither had the memory to make it work. The other two systems, running Windows 98, lacked sufficient memory to do an alternative installation of the educational software. While we worked, we enjoyed hearing and seeing the students (preschool - third grade) singing, learning and playing. We especially enjoyed watching the preschoolers and kindergarten students participating in physical education. They were learning how to play basket ball, but it looked like the teacher was herding chickens.

We finished up for the day and headed out to the highway to catch the bus for La Antigua returning from Panajachel. We were concerned that they wouldn't stop, since the last time we rode back with them, they returned to La Antigua by a route that was different from their morning route. The driver and ayudante seemed to think that we would want to go back by the morning route, so they told us that they wouldn't pick us up. We decided to convince them to pick us up by making a sign with bold letters that said, "La Antigua." As it happened, the bus we wanted was stopped by the police (no idea what the problem was) just down the road from where we were waiting to meet it. We didn't even realize that it was our bus. Nevertheless, we were standing there with our sign when they came by and they stopped so that we could load. There were several English speaking riders who were quite amused at how we used our sign to get the bus to stop.

We were back in La Antigua by 2:30 p.m. and decided to stop by Pollo Campero for a personal size salad. Because of the problems with vegetables you can't peel, we've gone to Pollo Campero to satisfy our urge for salad. For only Q10 ($1.20), we get a side salad much like you would get at a U.S. fast food restaurant. We've done this a number of times since we arrived and have had no problems (you know what I mean). After our snack break, we went to the Bodegana to buy some items we needed and get some cash, since Guatemala is primarily a cash society. We then went to the mercado to replenish our supply of fruits and vegetables and find two small folding paraguas (umbrellas), since the Bodegana only had full sized models. Since it was almost 4:00 p.m. and we had eaten lunch at 11:00 a.m., we decided to celebrate the first (weekly) anniversary of our second arrival in Guatemala with a Big & Tasty combo meal at McDonalds. I don't know what is different about this sandwich, but I love the Guatemalan version. The U.S. version tastes like cardboard.

It was sprinkling lightly when we left McDonalds, but not enough to get our new umbrellas wet. When we got to the street where we catch our bus home, there was a chicken bus heading for Dueñas almost ready to leave and it was actually half empty and that was with no more than two people per seat. It wasn't until we were underway that I realized that I had achieved one of my life goals. Back in 2007 and on this trip, I've seen a bus named Esmeralda and wondered where it went. I planned to ride it some day just to find out. Well, now I know and have ridden on it. Now I'll have to find a new life goal.

We left the bus where the road to Dueñas split off from the road to our apartment. We quickly ran to the huge monument that serves as the marker for the cemetery and the adjacent fúbal field. It's actually a good combination, as the player's ancestors are always there to cheer them on.

Since it was still raining lightly, we opened up our new umbrellas and walked the short distance downhill to the road to our apartment. We were quickly back in our apartment and soon afterwards it began to rain more heavily. After a video chat with Donna, Nic and the twins in California and Robyn and Nathan in Texas, we began another vegetable soup for tomorrow's supper and washed a few items to tide us over until we can do our laundry.

Tonight's entertainment will be the latest Indiana Jones movie about the crystal skulls. It will be in English with Spanish subtitles. It's a silly movie, but fun never the less. Tomorrow we up at 5:00 a.m. for perhaps our final trip to Melotto School. How I wish that they still had those more powerful computers that were stolen from them. We could have left them with some truly powerful educational tools.

February 7

2010-02-07T17:08:00.001-08:00

This morning we had decided to attend the 10:00 a.m. Mass at San Francisco Church (site of the tomb of Hermano Pedro). Since we had the time, I tried my hand at making the oatmeal we had enjoyed so much back home. In recent years, I've prepared it in a microwave, but in our apartment here in Guatemala I'm forced to go back to the stove method. I started by making two cups of instant milk, which I mixed with an egg and four packets of sweet-and-low (I'll only use two packets next time, as it was rather sweet). I heated this mixture until it was just short of boiling and then poured in twice as much oatmeal as the oatmeal package seemed to suggest. I then cooked it until it was done. It turned out quite good and I intend to make it again, as long as we're not trying to catch a 7:00 a.m. bus in La Antigua. With a piece of fruit and a cup of hot tea with lime, we had a tasty and filling breakfast.

