A Walk With Calvin

I was restless today, and so was Calvin, so went out for a walk. Just the two of us! This doesn't happen often as Bert prefers to walk Calvin as he can be a bit of a jerk. (Calvin, not Bert. Heh heh.) But I have confidence in our yodeling goofball dog and I wanted to try to walk him ... wait for it ... off leash. GASP!! No!

Well, as you can tell by the fact that I'm writing this, things went well. I'm not in jail for my dog chomping up a smaller dog or nipping at a passerby, and I have all my own fingers to type with. :D

I left the house with a plan: to wear him out with an uphill walk before letting him off the leash on a quiet, low-traffic, dead-end road.

Overlooking Lake Atitlan and the bay where Hotel Atitlan is.

The moment of truth... Calvin off-leash!

So after a STEEP climb in the midday sun up the highway towards Sololá, we turned off on the road to Hotel Atitlan. We walked a bit away from the highway and then I took off Calvin's leash. He didn't bolt -- too hot and tired! -- but started to trot ahead. I watched carefully... and he stopped and looked back to see if I was following! YAY! Success!

Really wish I had a boat!

We walked to the bottom of the hill and the first major building with no problems. I kept a steady pace and he ranged ahead and behind. I was going to walk further, but when we reached the flat area and a long stretch of open road ahead of us, Calvin stopped in the shade of a big tree and looked at me forlornly. He wanted to go home. Ha! I wore him out. :D

So we walked back up the hill, I put his leash back on when we got to the highway, and then we trudged down the highway, across town, met with some friends who admired Calvin and said he was calm (more success!), and then finally got home to collapse in the shade with a cool drink of water. Whew!

Life is continuing on its merry way here in Guatemala. The only big news is it RAINED! It's been months since it has rained. I went out and felt the raindrops of my skin. So lovely.

Semana Santa is approaching and the town is gearing up for the usual madness in a few weeks. Loads more tourists coming in. Hotels filling up. Streets getting crowded.
The police went around and put up posters saying that drinking alcohol on the streets is not allowed. WHAT??? Not sure how they're going to enforce that. There is a new mayor so I guess he's cracking down. We'll see.

We will be here for our second Semana Santa and our one-year Guateversary on April 1st. One year! Time flies when you're having fun. Bert and I still sometimes blurt out, "We're in Guatemala. Guatemala!" It still makes us feel thrilled and amazed.

I had a neat Facebook conversation with some people and we talked about all the "dangerous"
animals we've seen. Everyone had a story about a scorpion in an unfortunate place. (I've found a scorpion under my pillow twice. Twice!) A person across the lake had a coral snake in their garden, and another one saw a viper hanging in a coffee tree. Wow!

I'm always on the lookout for new critters. Today, I saw this little lizard. I often hear them scurrying in the leaves but rarely get pictures.

Fat little lizard.

To follow up on the previous post about making a simple cat shelter, here is lovely Sombra enjoying the cat house. She won't let her brother in! It's adorable.

Kitty in the bucket!

More adventures to come soon, not only Semana Santa, but also a shopping trip to Xela this week and a visa run to Mexico in early April. Stay tuned, amigos!