Right now, I miss my home...
-my own washing machine
-the cozy fireplace with comfy couches and blankets to snuggle in
-having a sewing machine and fun projects to make with my Children
-the work of cleaning my house
-having a vehicle that I can drive (almost 6 months of not being a driver)
-listening to my Children practice their instruments
-my kitchen...and my fridge...and my induction cook-top
-x-country skiing as a family
-my own bed...my own room...my own pillow and blankets
-grocery shopping where I know what I can buy and how much it should cost
-being able to play a hymn or tune on the piano when I have a spare minute or two
-a house with four bedrooms where we can all have our own space and emotions
-preparing for my summer gardens
-enjoying pumpkin muffins or pumpkin pie whenever we want because there's bags of prepared pumpkin frozen in the freezer
-buying groceries in bulk and not having to think of how much we'll need in the next week or two only because food can't be transported between locations
-going for walks with friends
-watering my house plants (all 43 of them)
-library books...that we can hold and turn pages on
Things I'll miss when we leave Central America...
-fruit, veggies...more fruit and veggies...amazing produce that we buy by the backpack full
-beautiful fresh flowers on the table
-time together with my In-Laws for the past 2 months and having my Children enjoy running over for a game of 'uno' or 'go fish' and meals together
-Spanish...love this language and now hearing my Children speak without hesitation
-having ladies who come and clean our condo weekly
-walking with a purpose to buy food or get to a location
-the tasty ice cream treats
-being creative with our food planning so we use most of what we buy at each location
-the amazing plants and interesting creatures we've experienced
-tasting foods that are typical to the region and new to us
-the curiosity of having another condo and location to explore
-the ways we've learned to cook with the gadgets and items available to us at each different location
-taking taxis, tuk-tuks, private shuttles with a driver and car rentals to get to the next location
-having a small duffle bag of clothes for each person with one season of clothing only
-having time to read, read and read (thankful for Overdrive)
Friday, March 23, 2018
Colorful Cemetery by Zipline
We took a boat trip to San Juan la Laguna to visit the textile market and the colorful cemetery. Of the 14 villages surrounding the lake, we have now been to 7 of them - San Marcos, San Juan, San Pedro, San Pablo, Tzununa, Jaibalito, and Santa Cruz.
Tzununa is said to be the least touristed community. San Pedro (or Panajachel) the most touristy. Jaibalito has no road access - the village can only be accessed by boat or via a scenic hike from Santa Cruz. San Juan is said to be the cleanest and most colorful community due to its murals and traditional weavers. San Juan also has a small brightly colored cemetery.
As in life, so in death. There are few places in the world more colorful than Guatemala. The textiles, markets, pottery, and traditional clothing of the women (which is still part of every day life) are quite stunning. It comes as no surprise then, that people's tombs are painted in their favorite colors.
San Juan:
San Pedro:
Xocomil by exotic chicken
What is Xocomil?
Xocomil is a Mayan word for wind. The Xocomil is a strong wind which blows across Lake Atitlan from the Southeast each day. It starts with the mid-day heat and creates big waves on the lake.
Xocomil is also the name of a waterpark in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. It is one of the biggest and best waterparks in Central America. It even has some rides that we did not see at Canada's Wonderland.
Our family went to Xocomil Waterpark yesterday. It was long drive over bumpy, winding roads. We left at 6:00 and made it to Xocomil one minute after it opened, at 9:01.
The park is themed with Mayan culture and art. There are bright red Mayan temples. The best decorations are on the lush banks of the lazy river. The rock work lining the canyon walls is designed to look like the pyramids at Tikal. Hidden among the jungle setting there are Mayan carvings, rope bridges, and ceremonial masks.
With its humps and steep drops, the family belly-racer slide makes you feel like you are going over thrill hills. Up to 5 people can race at once.
El Regreso (the return) is a unique slide. After a tunnel, a curve, and a steep drop, instead of splashing into the pool right away, you go high up a "hill" on the other side, before sliding down backwards into the splash pool.
The caracol (snail) - known in some parks as the toilet bowl- sends you swirling around a vortex, before being flushed backwards into the splash pool.
My sister and I enjoyed the wave pool but the waves were not as big as they are on Lake Atitlan.
This was my favorite ride. I call it the upside-down slide. You stand in a capsule. A robotic voice counts 3-2-1. The floor drops out from under you. You fall straight down before zinging around a loop.
