The ‘Erb

For all those of you who like the great outdoors, you'll appreciate this post. Now in terms of integrating we are doing pretty well and we went a step close after heading into the mountain forest to pick some 'Chipolin'; a local herb used to flavour soups and stews - also renowned to cure nasty mouth ulcers when made into a tea. My task was to pick the leaves and hand them to Vanessa for washing and cooking! Vanessa brandishes a wiskil, a local veg which is damned good, a bit like a spud but tastier!

Hatchet ‘arry

Now where my little friends the machete brothers are not up to the task I call on the mother of all axes; Hatchet Harry of 'Lock Stock…' fame would be proud. I had to chop some wood for the fire after going for my run. I call it the natural gym workout, was sweating like a pig and feeling very alpha male. Love it!

We had a couple of beers last night and this was a great way to sweat out some toxins! And yes I have lost a few pounds!!

Puppy Dog Eyes

I personally think that Vanessa wins the puppy dog eyes competition hands down.

The uber cute 'Blackie' turned up at the kid's dining room yesterday. Vanessa called me on the way home to tell me we had a little visitor. I bought some puppy food and anti-parasitic medicine for the little chap. After careful deliberation and heart wrenching we found a home for him with the family who live next to the dining room. Went to see him today and he loves it. He has an outside space and a little girl to play with. Worked out perfectly and gave me the blog entry for today!!

On living

The simplicity of life here is endearing.

We signed no formal contract for our house and paid no deposit. We moved in on the 15^th and after a bit of haggling, settled on a price. So we have to pay our first rent on the 15^th of next month. On our first day in the local market we had no change and the note that we did have was too big for the stall holders to change. 'Are you living in San Juan?' asked the girl at the vegetable stand - a tourist would not normally shop in the market as its not central, easily missed and the restaurants are far from expensive; San Juan in not touristy anyway. After an affirmative nod she swiftly said 'well the next time you come here you can pay me.' There was no sentiment of mistrust or doubt in her smile.

The shops are not decorated and all of them sell produce at almost exactly the same price the only difference being that some are closer to home and not all have fridges. Hardly anyone smokes; I think I have seen two people smoke in the three weeks we have been here. Alcohol is relatively very expensive and the few cantinas in the town are frequented by the few. Everybody has the time to greet you and the 'Buenas dias' is a more colourful and slower, drawn out chant of the Spanish version; it holds more sincerity about it too. The children respect their elders. They play out in the street without fear or fearing mothers.

People live on what surrounds them. The kids will often collect firewood and sell it or avocadoes from the forest. The women will often do the same and collect herbs. The local coffee and maize plantations sustain a large part of the population. Houses are made from local stone that some of the men spend the day chipping away at down by the river. Luis, Candelaria's husband, sells cement made from sand and grit from the dry river bed. He works his arse off to feed his 7 kids but the sense of family and cohesion is unquestionable. He disbelievingly asked us if it were true that in Europe people get divorced after a short time of marriage.

To get to work I get the pick-up in the centre of town. It's always waiting and will go when it has a few passengers or a short time passes. Even when the running water stopped as a result of storm damage people just got up a bit earlier to get water from higher up the mountain; no one really complained. The municipal police are there to help as opposed to control, and the civil police seem to keep to themselves.

The only problem I have with jogging in the morning is that I am out of breath (more than usual due to the humidity and hills) and find it difficult to greet everyone who greets me. I find that a shortened, 'Buenas' does the trick.

I suppose a fairly normal reaction to this writing from folk back home may be along the lines of 'yeah but where's your protection? Why is Guatemala considered unsafe? What about the social services and poverty? Or maybe this may be seen as a typical reaction to something new, the kind of euphoria that people feel when they come to a new place and only see the good. I grant you that I may be guilty of the later but I have already met many people who have either come back or stayed who uphold what I say. I think that that the danger and true poverty is in the capital.

As I was choosing some flowers in Barcelona a month or so before I came I explained to the florist that I was buying flowers to celebrate our trip to Guatemala, her comment was, 'ah, now that's a place where people haven't forgotten how to live.' I wholeheartedly agree and as my initial fears are fading I am becoming enchanted by San Juan de la Laguna. If these paragraphs imply that in my opinion we, in Europe and parts of the 1^st World, have somehow forgotten how to live, then good, that was my intention.

I still sleep with the machetes under the bed!

