Update: Friday, January 27.  Two earthquakes and counting.

Three weeks in Antigua under our belt.  Great location, good house. And it was a perfect arrangement with the LandRover made available.  Brilliant, actually – made everything work out just right.  Nothing to complain about.  Landlord provided what he said he would and more.  It is all good.

VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner on the internet) has worked out well for us.  We’ve done it a couple of times now and, with a little ‘background checking’ one can achieve a reasonable ‘rental’ almost anywhere in the world.  (One small hint: whatever the rent quoted on the ad, it is likely flexible – especially as the rental period date looms.  A lot of people seem to have purchased rental condos and cabins in a fit of vacation-induced thrall and found out later that the unit is a bit of a burden over the long haul.  There is an element of damage control in their property management.  They would prefer 75% of the desired rent to no rent at all.  This hint is based on nothing factual whatsoever – just a hunch and two experiences that worked out that way.)     

Antigua holds a lot of interest, little challenge, no discomfort or danger and plenty of nice restaurants.  And the people are generally great, very friendly.  Very, very busy.  It was an easy cultural experience.  Recommended, even.  Some of the outlying towns are a bit more gritty and earthy but they were also safe enough – especially when viewed from the comfort of a Land Rover. Gregorio’s house in Jardines de Antigua at 25-2 was a good hit.  See it in pictures on VRBO/Guatemal/Antigua.

It was all very nice but it is also enough.  We move on to El Salvadore  in a week.  I am looking forward to the change.

Sal’s parents will return to the Great White North just before the end of the month.  They did good.  Their intrepid trekking days may be over but their intrepid days are not.  They were good company.  We’ll head west to the beaches and then bounce south over the border to San Salvadore by way of the ubiquitous chicken bus.  It’s been a while since we ‘roughed it’ but the itinerary leaves us no choice.  We have to ‘backpack’ it for a bit.  I may miss a martini or two.  Damn!

The loss (temporary, I hope) of the internet adds to the urge to ‘get on with it’.  It’s embarrassing to admit this but the ‘net’ is now an integral part of travel.  Maybe it shouldn’t be, but it is.  Certainly for me. There is the expedited learning curve about an area, of course, that the net provides, but that isn’t really it.

For me, it is the quicker connection to home and family.  I have always liked to travel and the only drawback  was that I was restricted in sharing my experiences – at the time – with my friends, family and yes, ‘work connections’.  I usually have a great time and one that invariably generates stories and anecdotes and, naturally, they are shared hot-off-the-press with the travelers-we-meet-while-doing-it but that isn’t quite as neat as sharing it with those who are still at home.  The internet bridges that gap somewhat……….when it is working!

And that reminds me of yet another regularly encountered travel quirk: foreign culture peoples simply do things so differently than you’d expect you are always wondering, “What are they thinking?!” 

Yesterday the housekeeper, Anna, showed up as per her weekly routine.  She was going to ‘clean and tidy’, maybe do some laundry and generally be a housekeeper.  Usually that means a four hour Anna presence.  As soon as she walked in, we mentioned that the internet was down.  She pulled out her blackberry, walked outside (no reception inside the house) and made a call to Gregorio (landlord) and got instructions. Seems she was directed to town.  I offered to drive her.  She declined but headed off immediately to – presumably – fix the problem.  That was at 9:30 am.

Anna, of course, didn’t get to her usual household tasks that day.  She was in town.   But Anna never returned.  Anna didn’t call either.  Anna didn’t leave a note.  Anna didn’t return the next day either.  And the net is still not working.   The housekeeping duties are not essential – we are neat and tidy and capable.  And we can get by without the net simply by going into town.  But now I am left with the mystery of the missing housekeeper.

The plot thickens, the game is afoot and I did hear the dog barking in the night!

“Geez, Sal, think Anna is OK?  I mean…..no contact, gone all day, no duties performed, no news!?  Nada.  Doesn’t that seem weird?”

“Of course it does!  Except, don’t you remember that everything seems weird in other countries?  Weird is the norm.  Had she made a call and a repairman showed up while she carried on with the household duties and things were all completed as expected, wouldn’t you be stunned?  Shocked?  I mean, really!?  Could it possibly have gone as we think it should? “ 

“No.  You’re right.  It has to be mystifying.  Hell, now that you mention it, maybe Anna and her family have moved to another town, Greg has sold the house and the new government has cancelled the net!” 

“Now you‘re getting it………..”