There are seven slides. at the serpents nest. Three are body slides. Four are tube slides. Five of the slides had tunnels. My sister and I rode all of them together.
There is a high-tech slide at Xocomil. It is a bit like a waterslide - and a bit like a rollercoaster. You sit in a 4 person raft. You zoom down the slide, splash in a dip, and then magnetic propulsion zips the raft along - up again, down again, zip, zip, zip.
To end off our day, we got a cola flavored sorbet tube at the Sarita ice cream stand. But we still had three more hours of bumps, curves, and humps in the shuttle before we got back to our house at Lake Atitlan. My sister and I both fell asleep in the van on the ride home.
Somewhere over the rainbow...or hill - by Twy's Twavels
My age is now into the fourth decade - the hill has been climbed. I'm actually quite ok with getting older...many do not get the chance. I'm attempting to learn how to age with a love for who I am and the stage I'm in...
Enough about my philosophy on aging - time to discuss the 4.0 celebrating adventure...
(We've all done a lot of hill climbing while here this month.)
Being born in Japan makes my birth a bit unique - as I clearly don't look the part (people initially think I'm joking when I state where I was born). To honour my birth location, we usually celebrate with sushi - it's also a way to make my birthday different than Arden's earlier in the month (because going to the same restaurant or having the same 'favourite family meal with the same old cake' in a two week span is BORING).
To make my birthday even more of a multi-cultural event - it lands on March 17th. I don't think I've celebrated a birthday without wearing green yet! To celebrate my over the rainbow year, I've decided it's the year of aquamarine or teal...I think it goes well with grey or gray or whatever colours my hair is now turning without the help of manufactured colouring. Green is my colour (I've pinterested some great teal underdying in grey hair - maybe I'll try that too).
When I figured out that we'd be in Atitlan for the big '40', I resigned myself to a sushi-less party as it's a small town with a lot less than our previous location of Antigua. Thanks to Google, I learned that there is a (mostly) well-reviewed Japanese restaurant called Alalla run by a Japanese lady named Seiko. Even more interesting...every 15th of the month there is a sushi buffet with live music (a couple of days off of my birthday date - but hey! I'm flexible when it comes to live music with my food). A sushi party was again something to anticipate - after we went searching to for the proverbial 'hole in the wall' location and confirmed with a waiter and musician from Argentina that the live music and food was going to be incredible on the noche de sushi.
We arrived in plenty of time to pick our own seating location in the relaxed atmosphere of roaming dogs, uneven rocks and tree roots, and corrugated tin or tarps covering a good portion of the table area. There were bamboo and bamboo paneled walls. Plank-boards with pillows on cement cinder blocks sufficed for seating. A few Adirondack chairs were clustered around a small table. The location was unique to any other place I've been... We focused on the fact that we had a place to sit, the music would be fun...and sushi was ahead.
The biggest pot of miso soup that I've ever seen was brought out. Yum!
Heaping plates of sushi were served - filled with cooked shrimp, fried eggs, ham and cheese (my kids thought they were the best!), canned tuna, vegetarian, or cooked shittake mushrooms. All were tasty (and I was thankful for the cooked options for all items).
Jasmine tea was included.
Dessert was a tasty fruit salad with a cream and mint sauce, brownies or New York cheesecake...these plates kept on emptying at an alarming rate (I think Maelle may have said something about 7 brownies being a good number in a night and that she was curious why I didn't eat my age in brownies).
The music started off with a couple from...CANADA!!!! Their first song was about...SASKATCHEWAN!!!!! While chatting with them while on stage (the atmosphere was quite relaxed), we discovered that they'll be at Cypress Hills Provincial Park on July 2nd for a concert at the amphitheatre. We will be too! They had a song about pumpkin pie...which made us all miss our pumpkin patch at home.
A group of ladies and one man from around the lake played incredible Cuban-style music on guitars, a flute, a clarinet and variety of drums and percussion items. We enjoyed the multi-ethnicity of this group with Japanese, Argentinian, American and Guatemalan participants.
Finally, we stayed for a song (or two...we couldn't tell when they started or ended) of a musical group with a style that I would classify as ultra-new-age, meditation or from the Indian sub-continent. There was a sitar, an African harp, a didgeridoo, drums, a thumb piano, and a pan flute. The words the lady sang were not in English or Spanish. It was relaxed though because she meditated on stage for 10 minutes while the instruments were tuned. My kids heard many of the instruments we saw at the MIM (Musican Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona) several years ago. They are able mimic her hand movements and swaying with some accuracy. This style of music is well suited to the type of people who hang around in San Marcos.
