On Location in Guatemala

During the various recent elections here in Guatemala 54 people have been killed. On Sunday 4 November 2007 Alvaro Colom Caballeros was elected president of Guatemala in a run-off election. Colom was the leftist candidate who won under the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) party.


All of the banks and the major grocery store (owned by Walmart--who else?) have armed guards. The 1 Quetzal bill is worth about 13 cents. It is plastic and made in Canada.



After decades of revolution, guns are popular. In the town of Fronteras we commonly see Guatemalans packing pistols in their pants. In September a guy was shot 14 times (or 20 times according to another report) at the Texaco gas station.



Last Saturday a French tourist and a Guatemalan lady drowned as a result of two small boats colliding. Combine that with all the guns, and maybe that's why they sell coffins on main street.


The new president, Alavaro Colom has work to do--starting with removing his campaign signs which are plastered everywhere.



Walmart bought the largest grocery store chain in Guatemala, and they have been buying up some of the smaller stores, like this Dispensa Familiar. There are now around 100 Walmart owned stores in Guatemala, though none of them use the name Walmart.

Lora bagging groceries--sacks cost extra. The corn tortillas are twice as thick as the ones in Mexico. Instead of asking for a certain number of tortillas, you ask for a certain number of Quetzales worth. Four tortillas per Quetzal. I once asked for 20 (tortillas) but was given 80!

Lora uses the dinghy to go grocery shopping. She usually finds a good parking spot. When not driving the dinghy around, we usually ride in the little mini-van buses. They are supposed to seat 15, but we have ridden with 25, including one guy up on the roof!

This little girl is 4 years old; her parents have a vacation house on the river.

Parker posing.

Mario is 10 years old. The school break here is from November until the middle of January.

This sweet lady, Natividad, sweeps the street in front of her house. Her Nimbus 2000 broom is made from fronds stuffed inside a can of tomatoes.

This little girl is waiting (with her father) for mom to finish shopping at the Dispensa Familiar.

Parker and Pauli's philosophy is "when all else fails, eat rambutans." We read that there are around 3000 kinds of fruit in rainforests, yet the western world eats only 200 different kinds. We're working to diminishing the discrepancy.

This is the most popular beer in Guatemala. Lora calls it chicken beer.

With all his popularity, maybe this rooster should have run for president too.

Christina Lopez Martinez sells rambutans on main street in Fronteras, Guatemala.

Pauli gives Guatemala the thumbs-up.

Rainforest Flowers

There is a lot of poverty and squalor in Guatemala, but there is also an astonishing abundance of fabulous flowers that seem to sprout everywhere and provide some compensation and cheer.

A few hundred acres of rainforest generally contain: 1,500 species of flowers; 750 species of trees; 125 species of mammals; 400 species of birds; 100 species of reptiles 60 species of amphibians; 150 species of butterflies; and 50,000 species of insects.

These flowers grow at Xalaja, our marina.

Although rainforests cover only 5-7% of the earth, they house over 50% of all the plants and animals. Rainforest plants and trees are rich in food and medicine.

Much of Latin America's tropical rainforests have been cut down in order to graze cattle (read hamburger).
In the past 30 years Central America has lost about 66% of its rainforest due to farmland, firewood, and lumber.

Over 120 prescription drugs come from plants.

Around 25% of pharmaceuticals come from rainforests, yet fewer than 1% of the tropical plants have been tested by scientists.

It is estimated that rainforests contain 3000 types of fruit.

It is believed that 137 plant, animal, and insect species are lost every day due to deforestation.

It is also estimated that 1.5 acres of rainforest are lost every second.

Rainforests are called the earth’s lungs because they produce around 20% of all the oxygen.

These water lilies grow outside our cabana.

If deforestation continues at current rates, 80% of rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed in 40 years.

Deforestation can contribute to erosion, water shortages, and climate changes.

(We’ve gleaned these “facts” off the net, but obviously have not verified them.)

Happy Halloween

The boys didn't get to dress up this year; instead we went over to a friend's boat so that the children could play games together, eat candy, etc. One thing that we did do on Halloween, was to take pictures of a spider.

For the past month we've been sharing our cabana with a large arachnid, espousing the philosophy of live and let live. We figured that if she had grown to this size we may as well let her live a little longer, so we mostly just ignored her. Sometimes we'd see her in the bathroom, sometimes by the front door, and one night she was perched on the nightstand about a foot away from my ear.

Then for a little amusement I emailed a photo of it to a friend who did some research on the web and sent us some alarming news. Apparently this looks like the species called phoneutria which in Greek means "murderess." It is also known as a wandering spider, and we learned that in 2007 these spiders appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most venomous animal in the world! There are around 39 different species of it. And they are known for being shipped on banana boats (despite sounding like an urban legend).

At spiderzrule.com we learned this: "These spiders are extremely fast, extremely venomous, and extremely aggressive and are ranked among the most venomous spiders known to man. In fact, the Brazilian Wandering Spider is the most venomous spider in the New World!"

Sweet dreams and Happy Halloween.