About 8:30 a.m. we pulled together what we were taking with us - an English-language paperback missal that Susan was able to get for us, a Spanish-language Mass guide and a small Spanish dictionary. Together with our walking sticks (very handy when crossing uneven surfaces and all surfaces in La Antigua are uneven), floppy hats, cell phones and cash, we were traveling the lightest we've been for this trip.

A chicken bus picked us up at about 8:45 a.m. and we were in La Antigua by about 9:15 a.m. As usual, no seat went unused. Getting off on the south end of town, we walked the seven blocks east to the church, which was originally part of a large monastary, now a ruins that can be viewed for a small fee. Since we arrived about 30 minutes early, we examined the market stalls and gift shop within the church grounds. There's even a small comedar, should you want to eat following the service.

The church service was well attended. San Francisco is managed by the Franciscans, who are celebrating 800 years of service this year. Unlike our experience during our last trip, the service began with a procession down the center aisle, much like is done back home. There was a cross bearer, two candle bearers flanking him, three lectors, four other altar servers (both boys and girls) and a Franciscan priest. Unlike our experience during our 2007 trip, there was a printed order of Mass handout that included all the readings. Without a doubt, we were able to participate to a greater extent during this service than we could during our last trip. The music was loud and spirited, with accompaniment by a clavicord (I had hoped it was an organ) and a bass fiddle. Man, could that bass fiddle player jive. We even recognized two of the hymn that were sung, although we didn't have the words and couldn't sing along. Communion is a free for all. You just get us and go. There is no waiting your turn. During communion, I noticed that the family in front of us went in two shifts and realized that by doing so, they were keeping an eye on their possessions.

After Mass, we decided to have lunch at a traditional Guatemalan restaurant with a lovely courtyard that has a fountain in the center and a view of Volcan Agua - McDonald's. It took us some time to find it, since, while we knew about where it was, we went down some wrong streets. Actually, we had gone down the right street previously, but had not realized how close to Parque Central it actually was. Businesses in La Antigua must comply with a very strict sign code. Signs must be designed in accordance with the city ordinance and must be flat against the wall of the business. It was only when we were at the door of McDonald's that we were able to see their sign. As usual, their guard was on duty at the door. For lunch, we had the "Big and Tasty" combo. It was just as good as it had been the last time we were in Guatemala. After returning to Iowa in 2007, we tried it at the local McDonalds. It tasted like cardboard there. After lunch, we called family to check in and then decided to go to the mercado for a shoulder bag for Linda and some cleaning supplies.

The mercado is very much like a rabbit warren. We probably walked at least a mile while there and were lost most of the time. We did find what we were looking for or at least a reasonable substitute. As we left the mercado, we decided to stop by Pollo Camperso for a small salad. This has been a very safe way to include lettuce-based salads in our diet and for only Q10 (about $1.20). We also had a small "cono helado suave" (soft-serve ice cream cone) because we could!

Walking over to the street where we pick up our chicken bust back to the apartment, we were finally able to talk with Robyn. It seems that I had one digit of her telephone number wrong. I also had both her US calling number and the one we use in Guatemala. Somehow, I used the US number and reached someone in Guatemala who still wonders who was calling him.

The first chicken bus to arrive was one going to Dueña, which is on the road on the other side of the cemetery that is across the road from our apartment. It let us off at the intersection, which worked just fine as the road is downhill from there.

Back at the apartment, we showered and rested. I burned three CDs of educational software that I'm going to try to install tomorrow at the Melotto School. We watched a funny movie (in English with Spanish subtitles), worked on our blogs and surfed the web. While watching the movie, we had a short power failure that only lasted about 5 minutes. Later it rained for about two hours. This was the first rain we've experienced on this trip, since this is the "dry" season. We decided to put plastic bags on our shoes for our walk to the road tomorrow, unless the dirt road we live on has dried out. If we need to do that, we'll carry another plastic bag to put the muddy ones in and will drop them in a trash can in La Antigua. After having supper (the remainder of our last soup, scrambled eggs and fruit), we're finishing our blogging for the day and may watch another movie, if there are any that interest us. We'll be packing it in by 10:00 p.m. at the latest, since tomorrow has a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call (alarm clock). Life is good!