In the end, the atmosphere, music and food all worked together to make a great celebration.
We've eaten close to 40 green avocado and lime pies over the past months in Central America...YUM!!!!! We will miss the many ways of eating avocados when we get home to $3 (mostly good) avocados...
On my 'actual' birthday, my kids helped Arden make a coconut chocolate cake and we had an eggplant tomato sauce with pasta that we've been perfecting here in Atitlan. And we had a tasty meal at a local restaurant in Tzuna with colourful cloth table clothes, a hummingbird coming to eat from the hanging flowers and a boy who can get lost in electronics.
Enough about my philosophy on aging - time to discuss the 4.0 celebrating adventure...
(We've all done a lot of hill climbing while here this month.)
Being born in Japan makes my birth a bit unique - as I clearly don't look the part (people initially think I'm joking when I state where I was born). To honour my birth location, we usually celebrate with sushi - it's also a way to make my birthday different than Arden's earlier in the month (because going to the same restaurant or having the same 'favourite family meal with the same old cake' in a two week span is BORING).
When I figured out that we'd be in Atitlan for the big '40', I resigned myself to a sushi-less party as it's a small town with a lot less than our previous location of Antigua. Thanks to Google, I learned that there is a (mostly) well-reviewed Japanese restaurant called Alalla run by a Japanese lady named Seiko. Even more interesting...every 15th of the month there is a sushi buffet with live music (a couple of days off of my birthday date - but hey! I'm flexible when it comes to live music with my food). A sushi party was again something to anticipate - after we went searching to for the proverbial 'hole in the wall' location and confirmed with a waiter and musician from Argentina that the live music and food was going to be incredible on the noche de sushi.
We arrived in plenty of time to pick our own seating location in the relaxed atmosphere of roaming dogs, uneven rocks and tree roots, and corrugated tin or tarps covering a good portion of the table area. There were bamboo and bamboo paneled walls. Plank-boards with pillows on cement cinder blocks sufficed for seating. A few Adirondack chairs were clustered around a small table. The location was unique to any other place I've been... We focused on the fact that we had a place to sit, the music would be fun...and sushi was ahead.
The biggest pot of miso soup that I've ever seen was brought out. Yum!
Heaping plates of sushi were served - filled with cooked shrimp, fried eggs, ham and cheese (my kids thought they were the best!), canned tuna, vegetarian, or cooked shittake mushrooms. All were tasty (and I was thankful for the cooked options for all items).
Jasmine tea was included.
Dessert was a tasty fruit salad with a cream and mint sauce, brownies or New York cheesecake...these plates kept on emptying at an alarming rate (I think Maelle may have said something about 7 brownies being a good number in a night and that she was curious why I didn't eat my age in brownies).
The music started off with a couple from...CANADA!!!! Their first song was about...SASKATCHEWAN!!!!! While chatting with them while on stage (the atmosphere was quite relaxed), we discovered that they'll be at Cypress Hills Provincial Park on July 2nd for a concert at the amphitheatre. We will be too! They had a song about pumpkin pie...which made us all miss our pumpkin patch at home.
A group of ladies and one man from around the lake played incredible Cuban-style music on guitars, a flute, a clarinet and variety of drums and percussion items. We enjoyed the multi-ethnicity of this group with Japanese, Argentinian, American and Guatemalan participants.
Finally, we stayed for a song (or two...we couldn't tell when they started or ended) of a musical group with a style that I would classify as ultra-new-age, meditation or from the Indian sub-continent. There was a sitar, an African harp, a didgeridoo, drums, a thumb piano, and a pan flute. The words the lady sang were not in English or Spanish. It was relaxed though because she meditated on stage for 10 minutes while the instruments were tuned. My kids heard many of the instruments we saw at the MIM (Musican Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona) several years ago. They are able mimic her hand movements and swaying with some accuracy. This style of music is well suited to the type of people who hang around in San Marcos.
In the end, the atmosphere, music and food all worked together to make a great celebration.
We've eaten close to 40 green avocado and lime pies over the past months in Central America...YUM!!!!! We will miss the many ways of eating avocados when we get home to $3 (mostly good) avocados...
