Bungalows Martita Sipacate!

Fernando’s bungalows are awesome. Facebook is one way to reach him from the USA if you want to reserve one but that is Antonio no hablad Ingles. Fernando is at 502-3382-4096 Spanish and English. You can email him as well . Bungalosmartita at gmail.com We found this spot when we were staying at El Rancho down the street, which is now La Mar and different. We have not been there since the new owners.

Fernando was building, we were wandering the building site as it went up. He caught us out scoping his project, trespassing. You mean the big wall with the locked gate meant we were not supposed to enter? They have turned out beautiful.

• 

Front side second bungalows from the ocean

We were at El Rancho stopped in for a drink, stayed five days that trip and returned many more. We saw the building going on and snuck around the fence. Fernando was camping on the beach in a tent while building. The project was just started. He told us he was building two bungalows, we brought beer and became fast friends. Next visit we were in the pool in the bungalows nest door to the ones pictured above. Fernando told us he had just purchased the lot next door and would be building two more. This is where we stayed in February 2021. Tony and I downstairs bedroom our kids, well they are dults (weird word adult, don’t call me that!) were in the upstairs bedroom.

• 

Tough job, 12 oz curls.

This visit we saw his next project next door to this set of bungalows. We are going back for our anniversary in May and I can’t wait to see the progress! I’m hoping to buy the next lot over. We have driven all over Guatemala and not found “THE” spot but, we can always get different ground, change a house but how often can you pick your neighbor? I really look forward to Fernando as our next door neighbor. I’m glad he wasn’t too upset when he caught us snooping around his place all those years ago!

• 

Wow

The bungalow has a kitchen living area with a big bedroom downstairs and another upstairs. The balcony is really nice in the evening and swimming here is good. If you look on a map of Guatemala you see a road running along the beach west of Puerto San Jose, further west is Sipacate and this is a bit further west yet. The town of La Gomera is not far off and has everything, if you are just looking for food or drinks they are very near as is an ATM or two. Funny to think we ended up here all those years ago exploring. I saw the road along the beach and Tony brought me to it. We hit the river at the end of the road and turned around. We stopped in at El Rancho for a drink and found they had two hotel rooms. There are pictures etc somewhere in this blog. I need to find out how to organize it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Comfortable two bedroom townhome really. Only catch no hot water in the shower, When I build mine it will have the “suicide” shower heads. Which are pretty awesome. Unless you are dumb enough to stand wet in the shower and decide to mess with the electrical connections without flipping the breaker, they are totally safe.

I look forward to returning both for the beach and my great friend Fernando. I look forward to seeing him and his wife Norma. I really need to improve my Spanish!

Happy travels!

Sponsored Post Sponsored Post Menu More Info Learn from the experts: Create a successful blog with our brand new courseThe WordPress.com Blog

WordPress.com is excited to announce our newest offering: a course just for beginning bloggers where you’ll learn everything you need to know about blogging from the most trusted experts in the industry. We have helped millions of blogs get up and running, we know what works, and we want you to to know everything we know. This course provides all the fundamental skills and inspiration you need to get your blog started, an interactive community forum, and content updated annually.

Register now

Guatemala is an Adventure!

It’s crazy to remember we started our Pensinado process in 2014.  Now we have been Pensinados for five years so we can now apply for citizenship and a passport!  My goal was, is a second passport as recommended by The Sovereign Man Simon Black. Pensinado status when we applied was free.  The documents we had to have added up to under $300 for both of us and had we done the paperwork exactly correctly it would have been cheaper.

The BIG issue is every document must have your full name as it appears on your passport.  Because some items use a middle initial or no middle name included, we had to have a lawyer document stating all the aliases were for the same person and used without nefarious intent!  So if you apply for Pensinado status which I highly recommend, when you fill out the paper requesting you police report write in your full name as it appears on your passport.  When you print up your proof of earnings either from Social Security or we have rentals so our proof of income was on a company letterhead.  Once it is notorized, appostilled and stamped by the Guatemalan Embassy near you it is an International legal document.  In Guatemala the office of foreigners stamps it again, pasos de ley.