Cooking in Guatemala

2010-02-07T16:32:00.000-08:00

The title should be "Don and Linda cooking in Guatemala," since I'm sure that our experience thus far is not necessarily that of folks living in their own homes.

It might help to describe what the term "kitchenette" means when applied to our apartment. Our kitchenette is a reverse "L" shaped room attached to our bedroom/computer room/dressing room/family room/storeroom/etc. At the end of the small part of the "L" is a small sink and counter with a rack to stack washed dishes. The long arm of the "L" has a window, a counter stretching almost the entire length, except for where the refrigerator stands. Sitting on the counter is a three-burner propane stove (the propane tank is under the counter), much like I used to use when I was camping with the Boy Scouts many long years ago. Across from the refrigerator is a three-shelve storage area. Sitting next to the shelving unit is a five-gallon bottle of water with a hand pump we purchased attached to it. There's also a small trash can with a foot operated opener.

We buy our groceries in La Antigua and haul them back to the apartment by chicken bus. Most of the fruits and vegetables come from the mercado and are very expensive. Canned goods, cleaning products, oatmeal, eggs and instant milk come from the Bodegana or Dispensa Familiar. We use instant milk because it is so much lighter than the liquid variety and less likely to spill on the trip home. Eggs are interesting. I have yet to see a dozen eggs for sale. I've seen individual eggs for sale in the mercado or shrink-wrapped trays of 24 (Bodegana) or 30 (Dispensa Familiar). We tend to drink a lot of tea (hot and cold), since Coke Light (Latin American name for Diet Coke) is both hard to find and heavy.

There are a number of minor things that we'd like to find, but haven't yet such as almonds, dark chocolate, and cottage cheese. On the other hand, there are lots of things that we used in Iowa that we haven't tried to find yet.

Without an oven or microwave, we are limited with what we can cook. This last week we kept things simple and cooked two soups (vegetable and vegetable beef), scrambled and boiled eggs and this morning, since we had the time, I made a version of the oatmeal we have eaten for years. Last week we packed out first sack lunch for a trip to Chimaltenango on Friday and will continue to do that on future trips, as it's much cheaper and a time saver.

In short, cooking in our kitchenette is just like cooking on a camping trip. I'm sure that we'll be branching out and trying new recipes in the coming weeks.

February 6

2010-02-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Today is a kick-back and relax day. We started by sleeping late. We didn't get up until 7:00 a.m. We then had breakfast, did our morning clean-up and dressed for the day. I did some research on the computer, while Linda watched an HBO (hache bey o) movie about some cat. Just before 10:00 a.m., we got ready to head into La Antigua. Since there wasn't much traffic, we walked into Ciudad Vieja to the bus stop and waited until a La Antigua bound chicken bus appeared. As usual, the bus was packed like a sardine can because Saturday is a market day in La Antigua.

We got off the bus on the south end of the main part of town and leisurely walked seven blocks to San Franciso Church (site of the tomb of Hermano Pedro, the first Central American canonized as a saint, 2002). We're planning on attending Mass there tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. While there, we made use of the "sanitorios" (bathrooms) on the grounds for Q2 (about 25 cents) each. The charge is for the "papel higiénico" (toilet paper) and an impressively clean facility.

We then walked towards the center of town, visited La Unión Washing Area (a public laundry area at the end of a small park), the Church of San Pedro Apóstol, and the Cathedral. We tried to go to the second floor of the Ayuntamiento (city hall), but it wasn't open on Saturday. We then strolled down Calle de Arco (Street of the Arch), which is named after the yellow painted Arch of Santa Catalina that crosses it. The arch was used by cloistered nuns to cross the street, when the convent of Santa Catalina was on the site. There's a hotel there now. We visited the Nim Po't craft and textile cooperative, an adjacent bookstore and then visited La Merced Church, which is painted bright yellow.

Since it was about lunch time, we headed over to the mercado to go back to the same comedor for the comida tipica (business lunch), which set us back Q20 ($2.40) each, but included a 600 ml bottle of Coke Light (Diet Coke). Following lunch, we headed to the produce area of the mercado and purchased more fruit and vegetables. After a quick trip to the Bodegana for some additional items, we headed over to the street where we pick up the chicken bus that will take us home. This time the chicken bus was almost empty. There were only three adults or two adults and two children on each seat. We got off next to our cemetery and walked the short distance to our apartment. The rest of the day will be spent blogging, doing on-line research for my computer repair project at Melotto School and studying Spanish.

