Our new house has what is commonly called a Suicide Shower. I'm not joking! I suppose the true name is electric shower head... but that doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same, does it? :D
Our shower head
Why is it called a suicide shower? Because of the super-fun combination of live electricity and water!
Here's how it works. The shower head has an electric heating coil in it to warm up the water as it passes through. Being electric, it therefore needs wires to power it... and most of these showers are installed by folks that know very little about trivial things like grounding and fuses. The result: sparks, shocks, and sometimes even death.
(A friend here told us, "There is a hotel in San Pedro that is notorious for killing people with its shower." Hmmm...I wonder if that's on their TripAdvisor page?)
All that aside, if installed correctly, these ingenious showers do provide lovely warm water from a cold water source. Plus, as long as you have power, you can have a warm shower for as long as you like. No running out of hot water and having to rinse off in icy cold!
You just have to remember to NEVER touch the shower head while it's running. Luckily, ours is placed quite high up, so there's no chance of accidentally bumping our heads on it. So far, both of us have had nice showers in it with no problems. (Although I kinda cheated and wore my rubber Crocs in the shower just in case.)
Sorry I've been out of touch but we moved to our new casita (little house) on Monday and it's now Friday and we still have no internet. I'm using a Tigo stick right now to get online... That's for another post!
Our move was stressful, as most moves are, although nowhere near as stressful as moving from Canada to Guatemala almost six months ago! It only took us three tuk-tuk trips (tongue twister!) to move all our stuff from what we're now calling The Lake House to our new house in town (nickname yet to be determined, although I'm leaning towards Palace of Limes.) Big thanks go out to Bryan (tuk-tuk #132) and Victor (tuk-tuk #88) for their gracious help! They even carried stuff into the house for us. Such nice guys. :)
Here's a short video of us in Bryan's tuk-tuk on our last trip, heading into town with Pachi at our feet and Willow meowing in her cage. Good times!
Another crazy part of our move was that the day after our move-in date was Guatemala's Independence Day. Apparently, they party like madmen the night before -- sirens, fireworks, and men shouting through megaphones at midnight. There were also a bunch of people running through the town during the day on the 14th, dressed up in blue & white, sometimes carrying torches, and blowing through whistles and horns as they ran. Minivans decorated in blue & white streamers and painted with slogans accompanied the runners. Viva Guatemala!
The day before Independence Day, people ran thru the town in groups.
I'm really glad Victor warned us not to try to move in on September 15th cuz the main streets in Pana were shut down, and miles of marching bands and school kids were walking all over, with the entire town lined up along the sides of the roads watching in silence.
It was a rather strange procession. I'm used to people cheering and laughing and waving and sometimes catching candy that is thrown into the crowd by the parade participants. This parade was fabulous to look at but no one cheered and very few spectators even smiled at the bands and performers going by. Odd.
Sometimes the parade was just kids from a school.
Adorable girls in costumes swirling their skirts!
I only got to videotape a few parts of the parade and then my battery died. Bummer!
So, back to the house! The Internet was supposed to be hooked up when we arrived on Monday, but the guys never showed, and then Tuesday was a holiday, and they didn't show on Wednesday or Thursday.... so that meant I had a lot of time to unpack, clean, organize, and go shopping for all the little things the place was missing.
Willow having fun exploring the shelves.
We don't have a coffee maker yet but we did find one of these things!
When was the last time you made coffee like this? :D
If you look closely, you can see that the chair used to say "Circus Bar". The dining table and chairs came from a very popular restaurant when they moved locations.
There is a path up the mountain near our house. Bert ventured up there and took this photo of our neighbourhood and the lake and volcano in the distance.
Looking down from the gardens at our casita. Very colourful, isn't it?
The house is what I call a Guatemalan style building, meaning that all the rooms have doors leading to the outside. There are no connecting doors between rooms, so no inner hallways. Guatemaltecos spend a lot of time outdoors, and with this lovely weather, you can't really blame them!
So when you come out of the bedroom door, you're on the porch. Then you go in through another door to the living room... or the bathroom or the kitchen. All separate doors from the porch!
I suppose you could enclose the porch area (the red floor in the picture with the table and chairs) but then it wouldn't feel nearly as airy and spacious. It's all covered over with tin roofing anyway, so it's dry. We really like sitting at the table outside!
Bert stretching for jocotes in the garden. Yummy!
Bert being smarter (plus more fashionable) and using a ladder to pick jocotes.
We're happy to have plenty of gardening space at the new house, and already have a jocote tree, two papaya trees, and a lime tree. There's also basil and rosemary. (Pasta sauce will be AWESOME!) We are going to plant some veggies too, when we get a chance. Red peppers and tomatoes for sure, plus maybe pumpkins if we can get seeds!
