Over the Hills and Through the Woods

I had the wonderful opportunity to go with a group of (mostly) Guatemalans on a mountain biking trip from Tecpan to Panahachel, which is on Lake Atitlan. I had met Andrew (an Aussie) on our Hash House running group. The Hashers are known as drinkers with a running problem.

Anyway, he invited me to go with the Pathfinders, which is what this group of bikers called themselves. On our trip they were considering renaming as the Fukawee Tribe, as in "Where the f.... are we?" We had to stop many times to consult a GPS locator in order to find our way. Luckily, we passed through several remote villages where the locals were very willing to point us in the right direction. The couple pictured above told us they had been walking the same trails since they were children. Our total distance was only about 30 miles, but the terrain was extremely difficult to manage and involved very technical downhills. Having lived in Chicago for many years recently, I don't have a lot of experience mountain biking. If it seems from the pictures that the trails might have been easy, remember that the rest of the time I was holding on for dear life and not thinking about taking out my camera. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on my rear end and even more carrying my bike through difficult parts.

We arrived in Panahachel late in the afternoon. Lake Atitlan is one of the top 5 most beautiful sights I have ever laid eyes on. Pictures of that will follow when I can bring beautiful sights numbers one and two with me. We were happy to have a hot shower and some dinner before returning to the city in a large van.

After reading this entry you should all be convinced that I need a new mountain bike with full suspension and disk brakes. Really, Mom and Ms. Judy, it's much safer! Feel free to send donations or respond to Diana supporting this very worthwhile cause. New bike for Michael!

Mi casa su casa

Finally we are settled into our home. We started off in a perfectly nice house across the street from this one. Then we saw the chance to get a larger yard and moved on it. Actually we convinced our new group of suckers (uh ... we mean friends) to help us move. It is great what friends will do for a little pizza and beer.

We are living in Zone 15 of Guatemala City which is very residential and considered very safe. We are off of Boulevard San Lazaro in a gated community of about 15 houses. It has 24 hour security. Unfortunately, some of the borders of the community include barbed wire, the ubiquitous Guatemalan security measure.

So our new pad must be 3 time the size of our Chicago appartment! We have three bedrooms and three baths. There are upstairs and downstairs living rooms. There is also maid's quarters which we don't use because our nanny is not live-in. The house is set on a hill, so we enter into the upstairs. We go downstairs to get to the bedrooms and the yard. We also have our own moat around the house to help with drainage. It works great, but we have to feed the trolls as we cross from the carport.

Our new backyard is the main attraction. The community gardener has been maintaining it for years, so there are already many plants and a couple of small trees. It has a swingset for Shalom also. The back gate opens onto an even larger community park, with more room to play and more swingsets. With such awesome weather year round, we are lucky to have so much outside space. To do: get patio furniture, a hammock, badmiton set, and more Gallo (Guatemalan beer!) We love our new home ... and are getting quite used to this.