Guatemalan Television

2010-02-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

Our apartment outside of Ciudad Vieja comes with cable television. Guatemalan cable television is interesting. Some programs, which originate in Guatemala, Mexico or other Latin American countries, are naturally in Spanish. Other programming, such as CNN-International and some other news channels, is in English. We get HBO and a few other movie channels that play English language movies with Spanish subtitles. Other movie channels are in Spanish without any subtitles. Like cable television in the United States, sometimes there is nothing worth watching.

Side Thought

2010-02-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

The Melotto School, where we are currently volunteering, had about 450 students last year. This year they only have about 320 students. The children are still there, but their families can't afford the monthly tuition. The reason for this is the current world-wide recession. Tuition at the Melotto School is Q110 per month (about $13.35 at today's exchange rate). It seems to me that $13.35 per month means so little to those of us who call the United States home and so much to a child in Guatemala. Unfortunately, Child Aid, the non-profit we're currently volunteering with, has no capability to serve as a conduit should a family or individual be interested in providing a scholarship. Is this something that should be pursued? Let me know what you think, especially if you are interested.

February 5

2010-02-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Once again we are going to try to get to the Melotto School in Chimaltenango. Because Kristen has an early morning appointment, we're going to meet her about 6:45 a.m. at the Bodegana parking lot, which is not far from where our chicken bus drops us off. To pull this off, we wake up at 5:00 a.m., get dressed and eat our breakfast (pre-boiled eggs, heated soup, fruit and hot tea). After gathering the things we're going to bring, we're out the door and walking down to the road. Since it's dark, I bring a flashlight. If the chicken bus driver won't stop this time, at least I can blind him and cause him to wreck his bus. To increase our odds of getting a bus, we walk up the hill to the intersection at the beginning of the cemetery. Seeing some people standing along the road waiting for a bus, we play it cool and stand with them. Before long we have the opportunity to join an already overloaded bus on its way into La Antigua.

We arrive in La Antigua about 6:30 a.m., so Linda has time to walk on the median (paved and about 12 feet wide with full sized trees), while I take some photos of the traffic, people and Agua volcano. As expected, Kristen arrives around 6:45 a.m., just after a Greyhound-type bus pulled into the walled parking area and turned around so that it could easily depart. This bus actually is meant for folks, primarily backpackers, going to Panajachel. One of the Child Aid Guatemalan employees knows the driver and ayudante and worked out a deal for them to drop Child Aid staff (paid and volunteer) at the street leading to Melotto School. Its really neat because it changes a two bus trip to a one bus trip. We intend to use it again, even if it means that we'll need to get up at 5:00 a.m. to be sure to make it.

The one hour trip found us walking down the street to the school. When we reached the gate, we were greeted by the grounds keeper. We walked by the library to say hello the librarian and stopped by the office to Hermana Director (principals are called directors and this one is a religious sister, i.e. hermana). She was out, so the office arranged for the grounds keeper to open the doors to the computer room, although they would be much better off if someone were to steal the junk they have that's called computers.

Once in the room, I booted each computer so that I could insert the Qimo CDs I burned last night. One actually seemed to boot properly. The others all had issues. The two Windows 98 computers don't have the capability to boot from a CD, I quickly remembered when I tried to change the device boot order. Only one of the Windows XP computers booted Qimo properly. Because the five computers were crammed onto four computer desks, I moved it to another computer desk across the room. As could be expected, it ceased to work properly.

As the two new gringos at the school, Linda and I are the subject of much attention from students, teachers and visitors. Today we were visited by preschoolers, elementary students, the nun who teaches religion and a visiting priest. I did tell the priest, as I was working on the computers, "oración, por favor" (prayer, please). He smiled. Later the religious ed nun stopped by and laughed when I laid hands on the computer tower I was working on. I really hope that I can get something working. These are really nice, hard working people.

