Welcome home to Texas

I'm spending a few weeks in Texas with my mom and other family members before I take off to India. We went to East Texas for the weekend, my sister is coming to Houston today. I'm getting all the comfort food I could ever watn. Yummy!!!!!

I'm staying busy getting my visa to India. It was a pain in the butt to get it and I was denied the first request because of proof of residency issues. I'll be leaving for N India in August.

Had dinner at Houston's Restaurant, an old stomping ground over 20- years ago. Flirted a bit with a couple of older Texas gentlemen who bought me two tasty and expensive margaritas. I had forgotten how much friendlier people are in Texas. I could actaully see myself living here again. For years I have said I will never move back.

Signed up at 24-hour Fitness for a trail membership. Attended Zumba dance classes with mom yesterday. Whew...........that was fun and a great sweaty workout.

Off to the gym!

Final Guatemala Blog Entry

A lot has happened in the last month. I had 10 exciting days in San Marcos Laguna, around lake Atitlan Guatemala. The trip by shuttle van was spectacular, probably one of the most awe inspiring views I have ever seen looking down at the lake. A beautiful area, tropical without the heat. It rained everyday, torrential!

I was robbed again. I woke at 5:30 am to two men in my room. Luckily I scared them away by screaming and they were only able to take some earrings. They came through an open window. It took me a couple of days to recover and I changed hotels immediately. It took a lot of guts to stay there; I was tempted to just leave the country that day. I feel like I have a couple of guardian angels on my shoulders and it's not time for me to depart this earth just yet.

I met some interesting people and took some Reiki Classes as part of my continuing quest to learn more about massage, spirituality and energy work. After the classes I felt lighter and energetic, more aware and colors were brighter.

I returned to Antigua for a few days before leaving back to the USA. Celebrated my 53birthday with friends at Occelot, a dive bar! I lost my cute little roof top terrace apartment and stayed at a gorgeous guest house instead. We had to speak Spanish at the dinner table. Urgghhhhhhhhh.

My neighbor Tom took me to Welton for my last night in town. Volcano Fuego erupted with its greatest fury in almost five months. Just for me!

Bye Antigua, I will miss you! Hello India..........

Leaving Antigua soon

I haven’t written in my blog for a while. It is raining like cats and dogs at the moment and I am enjoying the sounds, textures and coolness.

Once again, I stay pretty busy and do about the same things everyday, so nothing really new and exciting to write about.

I enjoyed my cooking classes, yoga and workouts at the gym. I love dining out with friends and going to happy hours. Volcan Fuego has been smoking big time, when you can see it through the clouds. We just had a 4.6 earthquake.

My daily visits to the Puppy Palace are a joy. Sometimes I feel bad that I am not doing more to help people, but suffering is suffering. I contribute in my own small way.

I finally made some decisions. My visa is about to expire. I felt like I was getting in a rut here in Antigua. Life has gotten too comfortable and I feel I could go nowhere fast. I do plan to return to Antigua next year, after India. I may still start a buisness here. Now is not the time for me. I realize a lot can happen when you are thousands of miles away and in a foreign land. I am keeping my options, my heart and soul open to change. I have made arrangements to go to Houston in early July. I am considering a visit to see clients and friends in ABQ for just a few days while I am back in the USA. I’ll be off to India in mid August for up to 6-months.

I plan to do some sightseeing mostly in Northern India to start with. I'll help my friend with his hiking lodge plans and I plan to live for 6-weeks in an ashram studying various subjects for self improvement and reflection. I’ll write more about this later. I am still planning on getting TEFL Certified in India too. I've got busy 6-months planned.

My last couple of weeks here I will be touring more of Guatemala. I leave for the Lake Atitlan, considered the most beautiful lake in the world in less than a week. I'm getting excited for the change! I only have my little apartment for five more days. When I return to Antigua, I will need to secure a new interim place to stay. I will miss my next door neighbor Tom and the friends I have made here. It’s time to move on though.

