Dear reader
I know, it’s been a while.
And I understand that to write a
blog kind of implies writing more regular updates. I will try to be better at
this de hoy en adelante (going
forward).
The thing is, it’s not that nothing worth writing about has
happened. Quite the opposite, actually.
So, today I’ll try and give you a few ideas about my life here in the last few weeks..
Mi casa
My house – well the house I call my home for now – is a
typical house in Antigua Guatemala. From the outside, you can see a wall and a
door, more or less ugly, and that's it. But as soon as you step through the door, it’s like
entering a new world.
In my case it’s a beautiful old colonial house with the
typical interior garden with looooots of plants. Around this garden, there’s like a
passway with arcades in U-shape, which kind of serves as the living room. There’s
usually no real living room inside, because the climate allows for people to
sit outside most of the time during the year. And around that, you’ll find a
number of rooms which serve as bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens or like in our
case, the kitchen is outside as well.. so there’s really only bedrooms and
bathrooms around the whole thing.
My host family is fairly small and consists of my host mom
Elsa – a really nice older lady, that has quickly turned into my substitute
mother – who is cooking, cleaning, ironing my shirts and generally taking care of
me in a very cute way and her security chick (see last post). Elsa is really
the cutest lady ever, who loves to talk, so I always have someone to practice
my Spanish with during breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as at any other
time.
Elsa 
Our 'living room' and eating space
My bedroom 
Recent weekends
Two weeks ago, we had a long weekend – Friday was a day off –
so Nancy and I decided to take advantage of this and travel a little bit.
On Friday, on our way to Lago Atitlan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_de_Atitlán)
we passed by the town of Sumpango with its famous Kite Festival (there will be
a specific post about this soon), a really amazing celebration of the art of
kite making and kite flying.
We then drove all the way to Panajachel
and from there, we had to take a little boat – a lanchita – which brought us to
our hotel for the weekend in about 15mins.
We were lucky, because we pretty much just arrived to the
boat place, when one of the boats was leaving (sometimes you have to wait up to
30mins until the boat is full and the captain is ready to leave), but the
problem was that we didn’t really have a place to sit anymore. So we sat in the
front of the boat… and only after a few minutes, we realized that the boat had
a little leakage in the front, so I arrived at our hotel with a bit of a wet
backside.
no comments, pls :)
The hotel was absolutely beautiful (http://islaverdeatitlan.com/),
an eco-lodge situated directly at the lake, but integrated into the mountains
surrounding it, with stunning views, great food and a really cute private
bungalow, or rather ‘hut’, with an ‘open air’ shower and toilet we called our
home for the 2 nights.
view from the room
bathroom and right next to it...
... the shower
our little bungalow integrated into the forest
a chill out area
our room 
the view from the restaurant
We explored the area and a few of the villages around the
lake and simply enjoyed each other’s company, the great healthy food and the
beauty and silence of the nature at the lake.
For the weekend one week ago, Nancy’s family decided – like on Thursday –
that we were going to spend the weekend at the beach. Of course I didn’t mind
at all. The entire family went… Nancy’s parents, brother and sister and the
sister’s boyfriend. And I. :)
There’s only little I can say about this weekend .. it was
nearly perfect. A bungalow directly at the (black) beach, with a Swimming pool
and direct access to the beach.
The weather was nice most of the time – we did have a quick
shower period – and we just chilled in the hammock, around or in the pool, went
for a little walk along the beach or otherwise ate, drank and played games. It
was so much fun! I really felt part of the family, which was excellent.
The beach or rather the sand has a very specific color..
almost black. I don’t think I have ever seen a beach like this, but looking at
the amount of volcanoes in this country, it’s not entirely surprising that the
beach would be black because of the volcanic soil. Very interesting.
Oh and another thing that is interesting is that here you
can rent a house and it comes with a person that does all the cooking, cleaning
and everything… so it felt much more like a 5-star experience than it probably
would have otherwise.
view from the house
please do notice the pool, the beach right behind it as well as the hammocks. thank you!
'black' sand 
Also, I have started my volunteering work. That's another post coming up soon. Stay tuned!!
Much love
Great blog! Amazing to see you step outside the comfort zone ( not that EVER had one) but by embarking on this journey, you are motivating and inspiring many others. It is their comfort zone you are expanding. If not breaking the mold, you are at least pushing the limits of said mold.
ReplyDeleteHeartwarming as it is to read your blog, I do miss one main item.
Your motivation. What drove you to break from the comfortable and secure lashes of the corporate life, and fly away?
What were your own feeling in the decision making? What pushed for it, what could have pulled you back?
Hope to hear about the tiny begining. The spark that started the fire, the tiny seed that grew.. :)
In any way, all the best! And great job Patrick. You swiss dancemonster you ;)
Dear Mr. Prime
ReplyDelete... how lovely to hear from you and even lovelier to know that you have been reading my blog. Appreciate it.
And thank you for your input. I shall publish a bit more details on why I have ended up in Guatemala in one of my next posts.
To satisfy your curiosity, here's a summary:
As with all adventures, also this one is a product of a longer thinking process, a number of influencing factors and a (quick) decision at the end. In my case, it would probably have been a combination of the following:
"old" dreams, a need for change, a wish to give back, an urge to expand my horizon, an affinity to Latin America and - of course - a girl. But more about that at a later point in time.
Keep reading and feel free to let me know about your adventures, too.