With three potential computers that could run Qimo, I began to tear them apart to see what parts might need to be replaced from several dead units in the room. After replacing the CD drive in the computer that originally worked, I was ready to try to install Qimo on it's hard drive. Wouldn't you know it, just as it was about to install, I began to get a multitude of disk write errors. At about 12:30 p.m., I decided to quit for the day (school is actually over at noon) and try installing a different hard drive on Monday when we go back. At the very least, I'll need to put all of the dead carcasses back together so that they're easier to recycle.

Our return bus, which was to drop us off at Pedro Molinas School, where Child Aid has their storeroom, arrived about 1:05 p.m. as expected. I told them where we wanted to be dropped off and was surprised when they pulled over just past the crossroads where the highway we expected them to take meets the Pan American Highway. On a positive note, they didn't charge us for that short ride. It seems that they had decided to take the faster route back to La Antigua, one that didn't go by the school. We walked back to the cross road and waited for a bus to appear. None did, so when a tuk-tuk (http://www.viajeros.com/fotos/guatemala-un-mundo-de-detalles/620203) appeared. I got his attention, asked if he could take us to the school and asked what he would charge. He would take us for Q10 each (about @$2.40). On the way to the school, we witnessed an accident. A motorcycle rider, who was wearing his helmet, collided with a rather large dog and wiped out. Our driver and several other drivers stopped to assist him. Fortunately, he seemed relatively uninjured, although I bet he'll hurt for a week. I have after my accident last Monday. I didn't notice, but Linda said that the dog was injured in his hindquarters. After the motorcycle driver had been determined to be OK, we continued on our way to the school.

The Pedro Molino School is a boarding school. The classrooms and dorms for the boys are on one side of the road, while the dorms for the girls and Child Aid's storehouse are on the other. Walking down the road to the storehouse, small groups of female students greeted us and smiled.

My job at the storehouse was to examine and set-up a computer that Kristen will use to keep track of inventory. Child Aid received a tremendous number of donated books that are then given to libraries and schools primarily serving indigenous students. I set up the computer Kristen wanted and discovered that the video card was not secured to the back panel of the case. If fact, there as no way to secure it. It just plugged into the mother board. This would be a problem, so I opened a less powerful second computer and decided to swap video cards. The second video card securely attached to the case and worked just fine. When I tried to plug the other card into the second computer, I discovered that it would only fit into the slot backwards. Very strange. Maybe I can find a usable card in one of the non-functioning computers back at the school.

With Kristen's computer working properly, we walked to the highway to catch the next bus to La Antigua. Soon, one arrived and we headed towards Parramos, about half-way to La Antigua. After arriving in Parramos, we learned that the highway from Parramos to La Antigua was closed for road work, so we had to backtrack past the school all the way to Chimaltenango and back towards La Antigua by the newer, faster highway. Note that the buses we take to Chimaltenango take the older route through Parramos because there are more people along that route wanting to ride.

We finally arrived at the chicken bus terminal and said farewell to Kristen. Next week we will be on our own as we return to the Melotto School, as Kristen has other things she needs to be doing. She's done babysitting the new gringo volunteers. Looks to me like we'll be getting us at 5:00 a.m. so that we can take the straight-shot bus trip to the school. Coming back, they can take any route they want, since we won't be needing to stop by the storehouse.

One of the things we've missed in our diet has been frequent salads, since it's so hard to avoid significant stomach issues when eating vegetables that can't be peeled. We have discovered that the salads at Pollo Campero are safe, so we stopped by for a side-salad and a beverage. Afterwards, we went to the Bodegana and Dispensa Familiar to pick up some items we needed. We then went over to the street where we can pick up our chicken bus back to our apartment. Once again, it was loaded like a sardine can, but we were able to get off somewhat near our apartment.

Back at the apartment, we prepared the remainder of our supper - vegetable beef soup (homemade, not canned), crackers, fruit and cold tea. It was then time to shower (I go first to heat up the bathroom) and I discovered that our landlord had turned up the hot water heater as I had requested. For the first time since we arrived I had to use some cold water to moderate the hot water. Previously, I just used hot water, although it was more like lukewarm.

Our final task of the day was to record our daily blog entry. As you can see, I'm almost done. Tomorrow we can sleep in, since we don't need to catch a 7:00 a.m. bus in La Antigua. Life is good. We have hot water for showering and the wireless Internet works. What more could a fellow ask for?

