October 2004
11 posts
1 tag
The harvest
On Monday, we took a trip to a coffee farm about an hour’s drive around the lake. It was by far the coolest experience we have had since we have been here. The owner of the farm is a Guatemalan guy named Charlie. He and his family live on the farm, which is a rarity because most rich landowners in Guatemala live in the city, and only visit the farm to make sure that everything is going...
1 tag
Guatemala City
This post is mainly for the padres so they can sleep in peace knowing that our precious heads are now protected by helmets. We took a nice little trip to the city to purchase helmets because apparently no one sees the necessity of them here in Pana. Michael and the family left on Sunday and spent the night with some friends, so they could get up at a decent hour to pick up one of Adele’s...
1 tag
peeps
Mike and Adele bought an acre of land from Wolf about 2 years ago. They spent a year, using their day off to put up a chain link fence around the land. They spent a few days out of town after they had finished the project. When they came back, 3/4 of the fence had been taken and the poles ripped up. As a result, they decided to put up a stone/concrete wall around the property before they...
1 tag
answers
That was just for kicks. It is a bag of Pana Organic green beans, with other origins behind it.
FAQ:
Paint job on van done locally?
Michael and Adelle did the paint job in California when they got the van…They used a rectangle shape to make sure the flags were all the same size, and used paint that was meant for metal garage doors.
Whose butt is that bar stool designed for??? i know...
1 tag
Questions and Roasting
We are soo glad so many people have been checking out the site. We have noticed a lot of questions that we have not answered. We are working on a post to put questioning minds to rest. We would also love to hear from people who haven’t posted yet.
Also in an effort to save some bandwidth we are going to post one picture in the main body. There will be more pictures under...
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Yumbo 150cc
So after about 4 weeks of looking for a moto we decided on an Indian assembled bike with a Honda engine. For some reason motos don’t depreciate here and on top of that maintenance is not in the Guatemalan vocabulary, so we decide to buy new.
(a maintenance side note)
There is a dirt road by a river that feeds lake Atitlan and it has broken down police trucks lining the side of the road....
1 tag
Beads
We got a fun little break from the coffee shop last Saturday afternoon. There is a guy here whom we all refer to as “chocolate Bob” because back in the day he owned a chocolate factory in Pana. He is from Arizona and moved to Pana 28 years ago when all that existed here were fields of onions. For all the youngsters……here is a cool fact. Does anyone remember those plasticy beads that were...
1 tag
a little more of our casita
We realized we left out pictures of the other half of our house. The other door in our casita leads into our bedroom…and bathroom. Wolf’s wife designed and made most of the things that you can see in this picture. She made the beautiful quilt, and all the pictures and paintings on the wall. She is quite creative, so creative that we have a floodlight as the only interior means of...
1 tag
Guatemala Background
We are in the city of Panajachel, it is to the west of Guatemala city.
This is a map of Panjachel a photo from my Rough Guide guide book on Guatemala. (They make good books if you travel.) Crossroads Cafe is given a good review in the book and is at the top right of the map labled “B.” Crossroads is also given a good review of the Lonely Planet’s newest Guatemala guide book.
1 tag
Krazy Fair
OK so this is a picture overload….The top two pictures are of the “town square” they set up 5 ferris wheels in front of the Catholic church pictured. This ferris wheel is the biggest one, and the little one to the left of it was “hand powered.” There are two bell towers at the top of the church that they ring to call people to mass and they are LOUD. The guys stands at the top and pounds on one...
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Look at me go
I have been roasting about 3 times a week so far…This is a picture of coffee from the finca we are staying at, La Finca Vega, It is an organic SHB or Strictly Hard Bean, that means it is grown about 5000 feet up and should be super good coffee. The roaster is a 2 kilo, 5 pounds…a Mexican made roaster that roasts a batch in 15 to 25 minutes. The pana organic is stinkin good coffee. It is a...