Then it all needs to be translated to Spanish.  Which could be done by any of the translators hanging outside the immigration office in the morning inexpensively.  I translated them myself using google translate and my husbands went through.  Mine which was worded exactly the same was “caught” as a bad translation on my Police report from Oregon.  The page you get from the Oregon State Police says basically. “Oregon State Police has done a search for criminal reports on Delia Lopez and nothing was found.  That does not mean there is nothing to find and we do not incur liability if something is later found.  No other information is available per Oregon Statute. ” Notice my mistake of putting just my name, no middle name!  There was an immigration scandal someone selling passports and everything went a little more “secure”.  So since mine was caught, and we didn’t bring all of our originals with us to Guatemala that trip we had to have friends go in our house in Oregon, go in my office to get my paperwork and FedEx it to us, Thank you Miranda and Carmen!

Ninety bucks!  Take the original and have it re-translated there which was $20 or something and turn it in at the immigration office.  When you go to the immigration office you pick a number and sit and wait, and wait and wait. I did mention of going down the street to Blancas “Gift from God” Regaldo de Dios, Comedor yellow no sign LOL for breakfast and going back.  Still plenty of time before we were called!  Once you finish that process and they set you an appointment for your picture etc it’s fast.

Then you have to wait for the picture page that says basically Delia Marie Lopez has permanent residency in Guatemala.  Then you leave your passport with them for a week and when you pick it up, woohoo you have this Visa stapled in!  Last year in February when we went to Guatemala we had new passports so had to get new visa’s stapled in.

Once you are done with that process, if you want a DPI which is like an ID card for going to the bank or opening a bank account in say Belize, you head to RENAP.   Again my husband went in, only THE person can go in I had to wait outside.  I sat in Wendy’s next door computer for wifi.  Again you buy more little stamps and they take a picture and you pay $55 approximately depending on exchange rate for the card.  Then you wait, usually say it’ll take eight weeks call to check to see if it’s done.  When it is you go pick it up.  Tony’s no problem.  Because my stuff was kicked out by the Police bad translation mine was separated from his.  So they say done February 21, we fly in and the countries lamination machine broke.  We fly home without it.  Fly in and the new lamination machine was not compatible with the system.  Big scandal in Guatemala LOL.  They have the one lamination machine for DPI’s!  Fly in again and the chip in my DPI was bad so it had to be redone!  Fly home again without it.  The fifth trip for the DPI it was done!  All that for this.

We hope to actually live in Guatemala and I still plan to apply for citizenship there. Though curiously we may be Mexican citizens soon, another long story.  Guatemala is an adventure and I LOVE adventure.  There was a shirt in Flores a tank top with a chicken bus with cartoon people with huge eyes hanging off the edge of the roof of the bus as it careened around a corner near a cliff.  Guatemala es an adventura under the picture. Our first visit we had only a back pack and were busing around. I still wish I bought it!  Now we rent a car and drive but know this, in Guatemala all kilometers are not equal! Until next time, Happy Travels!

Guatemala City

I always imagined Guatemala City as a run down dump, scary to visit. During our visits to Guatemala we have ended up spending a lot of time in Guatemala City. We would stay in the city during the time we were in our pensinado process. The immigration office is downtown and no matter how many times we would go there we would get lost. With a GPS! Driving in circles sometimes for HOURS! It was crazy and awful. One visit we were at the immigration office and we got there late and needed to be back the next day. I was feeling a bit under the weather so my husband went to the very nice hotel almost next door,  the Conquistador Hotel.

They have a restaurant, bar, workout room with a trainer Adonis.  Massages are available and I had the best massages EVER there from Maria.  Pool, sauna you name it. Walk in and it’s $120 per night book ahead and we have stayed for as low as $46 per night.  We started booking before we flew in and they have a shuttle to pick you up at the airport.  That made it very easy.  We would walk to immigration and Alamo would come pick us up to rent a car.  It worked out very well.  We were walking from El Conquistador hotel to the immigration office one morning early and walked by a small hole in the wall diner with no name and it smelled amazing!  We got to immigration and got a number went back to the little diner and had a great breakfast and back to immigration before our number was called!