February 4

2010-02-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

Today we were to go to the Melotto School in Chimaltenango. We got up at 5:00 a.m. so that we could meet Kristen in La Antigua by 6:45 a.m., which was the time she told us she would need to leave today. We were down by the highway by about 6:15 a.m. and decided that we would never make it to La Antigua on time after two full chicken buses declined to stop and pick us up.

Compounding our problems was the loss of our Internet connection last night. It seems to be back today, but was very flaky. We finally decided to postpone our return trip to the Melotto School until I'm able to download and burn the Qimo Linux distribution. Qimo is an operating system and set of games/educational tools that is aimed at children. I'm hoping that it will be possible to run in in Spanish, since there are Spanish language programmers working on it.

After returning to the apartment, we decided that we had some tasks we needed to accomplish. First, we needed to take our dirty clothes to a lavandaria (laundry). We then needed to update our blogs, since our Internet access at the apartment was out. I needed to download a copy of Qimo, a Linux distribution for children that I wanted to test at the Melotto School. We needed to get more minutes for our cell phones and, finally, we needed more groceries.

After making our shopping list and deciding what we needed to take with us, we once again walked down to the highway. In a short time, a chicken bus appeared and, this time, stopped to pick us up. In no time we were in La Antigua and began looking for the lavanderia we had used back in 2007. We found it and arranged to pick up our clean clothes at 1:00 p.m.

Our next stop was the study center established by the government of Spain in the former and restored Compañia de Jesus church. While it is a quiet and pleasant study site, I discovered that it lacked free wi-fi (wireless Internet). We then headed for a famous American eatery that offers Internet access - McDonald's, but it too lacked free wi-fi. Our third stop, Pollo Campero (the Guatemalan equivalent of KFC), was successful.

Typically, businesses offering free wi-fi expect you to purchase something, so we did. Our first purchase was two bottles of agua pura (bottled water). We nursed them as we set up our netbook and uploaded our blog files. Soon I decided to try to download Qimo, a Linux distribution for children that includes an assortment of games. Qimo is 698 MB and it took us about three hours to get it downloaded. During that time we had two Mediterranian salads (with chicken strips), two cono helado suave (soft serve ice cream) and, finally, as we were almost finished with our downloading, an order of papas fritas grande (large order of fries), which we enjoyed with a hot verde (green) sauce, as Guatemalan ketchup is about half sugar we were told.

While we were almost finished with our three-hour download, I went over to the lavanderia to pick up our laundry and stopped by a tienda to pick up some cell phone minutes, since it was triple saldo day (three minutes for the price of one). Once the download was complete, we headed to the mercado to pick up some fruit and vegetables. We've started making soup for dinner as it's something that is easy to fix on our little three-burner propane stove. After we found our way out of the mercado (rabbit warren isn't complex enough to describe it), I left Linda on a bench at the Mercado Artesiana (artisan's market), while I went to pick up a few additional items at Dispensa Familiar (a grocery store chain owned by WalMart). One of the items I picked up was eggs, which came in a 30 count container. I was amazed that they actually made it back to the apartment without any losses.

Meeting up once again with Linda, we headed over to the chicken bus terminal to find a chicken bus to Alotenango. We don't actually want to go to Alotenango, but it's the only route that goes by our road across from the cemetery. Before long a chicken bus appeared and, along with others who were also waiting, we boarded. As we headed out of town, more and more people got on the bus until it felt like a human sardine can. Both Linda and I were sandwiched in between two other people.

As soon as we had passed through Ciudad Vieja, I started looking for our cemetery. Seeing it, I began moving towards the front of the bus, where I told the driver that I needed to get off at "la fin de la cemetaria." This wasn't the first time we had ridden with this driver and ayudante (helper who collects fares, loads luggage and announces the destination along the route), so they knew where we wanted off and were proud of it. We were amazed!

Once off the chicken bus, we carried our laundry, two shopping bags and two backpacks up the hill to our apartment building. It was about 3:30 p.m. and we were exhausted, so we rested for a while. The rest of the evening consisted of cleaning up, cooking, cleaning up after cooking, burning five Qimo CDs and recording our blog entry for the day, which will probably have to be uploaded at Pollo Campero, unless the Internet service in our apartment starts working again.

