Five Years in Guatemala!

Yes, today is our 5th Guateversary! On April 1st, 2015, Bert and I packed up our lives and got on a plane from Toronto to Guatemala. How crazy is that? 😊

I think this is the most interesting, adventurous, life-changing thing I have ever done. Not saying I won't do something MORE life-changing in the future, but so far, this tops the list.

The beautiful Lake Atitlan

I'm struggling to figure out what to say about living for five years in Guatemala as an expatriate, expat, foreigner, immigrant, or extranjera. It's hard because everything right now is about COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic. Guatemala has taken drastic measures to flatten the curve, which is awesome. So far, there have been only 38 cases in the whole country, I believe. There are zero cases in Panajachel, the town where I live. I am grateful for that, although I worry that if I do get sick, the healthcare system here is not nearly as good as in Canada. But no sense fretting over something I can't control.

So back to the topic of five years as a Canadian expat in Guatemala....it's great! I've written about the pros and cons before but I will sum up.
Biggest downsides -- culture differences, which includes language problems, morality, safety, and racism.
Biggest bright sides -- lovely climate and low cost of living, plus I'm meeting a wide array of fascinating people from all over the world.

What I would say to anyone thinking about leaving Canada to move to Guatemala? Go for it! Honestly, the scariest part was leaving. Now that I'm out of my home country, I feel so free. Like I can go anywhere and do anything. It's not as hard as I thought it would be to live in a foreign country. Daily life becomes fairly routine after a while, even though I still stop and stare at Guatemalan things that would never happen at home. For instance, a family of five riding on one motorcycle, people banging pots in the middle of the night to wake up the moon, a barefoot five-year-old running to the store to buy eggs, and soooooooo many stray dogs everywhere. Life is certainly different here but it is also most definitely GOOD.

Take care of yourselves, dear readers, and keep your eyes looking forward to a better time when you can follow those dreams you've been putting on the back burner. 😀