This type of diner is called a “comedor”. They will have a couple choices for any meal and “Juevos al gusto” eggs how ever you like them, for breakfast.  Once Blanca knew we like papas fritas which are fried potatoes but usually mean french fries with breakfast and didn’t eat pork, if she knew we were coming everything was made just how we wanted it.  Blanca and Alfri are the owners and very nice people.

We have eaten there many times the food is always very good and inexpensive!  Oddly our friends from the immigration office would not go there to eat.  They wanted to go tot he more fancy place up the block. The food was not as good and the prices were four times as much!

Guatemala, like Mexico, is very “class oriented”. Our Spanish teacher Elmer told me once “you treat people like you think they are your equal”.  Kind of an odd thing to say I thought.  Then I noticed how many people, especially Americans, treat the Guatemalan people as though they were inferior.  I felt ashamed.  I now consider his “odd statement” a great compliment.  We have made many really great friends in our travels both in Guatemala and Mexico and I would really love to have time to go visit them all.

Until next time, Happy Travels!

Renting a car in Guatemala or anywhere outside the USA.

I’ve talked with many people about renting a car in Guatemala or Mexico.  They often talk about a bait and switch scam.  Where you reserve the car on Expedia or somewhere for $210 for 21 days.  Then get there and suddenly the price is $672!  So $462 more than the price you were promised.  It’s not a scam.  It’s the insurance on the car.  Car rental companies will not let you rent the car without insurance, for obvious reasons.  Like number one it is illegal and they would get in trouble.  Cars get stolen and then they are screwed, fired at least.  Accidents happen, I’ve had two incidents while traveling in Guatemala.  One we backed into a piece of rebar sticking out of a low thing and it dimpled the bumper.  Another time we left our car in the street overnight in front of a hotel in Antigua.  Honestly the owner of the hotel said we should not, but they did not have parking and we were too lazy and parsimonious to go a ways up the street into the walled parking area and pay, then walk back.  We had done it a lot before someone broke out a window and stole the battery, jack etc.

When that happened I called Alamo and we walked to breakfast, and a guy was waiting for us by the car! Felt kinda bad actually.  He brought us a new car and towed our old one back.  Ended up costing under $300 and my credit card reimbursed me more than I paid, due to the exchange rates.  So no big deal.  The first rebar boo boo was like $30 same deal.

Before you leave for Guatemala contact the credit card company you have that has the best rental car coverage and no international transaction fees.  Just adding the second part as they add up and many people are unaware of them.  Ask your credit card company for a “proof of coverage letter” and they will email you a page to print out.  Or go to their website and print out the information and their worldwide rental car coverage on their letter head.  I have done it both ways.  Also if you have liability insurance with your homeowners, rental coverage or an umbrella, print out a spare declarations page showing the coverage.  You will be giving those pages to the car rental company.  Insurance on the car is $11 per day on average.  Insurance for liability is about the same.  That little piece of knowledge has saved me thousands of dollars.  I have rented now using those documents in Mexico and Guatemala, many times.

I prefer a car with a trunk to hide my stuff while traveling from place to place.  We also always get an automatic transmission with all those hills!  It is just easier.

I also fly on airline miles!  I am hooked.  Each trip to Guatemala runs us about $60.20 per person round trip.  I’ve had many people think we had lots of money to be flying to Guatemala at one time five times per year!  I also shop through the airline portal and wait until they have bonus miles at certain stores.  I’ll give more details another time until then, happy travels!

Finca el Paradicio, Izabel hot waterfall!

