December2011

Guatemalan Christmas Navidad Traditions

With the exception of blowing massive amounts of money shopping, I believe the Guatemalans put far more effort into celebrating Christmas than those of us in the USA or Europe. I’ll try to describe what I’ve seen here in Guatemala. Multi-day celebration First, it seems that Christmas itself is spread[…]

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Coffee Farm Tour

I went with a friend here to tour the local Filadelfia Coffee Farm just north of Antigua. I learned about 100 times more about coffee than I ever knew before. It started with a drive out to the nursery where we saw baby coffee plants just after planting. We were[…]

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Corrupt Police-Rat Costumes

One of the more entertaining and interesting things we saw were kids dressed as police wearing rat masks and tails. The kids would approach you and in very rapid and stern tones scolding you that you had done something wrong or illegal. They then demanded you pay them a bribe[…]

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December 7th, Day of the Devil

In the USA we have burning man, a crazy party which takes place every year in the middle of the Nevada Black Rock Desert where thousands of people watch a large wooden figure burn. On a smaller scale, and maybe with a few less drugs, the Guatemalans celebrate burning a[…]

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USA Call Forwarding to Guatemala

A few people have ask how I forward calls from my normal business number in the USA to a foreign country. Basically this is a three step process. Step One: Google Voice (one time fee of $20) The first step is to sell your telephone number to Google Voice. When[…]

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Rabbit Stew, Fireworks and Christmas

Last night I had rabbit stew for dinner; it was rather interesting as I tried to figure out which parts of the rabbit I was eating. After the meal I had a pile of bones on the corner of my bowl and decided although it was tasty, it was a[…]

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How Many Guatemalans Can You Get in a Microbus?

The official answer from my friends here in Guatemala is they can fit about 30 Guatemalans in a microbus. During my two trips I saw a maximum of 27, so I can believe they actually can get 30 in there given that as an American I should count for two[…]

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