Last week we stopped in Pastores, a small town just a few miles from Antigua that is known for making cowboy boots by hand.
While cowboy boots aren’t my style I was intrigued by having a pair of boots custom made. So I picked out a style and my new friend Roberto measure me up.
I put down a deposit of and made plans to come back in five days to pick up the results. To put it simply. They’re beautiful. Totally handmade in leather in five days to my exact measurements. And for 350 Quetzales or about $45.
And of course I had to score my traveling companion some new kicks too. Also custom made for $45. I almost like hers more than mine.
Michele has been giving me a hard time for not posting much. I was thinking about it on my walk to the store tonight and realizing that our life here has settled a bit into a routine. In some ways we don’t have a ton to say.
Take today for example. We got up, Maggie had Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast, I had banana bread. She went to school, I worked. I made mac and cheese for lunch. Worked a little more in the afternoon and made a few doctors appointments. Maggie napped. Walked to the store. Made spaghetti carbonara for dinner and watched Pitch Perfect.
In some ways the most remarkable thing about our lives here is how routine it is. The big things that stand out are the little things. Maggie’s new after school routine is to stop at the mango lady at the end of our block on her way home from school where she buys a bag of cut up mangos with salt and lime juice. We discovered a new delicious cookie called Emo Giraffes. Not sure what makes them emo but they are chocolatey and delicious.
But that was part of the plan. To be in one place long enough to have it become routine. It really has and there is beauty in that.
First days of school are better when there’s a (dormant) volcano in the background.
Today was a good day. But that discomfort I talked about? It’s real. Even though I speak Spanish, have been to Antigua three times, and am an obsessive planner there are always tricky things. Yesterday and today it was food and internet.
Our house is great – a big four bedroom house with a wonderful courtyard in the middle. A rooftop view of the city, comfy couches, there’s even a piano.
But. The internet is not great. That threw a wrench into my work plans for the morning. But fortunately I had a backup plan and headed to a coworking space across town that had great internet and spent the morning on video calls. There were lots of “Ummm, is that an avocado tree behind you?!” I still haven’t quite figured out the rhythms of working from here yet. I’m worried I didn’t dial back enough what I’m trying to accomplish while I’m here and only working half days, but at least the internet works?
My co-working spot is a hipster global nomad hostel with fast wi-fi and apparently some broken down VW bugs…
As, for food challenges. Food wouldn’t be that big a deal, except of course the plan is to cook for ourselves and not eat out all the time. Since we are here for three weeks it would get expensive to eat out every day for all our meals. So last night after dinner out for our first night in Antigua I went to the grocery store and found myself tired, wandering around a grocery store that was just foreign enough to be disorienting. Figuring out breakfast shouldn’t be that hard. I’ll spare you the gory details (including the florescent pink “strawberry” yogurt), but tonight we finally had some success. Pasta and tomato sauce, roasted broccoli and chocolate milk for dinner. Bonus was the cookies for desert that taste just like chips ahoy and the setting up on our rooftop.
Challenges included, it was a great first day in our new town. Maggie enjoyed school, we did some daddy-daughter salsa dancing at the free salsa lessons, and grabbed some cotton candy in parque central. But I’ll let Maggie tell those stories when she hopefully blogs soon.
A few bonus photos from this weekend in Lago de Atitlan.
As we are in flight to Guatemala City, I just keep thinking how grateful I am for the chance to travel. This will be my longest trip and my longest time out of the country since 2008. It’s also a special gift to be able to do the trip with Maggie.
Travel is a chance to step outside my normal spaces. Be uncomfortable in different ways. Enjoy the people I am with – and get annoyed by them. It’s just a different space and gives me an opportunity to learn a little from that different space.
Doing that with my kids has always been special and this trip is doubly so. Maggie and I have had a lot of change recently – new apartment, new neighborhood, new rhythms and soon to be new school for her. I am excited for this trip to bond a bit, maybe jump off some stuff into some water, maybe climb some stuff, but also just enjoy being in a place that’s a bit (a lot) outside our normal routine.
We have quite the trip planned. We will be in Antigua, Guatemala for three weeks. Maggie will go to language school and I’ll work remotely in the mornings then I am taking the afternoons off for us to goof around and do stuff. We will travel a bit on the weekend too perhaps. But mainly we will just hang out.
We will be joined by quite the cast of characters. My sister Michele will be with us the whole time and her friend Nicole and Nicole’s son Luca will join for the first week. Our friends Andrea and Matthew will be there the second two weeks with their crew of five kids age 5-19. They’ve promised us they have a pool at the condo complex they’re staying in. Michele and the kids will all be in language school together – the rest of us adults speak Spanish so will be working or enjoying a quiet house in the morning. I am optimistic we will pick up some friends along the way as well.
Many adventures ahead I suspect, but mostly I hope for good time together, a few good card games and a chance to step into a new space and learn something new about ourselves and each other.
Apologies in Advance 