 

Just above Lago de Izabel is waterfall Paradicio.  Its a hot waterfall the only one I know of but there may be more somewhere else on Earth.  Up above the waterfall is a thermal vent where extremely hot water comes out of the ground.  It’s actually a little back in a cave opening.  The amount of water in the spring changes.  The water comes out up above the waterfall there is a trail to hike to it or you can climb the face of the cliff, I used the trail.  The mud is very yellow and people do facials and body masks with the mud from near the spring.  We have been there a couple of times, once in December with our grandson and again last February with our son and daughter in law.  When we came with our grandson we took the bus from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios and the boat to Livingston.  After a few days in Livingston we took a boat up the canyon to the Rio Dulce.  From there we took a bus to Flores to see Tikal.  With our son we had a car.

The water cascades down over the cliff at shower temperature.  It lands in a shallow pool in a cold river a great place for a swim.  The closer you are to the waterfall the warmer the water is.  Swim up beyond the waterfall in the rocks up stream and it’s a bit cooler.    I say a bit because all of the water I have been in near there has been awesome! Lago de Izabal is quite warm and we were in it in December.  There are several great places to stay.  The first time we visited we came up the Rio Dulce from Livingston by boat.  When you get off the boat at the dock there will be hawkers suggesting which place to stay.  We stayed at Tortugal and Kangaroo that visit.  You can take a colectivo from the street that runs along behind the Tortugal.

If you’re looking at the map the road coming in from the bottom left is coming in from Antigua or Guatemala City.  You turn left at the big road that goes over the river to get to el Paradicio. That road continues up to the Peten and Lago de Peten Itza for the island of Flores and Tikal. If instead you go straight you end up in Puerto Barrios and Amatique Bay.  Livingston is on the left side of the river, on the ocean. You can only get there by boat either from the dock at Rio Dulce where the hawkers are or from the Muelle (dock) in Puerto Barrios.  If you turn left just above the lake that is where you get the colectivo or the bus station is also there if you want to go visit Flores and Tikal. This is also the bus stop you’d land at if you take the bus to get to Rio Dulce el Frontera.  The Tortugal is on that road you can get to it by car.  We also stayed in an airbnb a bit past the Tortugal and further yet is Finca el Paradicio. An easy drive.

There are signs on the road and its on the right. Safe parking, there’s a guard who patrols.  If you’re on the colectivo just tell the driver where you are going and they will let you out on the street in front it’s very close.  To get home later you just wait on the road and a colectivo will stop when they see you and return you to the dock or Totugal if you are staying there. A colectivo is public transport usually 5Q for residents 10Q for tourists.  Often it’s a minivan, sometimes it is the back of a pick up truck.  We have ridden in both types.

Happy Travels!

Cafe San Juan!

Cafe San Juan coffee is organically grown and sun dried. We were blessed to get a tour of the production facility from Juan Abraham. The cofee beans were just beginning to ripen. Cafe San Juan coffee ripens at different times and is continuously hand picked.

This is Juan Abraham, in front of some of his coffee plants you can see a few are getting red. When they are red they are ripe and ready for picking. They are then washed and soaked in the “vat” looking things and the husks are removed. The husks become a mulch/ fertilizer for the plants and the “used” water is reused to water the coffee plants. After the husks come off the beans are spread out in the sun to dry.

First they are soaked, beans sink and husks float. Floating husks are scooped off and the beans go down through the pipes. Once the beans arrive in the drying area they are scooped out and spread out to dry. After drying they are roasted. The roasting process is very particular. After tasting Juan Abraham’s coffee all the rest of the coffee in the world tastes burnt!

See how tiny the beans are. I think most of the coffee we normally drink has the husks on it when roasted. We bought other coffee while in San Juan la Laguna and Juan Abraham called it “cafe de calcetines” which is like sock coffee. Kind of what peasants drink. The cheap stuff boiled in a sock.

Coffee drying in the Guatemalan sunshine. They turn the beans so they dry thoroughly before storing and shipping in burlap bags to where it’s roasted for packaging and put in nice little bags. I can stuff quite a few in my carry on! I never bring a lot of clothes to Guatemala it’s warm you don’t need much and there are lavendarias to have your clothes cleaned. Our first visit we did five weeks with only a back back. With not a lot of clothing I can bring home coffee and macadamia nuts!

