Another Lovely Daaay

(This post is most properly read with Bill Withers in the background)

It started with our cat Belle screaming to be allowed to go up to the rooftop terrace. After prying my eyes open, I slide out of bed and opened the door - letting her, but not Osa, out to play up top. Osa cannot be trusted to stay within the terrace and immediately looks for a way to get beyond the walls.

I started our coffee machine after filling it with the amazing local coffee our friend Tim roasts himself, exactly to Ken's liking. As the coffee was brewing I did the dishes from the night before and opened up our large windows overlooking the lake. The air was chilly, perfect for yoga, so I changed and went upstairs with my mat.

The temperature stayed cool, the bugs stayed away, and I was in just the right mood so I went through just about every posture I know several times and added a bonus, finishing by massaging my face using some of the Thai Massage moves I learned over the weekend class. Belle was right at my side the whole time, somehow staying out of the way but slinking in between my legs and stretching along next to me. Afterwards, I sat with my legs crossed, soaking in the sun, and tried something new. One by one, I visualized the people that I love and miss back home, and sent them each my love and wishes for a good day. Felt good to connect, even if it was only on my end.

When the sun got too hot, I retreated to the lounge under the cabina and sat in the shade for a bit with Belle who crawled onto my chest and was purring loudly. I eventually tore myself from the perfect view and loving kitty and went downstairs to get ready for work.

I poured a cup for my sleeping hubby and left it next to the bed, and poured one for me with a little coconut oil mixed in. Grabbed my laptop, glasses, flash drive of Brazilian music and headed back upstairs. I love working from the roof.

The music was exactly as I remembered from the week before at Paco Real, a local restaurant owned by a Swiss man and his Guatemalan wife. Their two teen boys serve as hosts, waiters and sometimes even bartenders. ;-) When I asked him about the lovely song that was playing, he was so excited that I asked, explaining in great detail about the artist and offering to set me up with more of his music if we brought him a flash drive.

The sounds of rolling Portuguese and soft guitar as my background, I dove into an exciting assignment for a client who is building a wonderful parent engagement program for her county. I have been tasked with developing the evaluation plan, and those that know me know how much I love data and measurement - ensuring that those precious dollars are going towards the activities that help kids and families the most.

Ken came up and brought Osa along, trying to give her a chance under his supervision to understand what her boundaries needed to be. At some point, she escaped through the laundry room and Ken found her at our landlord's gate, very easily in the path of the three large German Shepards who live here. Last time for Osa.

Lost in my work, I nearly missed the fact that it was nearing time for me to start walking to town to catch my first group Spanish class. I quickly pulled together and devoured some oatmeal with chocolate, coconut and nuts and changed into a sundress because it was going to be a brisk, hot 15 minute walk to make it on time.

Climbing the long driveway to the gate at the road is usually enough to make me gasp for several minutes, but strangely today I practically ran up the path and my breathing was barely affected. As I walked down the "unnamed road" as Google calls it, I came upon a "pack" of about 50 small yellow butterflies who were on the ground and when I startled them, they spiraled upward around me, feeling quite magical. I ran into two such packs and dozens of others in other colors in ones and twos - by far more butterflies in one walk than I had ever seen. It left me with this feeling that something special was happening.

I came into Hostel Del Lago where the class was being held and ran into our friend and Tim the coffee guy's wife Osnat, who had just taught a yoga class. Tim came in shortly after to pick her up and offered to meet me after class to give me our next order of coffee and some new jam they made from a fruit, jocote, which San Marcos is famous for.

View from our "classroom"

There were four of us students and our teacher Andrew in what has to be the most beautiful Spanish class setting in the world. The time  passed incredibly quickly as we talked about the lake towns, culture, challenges...all in Spanish of course. Great, fun and safe environment for learning a new language.

After class, I walked with Andrew up to the Konojel Nutrition Center, a non profit that provides a healthy lunch for at-risk kids and elderly, along with an academically enriched after school program, nutrition education and two organic community gardens. I knew immediately I wanted to be a part of it. MUCH more on this to come. Check out their Facebook page if you're curious. Here are a couple of my favorite drawings the kiddos were working on today.