Tomorrow, we're up at 5:00 a.m. again to get to La Antigua in time to take a 7:00 a.m. chicken bus to Chimaltenago and the Melotto School, where I hope I can get Qimo working on those five ancient computers. This time, instead of waiting on the highway down the road from our apartment, we're going to walk to the beginning of the cemetery, where the road to Dueñas meets the road that passes our apartment. There's a stop sign there. Maybe the chicken bus from Dueñas will notice it and stop and we can sneak on.

Our First Trip to Melotto School - February 3

2010-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today was the day that we would be going to Chimaltenango to see what we could do with the computer lab at the Melotto School. We were sure that we had enough time to get to La Antigua, when we walked to the nearby road. While we were waiting for a chicken bus, a woman came down our lane in an SUV. She asked if we were going to La Antigua. We said we were and she invited us to climb in her vehicle. Her 5 year old daughter was sitting in the front seat wearing her school uniform. As we drove down the highway, the mother informed us that we would need to stop by her daughter's colegio, as today was the first day of the new school year. It was also the daughter's first day of school, so mother had to escort her to her classroom. After the mother returned, she resumed our trip until we were on the outside edge of La Antigua. As we entered the far edge of the town, she informed us that we could pick up a bus to the downtown area along the road, but she had to make a turn to go to work. We got out and walked the short distance to the parada (bus stop) and soon a bus arrived to take us the remaining way into La Antigua. We were about 25 minutes late and Kristen, who would be going with us to the Melotto School, was just about ready to leave without us when we arrived.

We walked to the chicken bus staging area behind the mercado and learned what bus we would need to take for the first part of our journey. Finding one, we boarded and began the trip that would take us to where the road we were on crossed the Pan American highway. There we would get off and find another bus to take us the short 3 kilometer distance to the road that led to the school. We learned that most bus drivers don't want to deal with short distance riders, but soon found a bus that would take us.

We got off at the road leading to the school and walked the short distance to the school gate, where the grounds keeper admitted us. The Melotto School is a small, private Catholic school that primarily serves poor children in the surrounding area. Although they had almost 450 students enrolled last year, the world-wide recession has reduced or eliminated much of the money sent home by Guatemalan workers in the U.S. This year, there are only about 320 students enrolled.

Once on the school grounds, we were greeted by students and staff who saw us. Once we entered the school office, we were quickly greeted by the school principal, who is a Catholic nun. Naturally, we had to visit with her for a short time, during which she asked if we would like some coffee. Linda and Kristen accepted, but I was provided tea. When the beverages were brought in, there were three cups filled with water, a jar of instant coffee and a tea bag. Linda make her cup of coffee only to discover that the water was cold. Kristen and I just drank the water.

After we had visited for a time, the principal escorted us to the room where the computers were located and I went to work. For the most part, the computers were muy viejo (very old). Two were running Windows 98 and three were running Windows XP. I started by defragging the hard drives, which seemed to help a bit. After a while, Kristen told us that the previous principal had been fired. Before he left, he had announced that anything that had been obtained for the school while he was in charge, was his! After seeing the state of the computers we were working with and noting that several had come from Germany, Kristen surmised that someone, perhaps the former principal, had made off with the newer computers and left the junk behind. Can you imagine anyone so low that they would steal items intended for children? On the other hand, the former president of Guatemala has been charged with diverting funds for a variety of projects, including libraries, into his personal accounts. Evidently there will be an attempt to try him for those diversions.

Before we left the school, we looked at the newly updated library that Kristen had created. They have a computer program to keep track of their books and Linda is going to enter the student information into the database for them.

After leaving the school, we walked about 1 kilometer to a small restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we boarded another chicken bus for the remaining distance to the cross road, where we would head back to La Antigua. After reaching the cross road, we quickly found another bus heading our direction, but we would be making a short stop at Child Aid's storage area, on the grounds of a school along our route. Kristen had asked me to check out a computer she had been issued. It was one of 40 that Child Aid had received from a U.S. non-profit. The school is on the site of a former military base. One of the provisions of the 1995 Peace Accords that ended the 36 year civil war was that most of the military bases would be converted to civilian use, such as schools.

