Sal’s parents, R & P, are 84 and 88 respectively and respectfully, and we should all be so lucky.  They are still going like trains and simply rise to every occasion presented.  More than that, they ‘rise’ a glass to every occasion as well!

Abuelo and Abuela

We will not suggest climbing a volcano but just about anything short of that is fair game just so long as there is a suitable libation at the end.

And there always is.

I can barely keep up.

Today we ‘bobble-headed’ into town again and stocked up on cash and supplies.  Afterwards, we toured the streets a bit mostly by car but now and then by shanks mare.  And we wrapped up this first ‘tour de Antigua’ with a quick visit to a nearby village/town just as the schools were letting out. We saw all the kids in their bright, clean and colourful school uniforms all with the usual e-music headsets, backpacks and Popsicles.  It was about 80 F/30C and the streets were crowded.

R & P were delighted to see ‘real life’ and, even tho this is not a classic tourist stop, it has a kind of gritty, scruffy, in-your-face appeal.  Chickens, dogs and groups of kids dodged diesel buses, cars and mopeds on narrow one-laned, cobbled roads and we squeezed amongst the whole colourful shebang with eyes and smiles darting in every direction.  You are allowed to drive just about ‘anyway and anywhere that works‘ just so long as you don’t hit anyone.  Tour de Chaos y Mayhem would be more like it.

It was good.

The old Land Rover (early 90’s) is a big, heavy, standard-shift diesel that seems to have been designed by Neanderthals and engineered by graduates of the Tinkertoy Institute of the Stone Age.  The car is a beast.  It rattles.  It clanks.  It spews clouds of planet-killing fumes and it does all this on a wheelbase not much longer than a skateboard.  It is like riding a one-humped mechanical camel.

I love it.

But what a pig!  The reasons for loving it, of course, start with the same thing Sal says to me on occasion, “Well, of course I love you, sweetie.  I am here aren’t I?”  Proximity, I guess, is 90% of the ‘love’ factor.  But it also has character (another trait me and the car share according to Sal).  Hmmm……….it is also reliable, ugly, stinky and, despite appearances, gets us where we want to go.  OMYGAWD!!  I just realized:

I AM THE CAR!!

Let us not dwell on that.  Suffice to say, I will not be posting anymore pics of the car. Or me.  I don’t trust you guys that much.

Anyway, back to Guatemala……………many people are still interested in real estate.  Well, more to the point: they are interested in real estate prices.  So, this is for you guys.  Nicely renovated full-city-block high-wall-homes (centre courtyard) near the centre of Antigua are offered for sale at around $US 2M.  But smaller, garden-terrace homes seem to be in the $US200-500K range.  And a nice lot in a ‘planned subdivision’, without amenities and with gringo-based ‘fees’ can be as low as $US20K.

Put more simply: one could buy a place down here for a reasonable sum if you ‘worked at it’ a bit.  And this is one of the most expensive places in Latin America.

Go to El Salvador, Honduras or Nicaragua, find your own little corner of paradise and I imagine it can be very, very doable.  Cheap, even.  I have no interest in such things anymore but looky-loo habits die hard and I can see ‘ opportunity’ here if one could look past the violence, the corruption and the curse of Mariachi music (which is enough to deter me all by itself.  I pay the Mariachi bands to leave!).

And, except for Mariachi, it is all too easy to ignore the rest because gringos enjoy a ‘hands-off’ policy for the most part – by government and bad-guys alike.  We are too good for the economy to mess with very much.  Of course, you have no rights, no legal protection and you are, for the most part, at the mercy of the prevailing mood, but the mood is currently good and, if your exposure (and profile) is low, one could live here very well.

Mind you, gringos can only live the ‘good life’ down here so long as they can be somewhat inured to the occasional in-your-face violations of man and beast that spring up now and then.  A bit too often for my liking.

It also helps to be a bit deaf.  If you aren’t, you soon will be.  If Canadians live life at 2 or 3 on the volume meter, Guatemalans and most Latin American cultures live it at 8.  Weekends: 10/15.  Major celebrations combined with fireworks, un-muffled cars, loudspeakers and Mariachi…..well, death is the only answer, really

(I am convinced that the principal reason the occasional volcano sweeps over a village and kills everyone where they sit is because they simply couldn’t hear the thing blow over the usual din!)

Oops……….over 840 words.  About 90 too many.  Sorry.  More tomorrow.