On my walk back home, it began to pour.  An older Mayan woman came onto the street from a path below and immediately cozied up to me as I was holding an umbrella. We walked closely together for our short journey on the same road, and talked about the rain and shared our names.

As we separated and I came down the hill, my phone rang and it was Ken calling to let me know he was walking to town and brought my raincoat. As I hung up the phone, there he was and then his phone rang again - the guy working on our quad needed to see us and we just happened to be around the corner.

While Ken talked quad parts in Spanish, I had a blast playing with their puppy and toddler and watching them chase one another. When we were ready to go, we both realized we were hungry and tried a new spot, La Paz.

Flowers on the table

The ambiance at the restaurant is enough reason to go. Surrounded with lush trees, bushes and lots of flowers, the cozy one room place was enchanting. We both ordered the veggie burrito and couldn't have been happier. Ken even commented it was the best vegetarian food he had ever had and wasn't missing the meat!

View of the gardens at La Paz

We slogged back to the town center in the rain and decided to splurge on a tuk-tuk ride back home. After a little more work and Facebook time connecting with friends and family, the day is coming to an end. Ken is starting a fire, mostly for the aesthetics, and I am signing off to go make chicken curry. I can only hope to have another lovely day when I wake tomorrow.

Ken on the path outside La Paz

Learning Thai Massage in Guatemala from a South African and a Mexican

In my previous post I made the bold claim that I am a not a hippie, however I realize my actions may continue to indicate otherwise until maybe at some point I will have to concede the inevitable.

The past few days, as a gift to Ken, I decided to take a Thai Massage class in the nearest town, San Marcos. You see Ken loves massages but 9 times of of 10 he is not satisfied with the level of pressure. The best massage he ever received was at  a spa we traveled to in New Mexico, Ten Thousand Waves. I HIGHLY recommend it if you're looking for a bit a heaven closer to the US than my beautiful lake. We have been trying since then (2001!) to re-create the experience and thought perhaps I just needed to do it myself - like cutting his hair. :-)

The timing of things coming together made me wonder if the universe really wanted me to attend. We were supposed to go to San Cristobal last week for Ken to see a doc to check out a mole on his back, but Guatemala's version of the DMV gave us a hard time and said if we left we couldn't bring our vehicles back - yes, I know we seem to have DMV issues everywhere. We are still investigating the issue to figure out how we are supposed to cross the border here.

So instead we made last minute plans to hit Antigua and it was amazing. By pure coincidence, we ended up staying at a small lovely hotel, Sor Juana, owned by a guy that has stayed at our place on the lake and knows our landlord. His mother is American from Palo Alto and he lived in SF for some time, so lots in common. We plan to have many more visits there (and I'll put together a separate post about the visit.)

After a great doctor visit and not enough time to enjoy but a promise to return soon, we left Antigua with plenty of time to make it home and relax a bit before the class the next day. Best laid plans. Halfway down the mountain to the lake, we blew a tire and had to rely on the kindness of our landlord to find the lugnut key in our apartment and drive it to us 30 minutes away in the dark in a storm - on one of the most challenging roads we've driven. Good times.

Arriving back about 10 p.m., I was delighted to discover that the class didn't start until 3 the next day.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but my teachers Zendrick (from South Africa) and Carla (From Mexico) immediately made me feel welcome. There were 4 students, so lots of personal attention.

Two of the students were a young couple from Blackpool in the UK and the third was a local therapist also from the UK. The couple had been through massage classes before, the young man even studying sports massage for a year. Not intimidating at all to be the only person not trying to be a professional therapist!

I soon discovered a challenge bigger than my self-confidence...my knees. After nearly 30 years of soccer and four knee surgeries, they were not happy with the positions required when working on a client on a floor mat. That left me feeling strained and somewhat awkward until I found alternate positions to work from.

I was extremely lucky in getting my partner, the local therapist. She was fantastic at providing feedback about what I was doing and how I was doing it.

At the end of the first two days of instruction however, I was a little puzzled about how I was feeling afterward. I would go into class each day feeling quite centered and positive, enjoy the class, but find that immediately afterward and into the evening, I was fatigued, negative, and not in a good place.

