There are 35 officially recognized volcanos in Guatemala, three of which are still active. I’ll write a little bit about the three active volcanos and about my hike up the side of Pacaya. Pacaya This volcano is a bit unique in Guatemala in that it erupts about every five years.[…]
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New Years Eve celebration in Guatemala reminds me of the Independence Day in the USA. It is a family event for picnics outside, BBQs, parades and fireworks. The just substitute hispanic equivalents for everything and you have the basic idea. Traditional black tamales I’m beginning to think there are specific[…]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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I’m celebrating the 2011 Thanksgiving in Guatemala which is a strange dejavu of Thanksgiving 2009 in Belize (the neighboring county). This time it is held in my Spanish School, Munde en Español. There are 22 students here, 14 of which are from a medical volunteer organization. They are going off[…]
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Last year I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. I hadn’t studied any languages since College in 1990 and had forgotten most of my German. So, before learning Spanish I spent the a few months this last summer in Germany brushing up on my German before moving onto a new[…]
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The chocolate here is to die for–amazing mouthwatering stuff! We have hot chocolate a couple times a week with breakfast. The hot chocolate is amazing and has little flecks of the coco beans in it reminding me of flecks found in richer orange juice. It’s not unpleasant, but rather an[…]
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