We didn't have our kitchen stocked yet, so on Wednesday we took a walk down Santander to the waterfront and ate at the barbecue I wrote about in a previous post. It was freaking delicious! And cheap too.
Each of our plates cost Q15 or about $2.60 Canadian.
I got BBQ chicken and Bert got BBQ chorizo sausage.
On the way back from lunch, it started POURING rain. We hid in a closed storefront and watched the street turn into a river! We were getting dripped on, so Bert & I raced across the road to a more sheltered spot. Pachi refused to follow us!
Pachi hiding from the rain!
The rain eventually eased a bit so we trudged uphill through the river/street back to our house, completely soaking ourselves in the process. We saw some gringos walking barefoot. BAD IDEA. Don't do it! It's much better to get your shoes wet, trust me. There is a lot of garbage in the water, plus dog poop, broken glass, potholes, and sometimes even a parasite called a hookworm that can get into your skin. Keep your shoes on, people!
So more about our little house: the weirdest thing is all the SOUNDS. We're in town but right at the very end of a small street, so we figured it must be quieter than other parts of town, but still, there are so many interesting noises to listen to: neighbours talking, babies crying, kids hitting a ball against our gate, someone playing trumpet on their roof, hammering from construction (Guatemaltecos are early risers), something that sounds like a triangle dinner bell being rung every morning at 6:30, 6:45, and 7:00 am, dogs barking, birds and cats running across our tin roof, roosters (oh the freaking roosters! 2am is not dawn, you feathery idiots!), some chatty turkeys next door (!!), plus the neighbours own some budgies and a parrot that speaks Spanish. As it turns out, the most soothing sound is rain on the roof. It blocks out the other noise!
I'll leave you with this lovely picture I took of the limes on the tree right outside our bedroom window. Totally going to make lots of lime-aid and pies with these babies! Loving the new place! :D
Did you know that limes turn yellow?
Apparently that means they're TOO ripe. Still taste good to me!
Lake Atitlán is the second-most visited attraction in Guatemala, after Tikal. The lake is renowned for its beauty, and if you’ve been following my blog, you know that I'm entranced by this lovely place as well.
Unfortunately, the lake is not as perfect as it seems in glossy photos. This year we are experiencing another bloom of cyanobacteria
that is reportedly covering 70% of the lake’s surface. The last bloom of this
size was in 2009 and made news headlines even outside of Guatemala.
Cyanobacteria occurs naturally in the lake but creates a problem when it becomes overgrown due to high nutrient levels in the
lake, most notably phosphorus and nitrogen. Nitrogen and phosphorus come from untreated sewage being dumped into the lake, from pesticides and fertilizers, and from washing chemicals found in soaps. The algae flourishes by eating the chemicals; it’s doing its job to clean the lake. However, this process starves the other plants and animals of the oxygen they need, which creates more decaying matter in the lake.
Here's a picture I took of the algae at the lakeshore right in
Panajachel.
Cyanobacteria in Lake Atitlán.
It not only looks bad, but is stinky and goopy. I’ve seen some people swimming in it, but most people are avoiding it. Last week, I met some friendly tourists who were biking
along our road searching for a clean place to swim. It must be shocking to people
who arrive at Lake Atitlán expecting the most beautiful lake in the world and
instead finding a smelly green mess.
AMSCLAE is the authority in charge of the lake.
They are coordinating with various government departments within Guatemala, as well as organizations in other countries. They have received advice from scientists who have worked to clean up Lake Tahoe in the United States and Lake Como in Italy.
This is a contentious issue in Guatemala, with both locals
and expats. Just recently, the government finally released a $10 million grant that
had been sitting in red-tape limbo for almost seven years. The grant had been
matched by Spain, but bureaucracy had kept it from being earmarked for
projects. I'm not too familiar with what's going on, but there's a very informative article about this at Sherm Davis' blog. Check it out!
There are mixed reactions to the announced plans to “save”
the lake. It is a hot topic on Facebook and in cafës around town. I've heard everything from cautious optimism to flat out scorn. "It will never happen," said one long-term resident. Another common sentiment is that the money will never get to what it's supposed to and instead end up in a politician's or gang leader's pocket.
Me, I’m optimistic and excited, but those feelings are
dampened by the opinions of the wiser expat residents around the lake. They
have been here longer than me and know “how things work”. But still, I hope
that this grant is a sign of change. Guatemala is a spirited country whose
people who are no longer afraid to protest their corrupt government. I
sincerely hope the power of the people’s voices can resound loud enough to
overcome the negativity and restore Lake Atitlán to its former glory.
