My Webcam is Live on EarthCam!

My New Year's resolution was to get a live webcam up and running from my roof so you all could see how wonderful it is here. Well, I've kinda succeeded. Yay me! 😄 The webcam is live but it's not on the roof. There is a possibility that my roof is going to be replaced in the near future -- while it's dry season -- so I didn't want to get the cam up there and then have to take it right down again.

The webcam points towards Lake Atitlan (duh, of course) and the sunset. You can see San Pedro volcano and possibly the town of San Pedro as well if you squint. (The other two volcanoes, Atitlan and Toliman, are too far off to the left to fit in one shot.) I'm technically in Jucanya, because I'm on the other side of the river, but I've still labeled the webcam as Panajachel, Guatemala, so people can find it.

Here's the first picture I took from the webcam. When I first put it up, I hung it by a ribbon from a metal wire meant to hold flower baskets from the roof eaves. (The black bar across the top.) But it was swinging in the wind and making everyone dizzy. Ha!

I guess I didn't save the original picture, just this one that I'm using for my offline pic on EarthCam.

So then I nailed the webcam to some boards and tried again. I've got a rather blatant religious thing going on here. I wonder what the neighbours think I'm up to. Warding off more airgun bullets??

Yes, there is duct tape involved. It's just temporary.
I was excited to put it up and I wasn't gonna let nothin' get in my way! 

Are you fidgeting waiting for the link to my live webcam of Lake Atitlan??? Ha ha! Okay, okay. Here it is. You're welcome. 😁

https://www.myearthcam.com/spiralcee

The first sunset with my live webcam in Panajachel!

EarthCam is full of other awesome cams for you to check out as well, but my cam is the first and currently the ONLY webcam of Panajachel and Lake Atitlan. Woot! 💪

You see, one of the reasons I got the idea to have a live webcam of Lake Atitlan is because I couldn't find one. I mean, why don't the hotels on the lake have them? A while back I even looked into obtaining high-quality webcams with remote access and such, figuring I could buy them and resell them to the fancy hotels. I couldn't afford them though so the idea kinda fell aside. (You can steal that idea, if you like. I'm cool with it 😁) I think a live webcam at La Palapa showing the crazy street out front would be freaking AWESOME. (Bruce??? Get 'er done.)

Well, I actually did find one camera that's on the other side of Lake Atitlan, set up on the terrace of a little place called Casas De Rocio. But it appears to be broken at the time of this writing. It is located in San Antonio Palopó, so it has a nice view of all three volcanoes plus the little failed volcano called Cerro de Oro.  I daresay it's a nicer view than mine.
http://casasderocio.com/about-us/live-cam/

Still shot view of Lake Atitlan from San Antonio Palopó

My cam is pretty much only going to be live during daylight hours, unless there's some sort of big fireworks thing happening. (Xmas and New Year's Eve, for example.) The best time to tune it would be for the sunsets, which is around 6:00 - 7:00 pm Guatemala time, which would be 7:00 - 8:00 pm Eastern Time. (Not accounting for Daylight Saving and all that garbage.) Check out TimeandDate.com's tables of sunrises and sunsets here. We are very close to the equator, so the sun rises and sets at almost the same time every day, all year.

TECHNICAL STUFF

If the cam isn't live, it's either cuz I've forgotten to turn it on, it's too early in the morning and I'm not awake yet, or perhaps there is a windstorm or rainstorm preventing it from functioning.
If there is no sound, it's probably because I muted it. The broadcasting software plays the webcam audio into my headset so I can't have it on when I'm working. Plus, you'd just hear the dorky dogs barking at stuff.
If the camera is choppy, the image is blurry or the video is laggy, it's probably my fault. The camera can take HD video but my Internet connection can't handle streaming the large file sizes. My upload speed is, like, 1 Mb/s. Yeah, ONE. Weep for me.

I want to move the cam closer to the road, have it up higher so it can look over the power lines and past that dumb streetlight. But if I put it out that far, people walking past might notice it and decide to bring a ladder and steal it. It's just a junky little camera meant for Skyping, so it's not worth much in money, but it's worth a lot in "life value" for me. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Be sure to bookmark the webcam link so you can watch it all the time! When the rainy season comes, I'm hoping to devise some sort of waterproof cover to put over the cam so it can still function. That'll be interesting! Ooh, and I just thought of something else. What is there's an earthquake?? OMG that was would be cool. Unfortunately, the cam doesn't record all the time. It just streams. Wouldn't it be crazy if someone was watching when it happened though, right?

