A Lovely Day in Guatemala

Bert carving his walking stick on the porch.

Today was lovely. We're finding that our apartment stays nice and cool in the shade, which is great when the sun is beaming down at 25°. It is a peaceful refuge.

Last night, Bert found a long piece of cane just the perfect height for a walking stick. He decided to spruce it up a bit with a bit of whittling and some Sharpie markers. I guess he got a few funny looks when he walked to town with it though!

This morning I had to work, so Bert walked to town to find a place to get a photocopy of his passport. He met some friendly gringos at Crossroad Cafe and found out more about working and volunteering in the area.

When he came home, we had a nice lunch of egg salad sandwiches and then walked down to the park. I finally got a chance to go for a swim! The water was cool and clear: quite refreshing! I didn't stay in long as I was freaking myself out imagining what sort of creatures were eyeing up my toes. :)

Not sure what to name this handsome fellow!

I had to work more in the afternoon, and Bert went to his second English/Spanish class in town, taught by our landlady, P. Technically, she is teaching the kids English, but she is teaching Bert Spanish at the same time. He helps her by providing examples of Canadian things and correcting the students' pronunciation. He made friends with a fellow there who drives a tuk-tuk. He got a ride home with him and they traded English and Spanish words as they drove.

I walked through our beautiful gardens in between work and took some more pictures. Oh, and our friend, the four-inch centipede that startled us the first night, reappeared behind the garbage can in the kitchen. He was a bit worse for wear so Bert scooped him up and tossed him outside. (I put a picture at the bottom of this page if you'd like to see. But if you don't like buggies, don't scroll too far down!)

Now we are relaxing and learning more Spanish before we head to bed.

Eeks, thorns!

I've been told there no lemons here, only limes, so I'm unsure what these are.

To appease all royal personages, we have red roses...

...and white ones!

An abundance of colour in the gardens.

Pretty sure he's upside down. He was moving a bit but
didn't run when we picked him up.