"I'm Alive And So Are You!"

I must be working on my seventh or eighth life by now. I've survived so many accidents and close calls that I'm losing count.  :)

Today's experience: sparks and screaming in the shower! YAY!

I've blogged before about suicide showers here in Guatemala. It's the most common type of hot water shower that I've found here. The first nice apartment that we moved into had a shower with water heated by an external water heater, just like home, but since then all my apartments have had electric shower heads.

After enjoying a nice 10 minutes of semi-warm spray in my shower today, I turned off the tap and was treated to an explosion of sparks and smoke. I shrieked an Oscar®-worthy series of shrieks and lept out of the bathroom amid a cascade of orange flamey bits and the smell of burning plastic.

After evaluating myself for scorch marks, I congratulated myself for surviving another attack of the evil shower demons. Took a few pictures, posted a Facebook update, and texted my landlord, "Mi ducha explotó!" (My shower exploded.)

The offending apparatus.

The wires from the wall that were taped together rather inexpertly and are now burnt and melted.

The melted wires near the shower head. There was a lot of smoke too!

Surprise, surprise, my landlord shows up at, like, 8pm with a new showerhead for me. He installed it -- without turning off the power, I might add -- in about a half hour. Then charged me Q200. Yeah, I'm renting. Nope, doesn't matter. Here in Guate, you break it, you buy it. But Q200 is actually a good deal, so I'm not complaining.

I live to shower another day!

When talking to my sister about this unfortunate event, she asked, "Why do you live there again?
Because...
It's November 5th and it was 21°C here today.
There are roses blooming in my garden and lemons tumbling from the trees.
My rent is $178.63 Canadian.
I have tons of awesome friends here.
Life is never boring.
I've escaped the rat race.

Why wouldn't I live here?  :D

The most gorgeous morning glories I've ever seen, as big as my hand.

For those that don't recognize the quote from the title of this blog, here it is! One of my favorite Christmas movies. :)

Halloween 2016

My favourite holiday! And I wake up SICK. Bummer. After weeks of preparation, the big day comes and I spend most of it in my bedroom or my bathroom. The only candy I ate was Pepto Bismol. :(

This year's Halloween party was a benefit for AYUDA Para la Salud de Perros y Gatos. I offered to help and was put in charge of coordinating food for the free buffet. I did okay, but not everything came out as I had hoped. There was a ton of great food though and nobody would have noticed what was lacking!

Two days before Halloween, a bunch of us go-getters went to La Palapa to decorate!

Marion concentrating as she fixes light bulbs.

Bert on the ladder with John steadying it. The Palapa's floor is sand! 

Brahva donated a big tent in case it rained. H. was our D.J. and Selaine coordinated everything!

Everyone gathered up decorations from years past.

Cassidy from Gringos Locos dropped by and even he got roped into putting up decorations!
(He pretty much takes any excuse to stand on a bar!)

In spite of my sickness on Halloween day, I still had to run around and do errands, including buying 15 avocados to make a huge bowl of yummy guacamole. Several things I had hoped to do at the last minute got canceled due to my sour tummy, which made me kinda bummed, but it was still an awesome party!

Bert's last minute costume was so amazing! He hadn't had a chance to get to the barber for a few weeks and he decided to take advantage of his massive beard to be a werewolf!

He did his own makeup!

Bert's costume was so convincing that our dog, Calvin, growled and tried to bite him!
When Bert started talking, Calvin seemed confused. I had to hold his chain so Bert could walk outside!
(Check out the awesome fake nails!)

As we were walking down the alley to the street, some locals noticed us. One woman pointed to Bert and told her young child to look. He did...and then started to WAIL!! HA HA!

The modern day werewolf waits for a tuk-tuk.

As we did last year, my little sister and I coordinated costumes. We decided to be unicorns this year! My, oh, my, what a challenge that was. I spent a lot of time scrounging through pacas (second-hand shops) and brainstorming crafting ideas. It didn't come together as well as I would have liked, but that's okay. I still had fun!

I was not feeling well at all but tried to be happy for the party. My mane is a purple duster, my horn is attached to a headband with a TON of hot glue, and my hooves are made from cut-up pop bottles. :D

I kinda carved a punkin this year! My intention was to have him barfing up guacamole but there was no room on the food tables for it. He's still cool. :)

The party was awesome! So many great folks there, with rockin' music, good food, and lots of amazing costumes. I wish I was feeling better so I could have stayed to enjoy it.

The Halloween party getting started at La Palapa bar on Santander in Panajachel, Guatemala!

Anonymous attended our party!

Can't see them well but that's B as Maleficent and Selaine as Poison Ivy. We had a fancy bar set up at the back with specialty drinks in support of AYUDA.

A rare couples photo of us! :D

Anonymous and his lovely lady.

An unwanted guest!

Some kiddies enjoying candy, face painting, and dancing! (Plus H. and Bruce on the right!)

By far the best photo of the night! Bert dancing with his favourite lady, Vaquita!
Vaquita was so hyper and ran around in her little tutu dancing with everyone!

It was a great party for a great cause. Perhaps next year we'll do it again!

Mexican Day of the Dead Party

I was invited by my lovely friend, N., to attend a Mexican style Day of the Dead party this past Saturday. It was very cool!
Día de Los Muertos is held on November 1 every year and celebrates the lives of those who have died. It is not a somber holiday. Rather, they people gather together to drink, eat, laugh, and tell stories about the deceased. In some cases, they stay up all night in the cemetery.

Marigolds are the flower of the dead. I love marigolds!

My sweet, kind, generous, smart friend, N! She even got her face painted for the party. She represents Catrina, the fancy female skeleton of the Day of the Dead.

N. made some jalapeño poppers and some tasty Mexican soup.

N. told us about the Mexican tradition of building an altar. The glass on the left is salt water to represent tears.
You put a picture of the deceased on the altar and sometimes also an object they really loved.

This is traditional Mexican art made of tissue paper. It's called papel picado.

N made mini sugar skulls for us to decorate!

This is my sugar skull. I wanted him to be smiling. :D

Several friends stopped by for food and drinks and chatting in N's beautiful garden.

A very shy kitty that comes in N's house and is best friends with her black cat

My buddy, Australian Ian, and the black cat!

N bought an amazing cake! It is called a pan tres leches -- three milk cake. YUM.

Here you can see the neat way they cut cakes in Guatemala. They make a circle in the center and then cut slices around the outside. We ate a LOT of cake but it was soooooo delicious!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged much lately but time just seems to be passing so quickly! I'm still loving it here in Guatemal, although fall makes me very homesick. It's neat to feel the change in the air here though. It's the end of October but it feels kinda like the first week of September in an "Indian summer" in Canada. The river road where I walk Calvin is lined with orange and yellow flowers. There is a nice brisk wind that keeps the heat at bay...most days anyway! The rain hasn't pretty much stopped and some of the trees on the hills are even turning colour, just like home! 

I've been spending a lot of time preparing for Hallowe'en...which is tomorrow! I can't wait to make my next blog post about the amazing party we're gonna have. Talk to you soon.  :)