One more thing...if one of the volcanoes ever blows its top, I'll be sure to point the cam right at it! Could that happen? Yep, actually it could, but it's not likely to be the volcano that the webcam is currently pointed at. That one's been dead a long time. The one most likely to erupt is Atitlan volcano and it's the furthest away from me. Its last eruption was 1853...so why not another? (Volcán Atitlán Wikipedia article) Don't worry, we're well outside the risk zone.

Enjoy the cam!

Our Garden in Panajachel

After several months of living in our new house, I finally got to meet our landlord! We had rented the house through Francesca at Mayan Lake Realty while the landlord was in Florida. He just arrived back in Guatemala for a month and came over to the house to meet me and check out how the property was doing.

It was fascinating to hear him talking about the plants in the garden. He knew them all, and also recognized that some had gone missing while he'd been away. I was sad to learn there used to be a six-foot rosemary bush in the garden that must have died sometime in the last year. Bummer! Luckily, I just recently got some rosemary starts from a friend here, and once they're hardy enough, I'll plant them in the spot where the old bush used to me, as now I know it will flourish there.

The landlord also explained the mysterious "alien tree". You may remember it from our Xmas party...

Our bizarre Guatemalan Xmas tree!

Well, the landlord told me it's frangipani and then casually said, "I planted this tree. I grew up around them in The Congo." Wow! There are stories to be told there, I'll bet!

The frangipani is also called plumeria and I found a neat article about them at Maya Ethnobotany. I'm now very much looking forward to when the tree blooms and produces aphrodisiac flowers! 😍

Another mystery tree in our garden was revealed to be a loquat. I noticed a gorgeous blue-grey tanager feeding off the small fruits the other day. Now I know they're tasty for humans as well! The common name is nispero. Read more here.

Just as I was finishing up this post, the blue-grey tanager showed up! So cute!
Much more blue in real life. The camera doesn't capture it.

I asked about our poor chopped up lime tree. The landlord was dismayed to see it had been hacked down, and then pointed out that there used to be another huge lime tree by the gate. All that is left is a stump. :( The chopped up one has some shoots coming off it so I will research how to prune a citrus tree and see if I can get it to grow up nice and strong.

Everything in the yard is super dry right now. When they talk about the "dry season" in Guatemala, they're not kidding! We haven't had a drop of rain in months. Bert spends hours in the yard watering everything to try to keep it alive. I'm more of the mindset that if a plant can't survive the dry season, it's not meant to be. Honestly tough to keep a nice green grass lawn in a place that turns to dust for months at a time. The plants that are doing the best in our garden are the native ones, of course.

I went out and did a video for you all. I think I should do another one in a few months when the rains come. Someone remind me, okay? 😁

If anyone knows the names of some of the plants in the video that I didn't know, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks and have a sunny day!

It's 2018?!?!

Time flies when you're having fun, and it's soooo true here in Panajachel! It's hard to believe another year has passed. Every day is summer. 😎

I decided late last night that I wanted to go out for New Year's Eve. There could have been rum involved -- I admit nothing! Bert came as my guide to the dark streets of Pana. We both agreed it's still kinda surreal to be out on New Year's Eve in shorts and tank tops. But it's much better than slogging through the snow and ice!

Santander. Pretty empty, actually. We found lots of folks later on, though.

The last stretch before the waterfront.

Here's everybody! The boardwalk was packed with people waiting for the fireworks to start.

Yay!!

Boom!

From somewhere behind us, maybe the big hotel, someone was releasing Japanese lanterns with live flames and everything. They were so magical! The two weird smears at the top of this picture are lanterns, plus various other fireworks going off on our side of the lake and the other!

What's so cool about fireworks in Guatemala is that there are no rules. Ha ha! It's not some organized, measured, safe display of fireworks in one place. It's all around you at all times! Balls of flames shoot past your face. Smoke and sparks dance at your feet. People shoot from the rooftops, from their balconies, from everywhere. It's joyous and mad and beautiful. It makes me laugh out loud every time. 😁

A short video will give you a much better idea of the lights and sounds of NYE 2017 in Panajachel, Guatemala!

You may have noticed that my blogging is getting a bit sparse. I am not finding as much time or motivation to do it as often as I used to. So, to keep you all happy and full of Guatemalan goodness, here are some Instagram accounts of my friends here!

The lovely Jen, who posts great pictures of the quirkiness of a life in Panajachel.
https://www.instagram.com/jenga_7/

Amazing Iva, my Canadian friend who is always there for me. Inspirational quotes and advice plus select pictures from her life.
https://www.instagram.com/amazingmemovement/

Dave, my imgur buddy, shares photos and humour from around Lake Atitlan and other places.
https://www.instagram.com/guatemaladave/

Have an awesome 2018, dear readers. Be excellent to each other!🎇💜🎉