A large pile of husks waiting to be spread around the coffee plants. You can see coffee plants behind the pile. One in front as well. Everything is very clean and kept sterile by sunshine. I always feel good about drinking Cafe San Juan. It’s a little like drinking a cup of Guatemalan sunshine. I always joke about throwing away my clothes to bring home more. I could buy a suitcase just to bring home coffee and nuts but then I would have to go through the customs line. We have “global entry” and just a carry on so we skip the lines and run right through. The last trip our son and daughter in law came home with us after Guatemala and they go through customs and have suitcases checked and that was a reminder of why we never do! I’ll check a duffle bag on the way down to bring Dick Rutgers Xayden’s outgrown gear (AFO’s & KFO’s mostly) then stuff it in my carry on for the flight home.

Two good looking and really nice guys discussing the coffee process!  I’m adding Juan Abraham’s facebook page below. Stop in and say hi, we have been practicing English with him, well him English us Spanish.  I miss you my friend and look forward to seeing you soon!

https://www.facebook.com/naturalcafesanjuanatitlan/

Happy travels!

 

 

 

 

Amatique Bay!

Just below Belize on the Caribbean Sea is Amatique Bay. It’s a beautiful place. Not far from Puerto Barrios so kind of convenient. By convenient I mean you can take a tourist shuttle easily to get to Amatique Bay Resort or a bus to Puerto Barrios and a tuk tuk or taxi to the resort. https://www.amatiquebay.net/

Driving from Antigua its probably a six hour drive. I say probably because we stopped in Guatemala City at Del Griego for lunch. Del Griego is a Greek Restaurant and very good, the owner/manager speaks English and they will customize for your food preferences.

Back to Amatique Bay I have been wanting to go here for years.  I’m so glad we made it finally. Check Trip Advisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/ also Hotels.com which is where I booked part of our trip.  Today its $51.00 per day. While we were there during the week was $59.00 it varies and we received free breakfast and $10.00 per day resort dollars for Zip line. Kayak Tour or horse back riding.  We booked two rooms one with a kitchen and a studio which doesn’t. The kitchen is about $10 more, shopping in Puerto Barrios is fun and they have a great selection of fruits and vegies. My kids eat only plant based foods so it is a great spot for them.  Olga in the Restaurant was great my kids get the fruit salad for breakfast so she’d load it up. They also had an energy juice with celery and other fruits and vegetable juice in it besides the usual apple, orange etc juices. On weekends they have an all you can eat buffet for breakfast with an omelet bar YUM!

Our kitchen was quite well equipped for a tiny little kitchen.

The beds were comfy!

Nice bathroom with a good sized shower.

You need to sign up for activities in advance, It depends on what you want to do how long in advance. Horse back ride is a couple of hours. My daughter in law had never ridden a horse before. During the slow season they only have two horses available to ride and they need time to round them up for a ride.  This little filly would tag along with mom on rides.  She was outside our room many days.

I originally booked Sunday through Thursday night leaving Friday. Once we arrived I did not ever want to leave!  The pictures do not do it justice and I can’t get the videos of the water slide off my phone!  The pool area was really amazing.

It started on one side really shallow for tiny kids to splash in with the smiley face tree!  It gets deeper as we go toward the Pirate Ship and Mermaid Sand Castle both with water slides and maybe thirty inches deep! The Ship and Sand Castle were being redone while we were there so the pictures include safety tape and netting.

From there it got to maybe four feet deep for Toboggan Water Slides!  I’m trying to find just a photo of the slides they were awesome!  The pool continued around and there was a bridge from the showers over to the cabanas. On the other side of the bridge was a volley ball court in the water. It was about chest deep there over further tot he basket ball hoop where the water was maybe eight feet deep. I don’t know how you’d play basket ball there?  Then the water gets shallower again for the swim up bar!

 

This was a great place and I can’t wait to get back.  This is an awesome place for family to get together to visit and enjoy relaxing.

Until next time happy travels!

