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June-August 2004
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| We loved Antigua so much we rented an apartment
for 3 months. Our plan was that Betsey would teach online from an
internet cafe, Luc would go to language school a few hours a day, and
George would get Soul Catcher hauled, scraped and painted.
Our apartment is on a main street into
town, and this is a common photo taken of Antigua. Our apartment
is on the right, just past where the cars are parked.
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This is our very comfortable
kitchen, which doubles as our living room. We have a propane stove, a
microwave, a fridge, a water cooler, and cold running water for washing.
It looks like a tipico (traditional) Guatemalan lunch: refritos,
queso, quesadillas. |
| This is the living room,
pressed into service as Luc's room. His bed is in the right of the
photo |
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Looking down into the
courtyard from the terrazzo. This garden is landlady Senora Thelma's pride
and joy. |
| Looking toward Senora
Thelma's courtyard garden from the street gate. The door you see on the far left is our living room (actually
Luc's room). The downstairs window is Senora Thelma's living room. The
upstairs window is where Kate from Canada lives. Our bedroom is upstairs
at the far left, outside the photo. |
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This apartment is typically
Guatemalan , with some part of the living space outside, in this case
the stairway. This
photo shows the entrance door at the left, the window to the Bakery (!)
next door, the back room (and the toilet) of the bakery, all open to the
outside. What luck to live next door to the bakery! In the mornings George would go just out the door to the
bakery and buy our fresh bread (and fresh eggs) for the day. |
| From this vantage point you
can see our laundry area and the door into the kitchen. The bit at the
bottom right is the back room of the bakery which vents to the outside
stairwell.
Our bedroom is up the stairs and to the
right. The terrazzo is up the stairs and to the left |
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Here is the terrazzo looking
toward our neighbor Kate's room. Our bedroom is to the left. |
| (oops, I can't find that
bedroom photo anywhere...) |
Put a bedroom photo here |
| This is our shower head, a
very common arrangement in Central America. The water gets heated
as it comes out of the pipe. We never heard of anyone getting
electrocuted, but most Gringos worry about it. We got over it ;-) |
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This is a photo taken from
our bed. I only had to move over a bit to see Volcan Agua in the
morning light. |
| Looking north toward the
surrounding hills from the terrazzo |
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Looking south toward Volcan
Agua from the terrazzo |
| The orange groves from the
terrazzo |
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Looking west over the
rooftops from the terrazzo
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Looking south toward the
ruins of Iglesia Conception with Fuego and Acatenango in the background |
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The view from the terrazzo was
especially spectacular during the afternoon rainstorms |
| Our landlady, Senora Thelma, watering
flowers on the upstairs terrazzo. We came to value her friendship and
her support as much as her lovely gardens. |
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Lucas, with Sarita and Alec,
the beautiful grandchildren of Senora Thelma. Sarita adored Lucas,
and plopped herself in his space whenever he opened his door. |
| Lucas learned to simply
listen to 5 year old Sarita as she chattered in Spanish at him in her play.
She didn't really need any response from him, just his attention.
Eventually he even came to understand her. |
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I don't think I've ever seen
a more beautiful child than Sarita. I had to keep from staring at
her, and I tried hard not to take countless pictures of her. But she is a
natural, and loves posing for the camera. Note especially her
eyelashes. |
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