Pictures of Guatemala I Wish I Had Taken

I have a handy point-and-click camera that my parents got me for Xmas a while back, a Fujifilm Finepix XP10, and almost all the photos on my blog are taken by me.
But, gosh darn it, the colours and wonders of Guatemala cannot be adequately captured by my little camera! Every day, every single day STILL after a year, my eyes are feasting on the sights of this awesome country. And the people! The Mayans wear such amazing colourful clothes. But I never feel comfortable taking photos of them because I imagine it to be quite rude to go up to a stranger and ask to take their picture.
Well, today I found a professional photographer -- from Toronto, no less -- who is taking the photos I wish I could take! I am sharing his Flicker page with you, dear readers, so you can get a glimpse of what a wonderful rainbow-hued life I live here in Guatemala. Click the picture below and enjoy!

A Quick Temporary Move

Best thing you can do when moving to a new country? Make good friends!
I am super grateful for NJP, who helped us when we had to move suddenly this past Friday. He got his construction workers to help, found a pickup truck for our stuff, and is letting us stay in his spare room for a week until we can get into our new apartment. THANKS, dude!! You rock. :D

It wouldn't be a moving day without a kitty in a box!

We've got a bit more stuff than last time, but still pretty manageable.

Jiraffa! NJP's dog, and Calvin's kinda big brother.

Hauling boxes down the path to NJP's. That's Flaca in the foreground. :)

I missed getting a picture of the pickup. He drove it right down the dirt road and across the little stream to get it as close as possible to the path. Then the guys unloaded all our stuff into the dust.See Bert working so hard on the left there? Ha!

The construction dudes used wheelbarrows to make quick and easy work of moving our stuff.

The narrow walkway into NJP's place.

NJP's place! We are staying in the middle room. Super nice.

Willow making herself at home. She is such a sweet kitty. She doesn't care where we live as long as we're together.

Calvin sleeping by the bedroom door. Look how fat he's gotten!

Nothing refreshes your thirst like a Coca-Cola light. Light?? Ha ha!

So we're staying here for a week, enjoying getting to spend more time hanging out with NJP, and then we're moving into the fancy new place next Sunday. Such adventures!  :)

Simple Days in Panajachel

Not too much going on right now. Getting over being sick. I had pneumonia! Who woulda thought? But a nice course of antibiotics wiped that right outta me! Yay, science. :)

Just a few pictures from walks around town. It's lovely and warm here, unlike back home where my family is sending me pictures of April snow! I do miss snow, but not in April. It's time for spring!

Here in Guatemala there are always lots of flowers and birds and butterflies and now a few fireflies at dusk. It's still very dry though. The hills are brown. It will be nice when the rains come.

Soccer game! Kicking up dust.

Such a huge field. They must be so fit!

Bert and Calvin walking thru an alley we like to take for a shortcut.

One of my favourite flowers. It's a climbing vine. I want to figure out how to transplant or propagate some so I can have some in my garden!

A kitty stalking a bug on the stairs. 

Oranges! They were too high to reach, plus they were growing in someone's yard and the branches were just overhanging the alleyway, so they probably wouldn't want me stealing them anyway!

Some weird thing painted on the wall in the alley near our house. No clue. 

Lovely flowers blooming under the lemon tree.

Our newest food obsession -- Mexican tortas -- hot meat sandwiches.

We recently discovered that these little carts sell sandwiches for only Q10 and they're sooo good! They fry up meat and onions on a flat grill and then melt cheese on top and put it all in a bun with a slice of ham plus ketchup and mayonnaise. YUMMY.

Mexican torta, all nicely browned and stuffed with goodies.

Bert is back to work this week painting at NJP's house. The masons used white and yellow sand to make cool patterns on the ceilings! Bert is painting the white to make it more white. (I don't get it. Looks fine to me!)

This is my favourite ceiling at NJP's place. I love the swirly tree thingies. 

Another ceiling in a smaller room.

Last but not least, my kitty, Willow. She's sick and frail and skinny and has such bad diarrhea every day but she still cuddles with me and purrs like nothin' doin'! Love her so much. :)

Willow sitting on my mousepad when I'm trying to work.

Hope you're all well and enjoying spring wherever you are. Hasta pronto, amigos.