On my 'actual' birthday, my kids helped Arden make a coconut chocolate cake and we had an eggplant tomato sauce with pasta that we've been perfecting here in Atitlan. And we had a tasty meal at a local restaurant in Tzuna with colourful cloth table clothes, a hummingbird coming to eat from the hanging flowers and a boy who can get lost in electronics.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Lake Atitlan by Zipline
Lake Atitlan has been described as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. I love our house, "our lake," and our view of Sioux Mountain across the lake at home, but when I saw the pictures of Pasajcap at Lake Atitlan, I thought, "Wow, that is a view! If we are going to be in Guatemala, we have to go there."
We spent six weeks in Antigua - the longest stretch of our year - and we are glad we did. It might have been my favorite place. We will spend the month of March at Pasajcap, near San Marcos, Atitlan.
Adventure of the week - Travelling to Atitlan:
We've had lots of fun adventures in Atitlan so far: Kayaking, Hiking from Jaibalito to Santa Cruz, Swimming in the Lake, and Jumping/Diving from the huge dock at the property. But honestly, I think the adventure of getting here is tops for the week. Lake Atitlan is located in the western highlands of Guatemala (volcanoes, mountains). While the roads in the area have been improved - concrete now instead of dirt - the crazy steep, winding descent from the Panamerican highway near Santa Clara la Laguna to San Pablo la Laguna might be the most memorable. Here's a screenshot of the Google map for that section of the road. I am thankful that we had a careful driver. No guard rails in Guatemala!
As mentioned, we've also been hiking, swimming, diving, and kayaking this week. Here are a few of our favorite pictures of Lake Aititlan so far:
The garden at Pasajcap:
Meritt jumping off the dock:
Hiking from Jaibalito to Santa Cruz with Grandma and Grandpa:
My favorite - taken from my kayak in the early morning light.
A man fishes with a hand line from his traditional wooden fishing boat.
We spent six weeks in Antigua - the longest stretch of our year - and we are glad we did. It might have been my favorite place. We will spend the month of March at Pasajcap, near San Marcos, Atitlan.
Adventure of the week - Travelling to Atitlan:
We've had lots of fun adventures in Atitlan so far: Kayaking, Hiking from Jaibalito to Santa Cruz, Swimming in the Lake, and Jumping/Diving from the huge dock at the property. But honestly, I think the adventure of getting here is tops for the week. Lake Atitlan is located in the western highlands of Guatemala (volcanoes, mountains). While the roads in the area have been improved - concrete now instead of dirt - the crazy steep, winding descent from the Panamerican highway near Santa Clara la Laguna to San Pablo la Laguna might be the most memorable. Here's a screenshot of the Google map for that section of the road. I am thankful that we had a careful driver. No guard rails in Guatemala!
As mentioned, we've also been hiking, swimming, diving, and kayaking this week. Here are a few of our favorite pictures of Lake Aititlan so far:
The garden at Pasajcap:
The view from our condo. The 12 foot windows slide fully open, so even though you are inside, it feels like outside. You can hear the birds, the boats, and the waves. Meritt took this picture.
Meritt jumping off the dock:
Hiking from Jaibalito to Santa Cruz with Grandma and Grandpa:
My favorite - taken from my kayak in the early morning light.
A man fishes with a hand line from his traditional wooden fishing boat.
Misadventure of the week:
Atitlan is in a remote location in a third world country. It is beautiful but there are some drawbacks. Our flat at Pasajcap is nearest the town of San Marcos la Laguna, Atitlan. My stomach has been queasy, and I felt like puking in San Marcos a couple of times this week.
San Marcos is supposed to be all birkenstocks and zen with yoga, hemp, chia seeds and granola, but honestly, I'm not feeling it. We went to a place for mango smoothies, wheat bread and falafel for my birthday... it was tasty, but I left hungry, and we had to chase away the stray dogs that kept sneezing on us under the table.
Atitlan attracts hippies, yogis, vegans, and wanderers for sure. There is apparently a special energy here due to the physical beauty. But for my part, I hope not to go back to the town of San Marcos all that often. The smell of sewage in the street (running into the lake) and flies sitting on the produce in the "market" was just about more than I could handle. We are going to have be very careful not to get sick here. Maybe we've just gotten soft from the easy life in Antigua. Next time we need groceries, we'll take a public boat to one of the larger communities on the lake - San Pedro or Panajachel - and hope for a cleaner and more enjoyable shopping and dining experience.
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