Daily Life in Antigua

The last couple of weeks have been fun. I’m really ready to take another trip though. Several of us had planned to go to Monterrico, a beach resort area with black sand. We ended up canceling the trip for various reasons so I was pretty disappointed.

I’ve had some good meals. I loved the Sunday Brunch at Santa Domingo. It is one of the nicest hotels in town. We had lots of bacon and sausage, yummy! Epicure Restaurant, and Rainbow Café are two of my favorites. We also had a couple of spring rolls and rice at one Phillipino Restaurant and the local Pupusau’s, (stuffed hand made tortillas) at another place.

I’ve had three weeks of cooking classes now and really enjoy it. We made a sautéed tilapia and stuffed chicken breast with spinach and ricotta cheese with a Tamarind Sauce. One class we made a Crème Brule and a Flourless Chocolate Cake. They were excellent. I’ve had some personal fun with the chef too! Woohoo!

Antigua has its own Curry Club. It’s a very selective club with prominent people as members. I can’t believe they let me in. hehe You have to buy a membership form an existing member. The price ranges from 13 cents to $20, a one time fee. You have to contact their call center in India for membership details. Hehe. We had good company and a delicious meal at one of the two Indian Restaurant’s in town. They meet twice a month.

One bad thing about living in a touristy, expat town. You make friends………… then they go home. We are constantly attending “goodbye” parties!

There is a lot going on at the Puppy Palace and they will be moving locations in a few months. I may return after my trip to India to help as a volunteer coordinator and start a spa business around the “dog rescue theme”. The owner is trying to get a reality TV show going about her work. She is truly a passionate and eccentric lady. I adore her! I haven’t made my flight arrangements back to Houston or my trip to India just yet. I truly live life day to day. They say expats are running away from something and you can be anyone you want to be in a foreign country.

One of the cutest things I see in town is a guy walking his three goats door to door selling fresh goat‘s milk. Now that’s some fresh milk! You just don’t see that in the states.

My neighbor and I visited an orphanage just outside of town. They are a young couple we know from church. It was fun to take seven kids out for ice cream.

My neighbor and I hired a car and driver to take us into Guatemala City for the day to do some shopping. We went to a real upscale mall. It reminded me of the Galleria in Houston, or Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. It's a total different class of people there. We even visited the new Walmart, more to my budget. I was hoping to find some typical American stuff but didn't have much luck there.

I had my teeth cleaned by a local dentist. I had never had my teeth sandblasted before. They did an okay job with some old-fashioned pick cleaning too. It was about $45, a little pricey for Antigua, but much cheaper than in the states.

I went to a Guatemalan Birthday party outside of town. They told us to be there at 6:30 Pm. Typical Latin American culture, dinner did not start until 8:45! We thought there were 8-10 people coming but almost 50-pople showed up! What a fun group of people. Trying to comprehend what people were saying in Spanish for 4-hours was exhausting for me.

I enjoy my workouts at Hotel Porta Antigua and my yoga classes. I get a massage once a month as part of my membership. I had a “Middle Eastern Aromasoul” consisting of a foot ritual, a full-body scrub and a massage. The oils used were Oregano and Basil. I smelled like a big pizza! My ulnar nerve in my pinky is acting up again. It makes my finger numb because of the compression in my neck. One reason I stopped giving massages was from the headaches and the inflammation. Not sure what brought this on but it is painful. Speaking of the gym, it’s time for my workout.

What’s it like to live in a third world country?

I chose to move to Antigua Guatemala because I thought it would be a fairly easy transition to living in another country. And yes, by all accounts it is. Much more so than say moving from the USA to India.

We take a lot of things for granite in the USA. Such as clean drinking water. That’s one major thing which makes a third world country third world, is no access to clean drinking water. We have to use “aqua pura”, or purified water for all of our drinking needs here in Antigua. I have caught myself several times washing vegetables with tap water, so no wonder I have had stomach issues. I had severe diarrhea for a month and had to take 3-rounds of antibiotics to clear it up.