Part 1.Stuck in the mud

Now I remember this game at school, (at Heepstill), but I didn't figure on playing it here in San Juan. Juan and Lester were well up for it! The day after the storm we decided to go up to the cross that looks down on San Juan to assess the damage and get up to a good vantage point to see around. The torrent had disappeared and was a dry bed again but a much bigger bed had been gorged by the flood water.

Down the hill by the lake

We took a stroll down to the lake about 10 days ago. We are in no rush to check out our surroundings and, unlike travelling where you cram in sites and sounds as fast as you can, we have plenty of time to see everything. So it was after a week or so that we decided to go and check out the lake at sea level just a 10 minute walk from home. Following the dry river bed from the bottom of our street we headed towards the lake with thick forest on either side.

One moment we walked past palm trees and huge leafed plants and the next we were walking alongside a coffee plantation or a field of maize until the view opened out on Lake Atitlan. The photos do the rest of the talking. I've already decided to come back at about 4am to get some really decent shots in the early light. Need to get my hands on a tripod from somewhere.

Strange New Worlds – for Joe

Hi Joe, hope all is well. This little gem was formed by the rapids. It was on the edge of the river bank after the storm and somehow the larger stones kept the little towers upright. Reminded me of the photos we took of the once submerged tree roots up on Montjuic. So this one's dedicated to you, all the best my friend. Take care.

Day out with the kids

A great way to enjoy children is to borrow them and give them back when you're done. So I suggested to Vanessa that we do this the weekend before the storm (not always going to be a chronological blog I´m afraid). We had thought about going to San Marcos, another of the lake Atitlan towns a short boat ride away. So we went to ask Candelaria if we could borrow Juan (9) and Lester (7). This was great for them; they'd only been there once before. Mum asked us to keep hold of them on the boat and we set off.

Most points of departure are from the neighbouring town, San Pedro de la Laguna. It´s bigger and has more commercial activity and tourism than San Juan; it´s also a little more dangerous according to the San Juaneros – there are signs prohibiting the sale of drugs (mainly marijuana I reckon) and more than once a local has whispered in my ear, 'Ganga amigo'. Look forward as if you haven´t heard anything does the trick; same in parts of Barcelona to tell the truth. Anyway, we went in the back of a 4x4 for the 5 minute drive to San Pedro and walk down to the Jetty to catch the boat. You learn fast enough here but like most things you learn by trial and error. Needless to say we paid over the odds to get the boat to San Marcos – 35Quetzales (€3.5). On the way back we paid 20Q as we discovered that local kids go for free.

I think the kids were more interested in my camera than anything else we saw so they received their first digital slr lesson: a) putting your fingers all over the lens not good, b) use the camera strap, c) look through the viewfinder and push this button here. When we arrived at San Marcos it was quite a lush little paradise. There were no roads near the jetty and after passing a few stalls selling the local jade jewellery we entered a little maze of paths that led to different establishments. There was definitely a theme here, 'hippy'. I wondered exactly what Moon study in the Moon Garden was, made me think of the 'Moomintrolls', did they live here? Crystal therapy, Banana Cake, Organic Massage, Astrology, and a few things that were new on the list of Alternative had found a home here. Needless to say that along with this came a few stereotyped dippies wofting by leaving only a scent of incense and unwashed hair. Now don´t get me wrong I enjoy my Yoga from time to time but there´s an awful lot of crap out there too. Needless to say everything was more expensive here as organic hummus and stone baked pizza carried a premium. We bought the kids a coke and wandered through the rest of the town. Spotted a pretty cool and colourful lizard.

Lester loved it all, a very happy soul and the archetypal cheeky monkey. Juan, however, is the more conservative and serious type. When he announced to us that he was bored we were a little surprised, our first challenge, we had not banked on this being in anyway boring. 'Juan what would you like to do, have something to eat maybe?' An indecipherable murmur. 'Ok, well we're hungry so we either eat here or in San Pedro.' Juan´s choice, San Pedro it was, and a tostada was preordered by the little man. This is a fried tortilla about the size of a pita bread with guacamole, salad, refried beans, cheese and sauce. There's a great little stall by the Jetty that sells them for 3Q each (30cents). So, after bribing Juan (seemed to work) we went back on the boat and nattered with a nice local man (who told us that the local kids go free). At San Pedro Juan was impressed with his food and we went for a burger and chips which was our first junk food for a while. Very welcome. As we left the bar Vanessa caught my hand and we danced a few steps of Salsa to the music in the bar. Now I have never managed the swinging hip latin thing before but actually managed to swing in time to a few bars; I put it down to living the local life and getting into the swing of things!