After talking to my teachers about it prior to the start of the last day, I got some great advice about how to clear away energy after working with a client. Today I suffered from none of those symptoms, instead finding I have more energy than when the day started and feel extremely positive. I think I may have to look into more of this kinda thing.

When Ken came to get me, our quad wouldn't start, so we went to a local place for a late lunch, playing with their dogs and having a great time. When we returned to the quad, it still wouldn't start and we had to leave it and walk back home in the light rain, actually kinda fun.

Favorite moment of the day - sitting cross-legged, the only American in the room, hearing the local Guatemalan pastor over the loudspeaker in the distance while we talk about Indian, Chinese and Thai energy work and yoga traditions. What a wonderful world.

I made my own sugar scrub and I'm not a hippie

I'm not paranoid or anything, but the closest town to where Ken and I live is San Marcos, known as the hippy town on the lake. So, perhaps I have been a little inspired by the people and culture here, but I assure you it is completely for practical purposes that I decided to create my own sugar scrub. I mean really, even if I wanted to spend $30-$50 on each jar of sugar scrub and hoard a bunch of them into my luggage, why would I when I can get the ingredients here fresher and much cheaper?

The idea came about one day when I was supposed to be writing and instead I was sucked into an internet hole that led me to a recipe for an amazing face mask. There were just two ingredients - tumeric and sandalwood powder. I just happened to bring tumeric so that I could make one of our favorite dishes, pho. According to this face mask article, not only is it great in pho broth, but it is a fantastic anti-inflammatory and excellent source of iron, manganese, B6, and potassium. I of course can't find the mask link but here's a link all about tumeric. I doubt you get many of the benefits by rubbing it on your skin.

I figured the other ingredient would be not problem, San Marcos practically reeks of sandlewood incense...but no such luck after visiting several places.

So I continued to take my baths without the amazing mask, settling instead for using my washcloth to mix together some coconut oil and sugar on the spot and use it to smooth and moisturize my skin. Then I saw my cousin Carie's post about using a food processor to finely ground sugar into a good scrub....hmmmm. My food processor is the only kitchen appliance I argued to bring with us, and I have been so glad I did!

So, the ingredients I used were raw sugar, tumeric, some cinnamon for scent, and coconut oil.

I started with the dry ingredients and actually thought the cinnamon stick would become a powder..no. That took taking the shards out and putting them in the blender then re-introducing to the dry ingredients in the processor.

Just fyi, that tumeric is some strong stuff. a little goes a long way.

After getting the dried ingredients mixed, I added the coconut oil...er paste. See, here at the lake, the temperature at which the oil turns to a paste is pretty much the temperature here in the middle of the day, So, depending on the day or time of day, I can tell the temp by looking at my coconut oil.

Don't freak out if it doesn't immediately look like a scrub. Just let the processor work it's magic and soon enough it will start to look like the expensive products on the store shelves in the states.

I knew there was a reason I saved all those jelly and sauce jars here. They come in really handy as containers for homemade stuff. To really make the process enjoyable, get your husband to agree to do the dishes. Tumeric with coconut oil is a messy business, you don't want any part of cleaning that up. I will say that watching Ken struggle to get the orange out of the processor bowl made me wonder what the concoction would do to my skin.

I got the chance to test it out this afternoon with a rainy-day bath. Having the ingredients pre-mixed was super helpful. I just grabbed a little bit and put it on the washcloth. I scrubbed the legs and feet, and no, I don't look like the poster child for tanning lotion gone wrong. I will say that I will likely stick to the same washcloth when using this mixture as it will probably not escape a stain or two. Let me know if you try it!

What I learned from my cats about living in Guatemala

Osa is the grey kitty in the back, Belle is the 15 yr old tortie 

We are coming up on our 90 day mark here in Guatemala, and we are starting to feel a little more at home. It is funny that while we were considering this move, one of our greatest concerns was the comfort, safety and happiness of our cats Belle and Osa.

Now, to be fair, Belle was not great on the trip down so we had reason to worry. We actually got her kitty xanax because of her attitude towards travel. And sometime, right about the day or two before we arrived, I got the dosage and timing just perfect. Oh well, I'll remember for the return trip.