We got off at the school and walked to the storage area, a former military barracks. Once we started setting up Kristen's computer, we discovered that we didn't have power cords for the tower or the monitor. Digging in a junk box and a closet remedied that problem. That was when we discovered our second problem. The only working electrical outlet in the building was ungrounded and we only had one ungrounded adapter. I suggested to Kristen that she pick up a power strip so that we could try again tomorrow.

Being unable to do anything more there, we walked back to the road and quickly boarded another chicken bus heading for La Antigua. Linda compared that trip to Disneyland's Space Mountain in daylight! It was quite a ride, but we arrived in La Antigua safe and sound.

Before returning to our apartment, we stopped by the Bodegana (a warehouse grocery/department store) and picked up a larger pot to make soup and some things to make a lunch for our trip tomorrow. Since it was close to 5:00 p.m., we decided to have dinner at Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan version of KFC. We had grilled chicken, Caesar salad (or so they said), corn tortillas and a Pepsi Light (Diet).

Supper over, we headed for the chicken bus staging area, found a bus heading our direction and held on tight. For the first time, I was able to convince a driver to let us out at the end of the cemetery. It took some convincing, but I was successful and we walked the short distance to our apartment.

Once home, we fired up our computers and had a video chat with Donna, Syd, Nic, Cos and Gia, while we fixed the soup for tomorrow night's dinner. Tomorrow our day will begin at about 5:00 a.m., so that we can meet Kristen at 6:45 a.m., so that we can board a 7:00 a.m. bus, because she has an early morning meeting to attend at the school. Otherwise, we will have to make the trip back to Melotto School on our own and I'm not sure we're up to it yet.

February 2

2010-02-02T18:44:00.001-08:00

Today we will be doing some shopping so that we can do some cooking, but mainly relaxing. We once again went out to the road to get a chicken bus, but made another mistake. Rather than wait at our drive where we were picked up the day before, we started walking toward Ciudad Vieja. I thought it would be good for my bruised leg. What we discovered was that the chicken buses that would stop at our drive, kept right on going between there and C.V. We finally got one at a parada (bus stop) in C.V. and proceeded to La Antigua.

Once in La Antigua, we explored the mercado (market) before going to the bodega. We needed a bomba (pump) for our garrafón (five gallon water bottle). We also bought some small pots to cook with and other supplies. We then went to the mercado and bought some vegetables for a soup we were planning to fix for supper. Since it was about time for lunch, we decided to throw caution to the wind and eat in a comedor (small food stand with seating) in the mercado. I asked what the comida tipica (blue plate special) was and was told it was Chicken Pepian, the same meal we had enjoyed last night. When it was served, although the servings were a smaller lunch size, it was quite tasty. In the sauce and absent the night before was a serving of guisquil (http://revuemag.com/2009/09/guisquil/), a type of mild flavored squash that picks up the flavor of what it is cooked with. By the way, the lunch, with canned sodas, was only 30 quetzales (about $3.75) for the two of us. The sauce was also better(spicier), in my opinion.

Following lunch, we went looking for a chicken bus to take us back to the apartment. This time, we found one going our way (apologies to Bing Crosby) and were dropped off much closer to where we wanted to get out. Our apartment is across the road from the C.V. cemetery and I've still not been successful getting us to it's last exit. The best I've been able to do is the last "public" exit from the cemetery, which is still quite close to where we want to be. Exercise, after all, is good for you.

Once back in the apartment, we checked in with our gmail account, found that Donna (our oldest daughter who lives in California) was logged in, so we invited her to join us on a gmail video chat. She responded and we enjoyed visiting with her, Nic, Cos and Gia until it was time to take Nic to school. When we disconnected, we discovered that Susan (our middle daughter in Texas) was online, so we did some video chatting with her. After she disconnected so that she could pick up Erik and Max from school, we took another nap.

We were awakened from our nap by a request to video chat with Susan and the boys. That gmail video chat is great and it's free. After visiting with Susan and the boys, we started supper. Linda is our cocinera (cook) and I'm her ayudante (assistant). While she got started, I cleaned the vegetables we would put in our soup with disinfectant called Sanavida (a bleach solution). While the soup was simmering, we made some tea to go with it and enjoyed a huge avocado (40 cents) as an appetizer. The soup was good, but we need a bigger pot, since there weren't any leftovers.

Tonight, we're enjoying some movies in English with Spanish subtitles. Tomorrow we go to Chimaltenango and the Melotto School.