You can’t put your used toilet paper in the toilet. So think about it, our used toilet paper probably ends back up in the water supply. I recently visited the City Dump in Guatemala City. There were hundreds of scavengers in the dump recycling whatever they can to make a living. There is a river at the end of the dump. So where does all this contaminated garbage end up?

Hot water is hard to come by here. I am certain very few of the restaurants, even the top rated ones, use hot water to clean dishes. To clean my dishes, I boil water. For my shower, I have a “widow maker”. It’s this apparatus that hooks to the shower head and supplies enough electricity to produce a small amount of hot water. My shower is just barely large enough to turn around in. After a few moments of hot water, you can smell the electrical parts smoking! I guess those who have ended up trying to adjust the head while showering end up widows and widowers.

My apartment is considered very nice by Guatemalan standards. I love the million dollar views from my rooftop terrace. None of the furniture matches. It looks like stuff that could have been purchased in a thrift store. The apartment has to be swept and everything wiped down daily due to the exhaust fumes of the buses, and the volcanic ash. I wonder what my lungs look like now. I have a constant little cough.

I have a camp style Coleman stove and a dormitory sized refrigerator. Hey, at least I have this. Many homes do not. The average Mayan does not have a kitchen or a bathroom. The severely impoverished live on less than a $1 per day.

After being robbed at gunpoint, I am constantly looking over my shoulders for people, cars and motorcycles that come near me.

I hate to go to the bank or even check my account on-line. I am in constant fear that my back account will be wiped out. Everyone I know has had their credit or ATM cards cloned or compromised. Several friends have had this happen twice! Mine was compromised too. But I outsmarted the thieves. Since was expecting it to happen, I had very little money in that account. It took almost a month to get my new card.

The country is corrupt and the drug cartels have infiltrated everyone, including the banks. Some are owned by the drug cartel in Bogota Columbia. Everyone is afraid to shut them down.

When I take public transportation, I am fearful. Mostly form the crazy drivers who are referred to as “suicide tomatoes”. That’s because they drive like a bat out of hell with no regard for human life in these retrofitted school buses from the USA which are painted red. Many people get robbed on the buses and there have been gang shootings. They say not to sit behind the driver as many drivers have been shot and killed.

Regularly I hear of someone getting robbed, or someone who knows of someone who has been affected by crime, robbery, kidnap, murder, extortion or rape. It’s downright scary to read the paper or do a Google search on crime in Guatemala. I’ve read articles about journalist being afraid to write about the drug crime here. They get threatened, extorted or even murdered when they do. Otherwise you would read even more articles on the drug cartel in Guatemala.

The president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom’s, wife is running for president. This is illegal. So she divorced him. They still say this illegal but she is going it anyway. Many fear if she gets to be president, no one will take her seriously and how can she be trusted to uphold the law. If she loses, many of her social programs will be lost and a million poor people may strike on the streets. Several presidential candidates and their families have been threatened with their lives.

It is all over the press that Guatemala may become a “narco state”, when the government serves the interests of drug traffickers rather than those of its citizens. The public may remain protected as long as this protection doesn't interfere with state-fueled drug trafficking. I believe it after witnessing all the corruption here, fueled by the drug crime and cartels. Our government fears that with 100k new gang members from Mexico now in Guatemala, and the cartel being pushed out and north from Columbia there will be a big drug war for routes right in the center of the country.

Men pee on the streets here and it is legal. Yet when a male tourist pees on the street, they are fined about $100. Guess what happens to the fine? You got it………..it is pocketed by the ticketing officer.

I live right across the street from one of the largest churches in Antigua. The church bells are my alarm clock. I’m awake every morning at 6 am! There is always a celebration going on at the church. I still think the celebratory canons that go off are bombs. They scare the hell out of me when they go off. Damn Catholics, any excuse to have a party. hehe

Volcano Fuego is under constant eruption. No one else seems to be worried about it, because it is about 20-miles away. But in the back of my head, I worry! You can hear the volcano belching and rumbling and we get small earthquake trembles on occasions. I have to admit, viewing the eruption in the evenings is my favorite pastime. But it has been so cloudy lately I have not been able to see the lava flow at night.