 

 

 

Antigua Walters place

We stay in Antigua when we have business to take care of. Business on vacation? Well sort of. I planned to live in Guatemala. I want an additional passport and citizenship. Why? I don’t really know. I read Simon Black the “Sovereign Man”. His plan B etc our minds seem to line up pretty close and he is politically right up my ally. So I want another passport. Oddly my husband’s father was born in Mexico and he is by law a Mexican Citizen. We did not have his citizenship recognized when his mother was alive and it would have been easier because until 1986 the United States Government did not allow dual citizenship. If you took on another countries citizenship your American Citizenship was eliminated. So Obama was not an American Citizen I don’t care where he was born he was adopted by Lolo Soetoro and became an Indonesian citizen prior to 1986. His mom eliminated his American citizenship, he had no choice in the matter. Obviously an irrelevant fact but a fact none the less.

Anyhoo my husband started life as Anthony Edward Esquerra Lopez when he started school in CA they took the first and last names and he became Anthony Lopez. His birth certificate has Anthony Edward Esquerra. We had to take his birth certificate and baptismal certificate to get his passport many moons ago. I don’t know IF he could get one today after 9/11/2001 things got more complicated. I tried for years after the US Gov started to allow dual citizenship, it isn’t so easy. As an aside we need to head to Tamaulipas MX to get his dad’s death certificate corrected and we should have it recognized soon. With the Carnivorous messing with my travel plans…  My husband’s sister recently passed and her mom’s marriage license, which the Mexican Embassy will allow should be the final missing piece after decades of trying, was in her things.

I had tried that for years trips to Mexico City etc. Gave up decided it could not be done and started on Guatemala. Last year we stayed in Antigua a bit to get a new Visa page in our new American passports showing we have residency. I will detail that process elsewhere. We now have had residency for over five years and can apply for citizenship and a passport. The other problem was the bank. In order to maintain our residency while we are not actually living there, the rules say we can not be out of the country for over a year without good reason. So with the move (Oregon to New Mexico) with two boys 6 chickens, 6 horses, 2 dogs and a cat, not to mention one boy is in a power wheelchair so it is complicated. He also has had a couple surgeries during this time period which is a GOOD reason for Guatemalans. I just don’t want to have to finagle through that process with my lousy Spanish!

If you have income outside of Guatemala $1000 per month for one person and $200 for an additional person can be rents, social security, investment income etc, you can get permanent residency. The application fee is $0. I paid $10 per page for the apostilles and like $50 to have my American Passport authenticated at the American Embassy. I also had to pay for a letter of financial responsibility for my husband to provide for me and a lawyer paper that said Delia M Lopez is Delia Marie Lopez etc this alias is the same person and used without nefarious intent. So I estimate we have maybe $400 maybe less in expenses for both Visa’s and DPI’s (Guatemalan ID card) not counting airfare (I am a miles addict so $60.20 per person round trip I will detail on another page) after five years we can apply for citizenship. That will be another process and must wait until I have time.

If you don’t use your bank account for a year in Guatemala it gets locked down which takes a week or so to unlock. Plus visits to the bank etc. The last two years we have only flown in in February last year we flew out the 27^th so this year we flew in the 26^th. We did something similar last year. While in Antigua we always stay at Walters.

Walter’s place is just outside Antigua down a bit from Caoba Farm and up from the gas station mall where you turn to take the dirt road out of Antigua to Pastores or San Miguel Duenas. It is great for us nice parking area for our car. Our room is $25 per night the kids room is $18 per night He also has another $18 per night room that has two twin beds and 2 other little rooms that have only twin beds we have seen. My kids ended up in the twin bed room once because Walter was booked. My son has MCS (multiple Chemical Sensitivities) perfume, laundry soap and dryer sheets are the worst. Walter washed their sheets and hung them out on the line so they would not have the smell. Such a nice guy and a great place to stay. Fairly well equipped kitchen.

Great back yard, big room, nice closet, roomy bathroom.