On the eve of our milestone, I thought it would be fun to reflect on what I've learned from our cats about how to truly enjoy our time here in Guatemala.





Your People Make it Your Home
As worried as we were about the cats, they settled in almost the same day we arrived. They enjoyed exploring the place and finding all the cool, high spots where they could view their new kingdom and also the dark hiding spots where they could disappear when they wanted.

But soon enough, they were as relaxed as they had been at home. Belle sleeping and purring on Ken's chest every chance she got and Osa cuddling at my feet as I slept. As long as we were around, their world was as it should be.



Enjoy the View
It is amazing to me how little our cats can do during the course of the day. Our flat has one entire side that is all windows looking out onto our beautiful lake. Just in front of the windows, Ken created a sort of cat ladder/tree/lounge out of our plastic moving boxes that carried our stuff here.

The cats spend so much time on that thing, especially Belle. She loves to hang out on the top rung of the tree, surveying the lake and volcanoes, watching the boats go by throughout the day. Osa is more likely to be a little bit of a daredevil, jumping directly onto the narrow 6 inch window sill that serves as the base for the sliding windows. Luckily, Ken  also had an idea for that space - a series of bungee cords that act as a "kitty safety line" just in case one of them loses their balance or overestimates a jump onto the sill.

Notice the bungee safety line?

No wonder she's happy...that's catnip on the blanket

Bugs are Afraid of Us
When we were here at the lake last summer and I posted about the bugs we were running into, I felt really bad afterwards because all anyone seemed to remember about our amazing trip was how many spiders we saw. Now, don't get me wrong, you will run into more bugs here, period. But they were no where near the amount we saw in Costa Rica and quite honestly are on the whole less toxic then those we ran into in Tucson. We have come to a certain peace with them this trip, but that's another post.

This time around we brought our secret weapon...Osa. So the odd thing about this is that is truly was a secret, especially to us! Osa is such a scaredy cat when it comes to going outside or running into a dog (even the least intimidating one on the planet, Jack who is Ken's parent's dog.) So her behavior here was completely unexpected.

Instead of running away from the ants, moths, spiders, lizards or even scorpions, Osa is a boss. She prances around this place just wishing some sad bug would show it's face. Night time is her favorite time, she is on high alert, studying the walls, floors and ceiling for any movement at all. She loves to hang out near the bug zapper, hoping to grab one before it hurls itself into the blue light.

One night she was in bed with me while I was reading and she kept staring over my head. This went on for about a half an hour before it occurred to me that I ought to pay attention. Sure enough, there was a scorpion on the light fixture over my head. It was nearly impossible to see and it took me a while to spot it because it wasn't very large and it was dark on a dark fixture. I was soooo grateful for her that night!

Osa has a protocol. If it is a smaller bug like a fly, mosquito, or moth, she is generally pretty silent as she stalks and then eats the unlucky creature. Anything larger than that, and she is more excited about the potential for play, chirping and jumping and swatting the poor thing around. That usually alerts us to the situation and allows us to remove it if it might harm her.

The only problem with her method is the eating at night. She prefers to bring the bug close to me while she eats and one night that involved a poor spider that wasn't quite dead. Needless to say, it was still a shock when I woke up to the chirping and then chewing sounds of Osa near my head while she enjoyed the thing.

Scary hunter pose

A Smile/Purr Crosses Language Barriers
As part of the rental of our place, we have a couple women who come in twice a week to clean. They are always plenty nice, even when we don't really understand each other, but it was the cats who really bridged the language gap for us. Once they saw our cats and interacted with them a little bit, we were okay in their book.

The same concept goes when I am out on the road between our place and town. I'm not great at Spanish yet, and sometimes the people I run into don't even speak Spanish. The one thing that we all do here in Guatemala is say hello or some version of it. We also smile and nod when we say it.

Maybe I'm overly sentimental and naive, but I feel really comfortable in place where that is important to people...as long as my cats are here too.

Belle enjoys hanging out on the louges upstairs as well.

What a ham

Scratching is also a favorite activity

But mostly, just napping

Maybe playing a little 

And then more napping