Thanks to Katie for allowing me to share this space. It’s great to be contributing to Guacamala Life during my visit with Katie, Brandon and Charlie. 

This is my first visit.  Wish I’d made the effort to get here sooner.   It’s gorgeous here! Already thinking about a return.  My adventure began Monday night.  My great friend and “brother” Mikey Newman sacrificed precious sleep to get me to the airport - in two stages.  He picked me up from my townhouse at 11 PM (because we both had much on our respective plates).  We drove to he and Nancy’s home (near the airport) where we planned get a few hours sleep, before my early flight. [Mikey volunteered to get up and drive me to the airport at 3 AM!]  Upon arriving at Mike and Nancy's the retractable handle on my rolling duffle broke.  Mikey declared – we can fix that!  We popped a couple beers, headed to his workbench, scrounged parts and made a new handle!   (amid much noise - really sorry Nancy - hope we didn't wake you!- it was his idea ;-) At midnight we called it a night! 

Woke at 2:45, rubbed the sleep from our eyes and headed to the airport. 

Some notes on early mornings at MSP. First if the 2 hours they want you there ahead of departure puts you there before 3:30 – don’t bother. Airline ticket agents and baggage handlers don’t start unti then.  TSA at that time – good luck!  Once through security, the only choice for food, before 5 AM, is McDonalds at D gates!  My gate was in G concourse. A long walk for a crap breakfast - JEEZ

                                                                 

Handle Repair / Mikey & I (with all my luggage)@MSP 3:15 AM

But, after a rough start - for this non-morning person - the rest of the trip went amazingly and thankfully smooth. While on layover in Atlanta - two interesting things.  Wish I'd got a picture of this one - walking from arrival gate to tram I noted a young man, wearing cowboy boots, shorts, midriff T-shirt and open full length fur coat!  Wow - talk about fashion sense. Then, on the wall at my departure gate, I enjoyed viewing a portrait of Bing Crosby - done in sequins! 

                               Merry Christmas from Bing!

After sailing through Guatamala City immigration and customs, I emerged into daylight to see Brandon’s smiling face and waving hand.  Hustled to the van to join Katie (hugs & kisses) and sleeping Charlie, and off we went!  

  

[K,B & C had arrived in Guatamala City the day prior. Stayed in a hotel ahead of a pre-natal check-up for Katie and a shopping expedition the day of my arrival. We hit the very long and winding road with 3 1/2 hours of nearly constant views of beautiful scenery. 

Along the way we also noted some interesting local road maintenance practices

Orange cones - who needs 'em?  Just paint some rocks white.

About a half hour from the end of the road portion of our trip we drove through Solola. It's the town where Charlie was born.  The market was in full swing, and the town square had a Christmas tree.

In Solola I noticed this interesting dentist office along a narrow street.  Shalom Dental.  The picture taken at close range through the window of our van, while moving.  Not exactly a great image. But had to share it.  Those marks on the smiling front teeth - little gold Stars of David.

We arrived in Pana on the shore of Lake Atitlan, at sunset.  

Loaded my luggage & all the newly acquired provisions into a waiting boat. We headed across the lake, as twilight changed to night.  

Boat ride was kind of chilly. So we wrapped Charlie in my Minnesota ready insulated jacket.  Not sure why the blue interior lights.  But kinda cool

Had a nice dinner that Katie had prepared ahead.  Then we each showered and Charlie got a bath. Katie and Charlie headed to their beds. I unpacked and settled in, while Brandon configured the new Roku box he’d had delivered to my house.  Watched a little news with Brandon via the new / faster-than-the-old Roku, and we called it a night - think around 11

After a much-needed full night of sleep, Katie - kindly ;-} suggested I might want to get up at 8. With my first coffee down, I caught up on a little work outside in the wonderful morning air on the veranda.

My morning desk

Charlie’s sitter, Anna arrived...

....Katie, Brandon and did the short walk down to the dock, ....

....caught a boat, traversed the lake to Pana for breakfast and some shopping. At the dock all three of us crammed into a Tuk-Tuk for a ride to the restaurant. Pana reminds me of Yucatan towns in the 70s.  Breakfast was great - in a restaurant owned by a Minnesota ex-pat. After Katie did some last-minute gift shopping, Brandon went to buy produce & other fresh groceries while I took advantage of the faster network speeds at the restaurant. The better network help me to catch up on some work with big files to send & upload to the cloud.  Katie returned - she and I walked to the dock and caught a boat back while Brandon finished shopping. 

In the boat, Katie and I chatted with a nice couple from NoCal.  They're Peace Corp volunteers, working in a high mountain village.  They talked about how cold it gets up there and were happy to be taking a little time off down at 5 thousand feet on such a nice warm (80 F) day.

Katie and our Peace Corp traveling friends

When we got back to the house I did some more work (in what I’ve dubbed the “pavilion”.....

.....while Katie & Charlie napped.  Brandon returned. Katie got up and we had a nice chat with their landlord / upstairs neighbor, Augie.  Charlie woke during the visit and greeted Augie. 

After, Charlie & I played in his sandbox while Katie prepared dinner and Brandon did some domestic chores.  Tuna (little Charlie v his uncle Charlie) and I had great fun playing with his new toy bulldozer in the sand.  But the big fun was making sandcastles for Tuna to then smash, like Godzilla crushing Tokyo.  As the Sun set and a nice breeze came up – Katie served a really nice pesto / chicken / pasta dish on the veranda - topped off with homemade chocolate chip cookies.  After clean up time [Tuna was very helpful] we watched one of Tuna’s kid shows. Then Toon (yeah the nicknames keep coming) got a bath and went off to bed.  Brandon and Katie retreated to the veranda, while I stayed inside and set about to writing this post.

Please don’t expect a running history like this in each of my entries.   (who'd want to?) But, tonight I kind of needed to remind myself of how I got to this moment.  This place is so amazingly beautiful.  So - in coming installments, I hope to convey more of my experience of this place, Katie, Brandon & Tuna’s (KBT from now on ;-} wonderful adventure here and how it’s all talking to me.  I also plan to be more diligent in capturing images & promise to take time to do some post on them from here out [all of these are straight from the phone / camera].

Thanks for your attention. Hope you find my ramblings at least a bit interesting.  I'll be back with another post soon.

Onward!

Jeff K