Tonight I had a few weird bugs with wings lying around my laptop. I went outside for a few minutes to enjoy the evening on my terrace. When I returned, my apartment was infested with these critters. My landlord says they are termites.

The rainy season has started. I love the rain, but the country has some of the worst natural disasters including flooding of any country in the world.

After reading all I have written about Guatemala and living in a third world country, I know you are wondering why I stay here. But…………..I have to admit I absolutely love it. The people whether they are indigenous, Ladino, tourists, or ex-pats; everyone is lovely. The weather is pretty comfortable here and there is a special energy about Antigua that is hard to explain. I hope Guatemala can recover from its many hardships, including the drug crime. I know I will miss it when I leave. I do feel like I will return again and again!

Change in plans

Just like any woman, I can and will change my mind. I wanted to give a quick update on my teaching plans for China. I have backed out of the deal. It just wasn’t feeling right for me. I could not relate to the material. Heck I never remember in school having to remember the structure of a sentence. Of course I remember the biggies……….verbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, and adjectives. But I just don’t recall learning what an article, a determiner and a quantifier means in a sentence.

I was informed that I would be teaching 5-classes each day and the students would range in age from 4-14 years old. Not so bad, but one class might be 4-6 year old, then next 7-8, and then the next 12-14 year olds, and so on; all requiring different material. I didn’t feel doing an on-line course would give me the confidence to do this job well. And I don’t do anything unless I can excel at it.

I love my life here in Antigua! I feel I will return next year and possibly set-up a spa/massage business.

Now I am looking at a 3-week in person training TEFL Class in India, then immediately follows a 3-month internship. I want to do a short internship program so see if I do really like teaching. This way I don’t have to find work on my own and expect to get a one year contract, when I don’t even know if I will like being an English teacher. So this makes perfect sense to me. I feel the in-person training will make a world of difference verses just on–line training. I have planned to go to India anyway, so this might be the class for me. I’m looking at returning to Houston in late July for about 3-weeks. I’ll get my visa all sorted out then take off to India by the last week in August. I plan to stay in India for 6-months. From there, I may go to see an old friend in Brisbane, Australia.

Look out Rachel and Julia

Oops….....Julia Child is dead already! Tom, my best friend and I started cooking class at a new restaurant called Chef Pierre’s Bistro and Bread. We have committed to 4-lessons for the next month.

The cost amounts to approximately $18.50 per class or a total of 600 Q for the month. It's a deal! The restaurant is closed on Mondays’ so we had it all to ourselves, the two of us plus Chef Pierre. I brought a lovely bottle of Malbec for the night. I drank most of it myself being the lush I am, but the chef did have one glass.

Pierre has this new restaurant. Tom and I were one of his first customers. Chef is from Montreal, and was professionally trained in Toronto. He was here on vacation and was discovered by an affluent family while traveling. They loved his cooking and set him up in business in Antigua. I have to admit, he does some pretty creative dishes. When was the last time you had an iguana burger?

The evening lasted over 3-hours. For our first lesson, we learned French Classic Cuisine. We started with learning to make a basic chicken stock. Then a pesto sauce, a virgin tomato sauce, balsamic oil and vinegar dressing, Eggplant Napoleon, and the finale was a vegetable soup. I had so much fun and the dinner was delicious. We even got our own apron’s to take home. Several comments were made about my abilities with a knife. I I complain becuase there are no left-handed knives! hehe I've always been afraid of knives because I got cut a few times when I was a child. I have the scars to prove it. I also was not so artisitc with my garnishing. I'm good with colors and creativity, but once again, if I have to use a knife, I tend to butcher things. For others garnishing techniques, we poured cream and pesto sauce from a plastic like ketchup bottle, but for me the opening was too large and I made a mess.

One of our additional lessons will be traditional Guatemalan Cooking. I’m excited about my new hobby.

My life here is pretty full and rewarding. I am blessed.