“Our” room our kids ended up on the futon one night last year because all the other 2 person rooms were booked! The gret thing on the side is a futon 🙂

Great closet! I would love to stay a long while, maybe while having my house built!

 

You can find Walter’s on the Airbnb site look in the southern end of Antigua.  If you have issues message me and I will see if I can help. Tell Walter Tony & D say hi!

Happy Travels!

Valhalla, macadamia nut farm.

I love this place! My husband Joneses for the Macadamia nut pancakes between visits. The macadamia nut encrusted eggplant sandwich is amazing. My kids always have the fruit plate. Coffee here is grown on their farm in Coban as are the blueberries! Valhalla is in San Miguel Deunas just outside Antigua. We cut across the dirt road across from the gas station “mall” and turn left. Turn right at the light or you’ll hit Puerto San Jose, eventually, maybe two hours depending on traffic could be one.  They also have waffles now and they are delicious as well.

Larrenzo (Larry) is a retired Fireman from San Francisco CA. He married here and has lived in Guatemala for forty five years. He has bred natural non-hybrid, non-grafted nut trees to thrive without fertilizer or pesticides of any kind. He imported the original macadamia nut trees into the country and has made it his mission to provide indigenous people with trees to grow to provide income, nutrition and lessen the slash and burn and chemical damage to the Earth. Great guy an original environmentalist (like me) and totally politically incorrect.  I love him.  If you are expecting the owner to kiss your a–, go elsewhere. He will tell you to shut the F up.  To hell with you safe space, snowflakes take note. People expect environmentalists to be liberal wackos and may of us are not.  We are disgusted by the heavy handed, put the government in charge of everything.  Only people ignorant of the FACT that the government has the worst environmental record.  Private property owners protect their land while using it productively even Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company takes much better care of their land than the BLM (Bureau of Land Management or Federal Forest Service) which have destroyed so much of our “public” lands and many peoples lives in the process.

He has arranged for trees to be grown in Nicaragua and Guadalajara Mexico.  Once I have dirt in Mexico or Guatemala I will definitely plant some. For now I just hit la mercado in Antigua and bring home a few pounds of nuts in my carry on. There I pay 34Q (Quetzales) $4.67 here. They are $18.99 at Sprouts on sale! Larry sells oil, nuts, chocolate covered nuts in dark or white chocolate. Most of his nuts are exported at much higher prices than I pay in the mercado.  His sales are not in competition with the locals. If you are in the downtown square you will see people selling nuts of several varieties. Curiously Larry has baby trees for sale there and I think they are about 35Q. Seeing these pictures is making me hungry! These are from an old visit, or a couple of them.  I am sure I have more pictures of them processing the nuts. There is a tour it’s free and very cool.

Happy Travels!

San Juan Gallery

I met a young artist, Francisco.  This is some of his work now on the wall in my bedroom. It is the first thing I see when I open my eyes in the morning and it always makes me smile. It is stunning in real life. It also makes me think of Guatemala.

This is the painting in Guatemala right before it was rolled for the trip home. Tony’s legs in the bottom of the shot.  The art galleries in San Juan La Laguna were amazing. There was another painting I should have bought and I am still kicking myself for not buying it! Yes I know it has been 3 years! I can’t wait to get back. There was also a cotton and sika scarf my blue I didn’t buy. I didn’t know what sika was… until I got to the textile museum and saw the sika worm… SILK!

I discovered in Guatemala the organic cotton grows on a tree. It is a large tree with the most beautiful flowers! The silk worms abandon the nests and then they are made into fabric. They show the different flowers, seeds, bark or roots they use to dye the fabrics. It was pretty amazing really.

More of his work.

Truly an amazing young artist. If you make it to San Juan de Atitlan la Laguna just up from the Muelle or across from Pa Muelle Hotel you will find his families Gallery. His parents are both artists. He has been painting since he was very young. I’d guess he is my grandsons age now!

I bought this lovely painting from a young monther. She was very sweet and working hard. This was her first painting! I hope my purchase helped build her confidence and she has painted many more since I was last in San Juan.

Happy Travels!