The Secret... ¨El Secreto¨

Spent an hour yesterday writing a blog entry and editing photos... then, even though I´d clicked ¨save¨ on the blog site, something hiccupped and it was all gone... God, I love Windows... and it´s even worse trying to play in Spanish!

Pictured below is the exciting ¨calentador de agua¨ in the shower; note carefully the exposed 110v wiring two inches above the water flow.
So, for 5 days I´ve been taking cold showers, although my hostess assured me her home has ¨agua caliente,¨and I´ve asked her to explain its operation at least twice. Finally, night before last, ready to go out and rent a hotel room just to get a hot shower, I asked the eldest son, a med student and English speaker, what the deal was. Pablo took me into the shower and showed me ¨el buton,¨ which I´d already tried to manipulate to no effect. Then he carefully turned on the flow of water to a hair above a trickle, and pointed out that I must hear the ¨shu-shu-shu¨ of the internal mechanism. Apparently, if you turn on the water to a flow approximating that of the newer US water-savers, it´s too much pressure and you get cold-cold-cold. But if you give it about half that flow, it ACTUALLY GETS HOT, or at least very warm... thank you, Jesus!

To the right and below are pictures showing that kids are kids the world over... a little girl writing her name on the sidewalk with water from a small puddle, with her little sister erasing it afterwards. Also, a picture on its side, of a young man who was supposed to be helping his dad and older brother with the public concert of whistle and drum (made from a tortoise shell). But the youngster had better things to do, like climbing this window and later, a table.

The last two photos are a view of Volcano Aqua, the landmark south of Antigua, and the famous Arch en Calle de los Arcos.

Met , Jim, a guy from the Peace Corps today in the park, who´s living about twenty miles out of the next town I´m going to visit, Quetzaltenango, or Xela (shay-la). He´s got another year or so to go, and has been working on greenhouses to help extend the growing seasons.

Last night, I gave in and went to a local hangout for Americans, Kafka, where the two guys at the bar and the bartender, a gal from Chicago, were all about speaking ONLY in English. I had a Coca cola and a decent Philly Cheesesteak with fries, all for about five bucks. Then, since it was after ten p.m., I paid about two bucks for a tuk-tuk ride home to avoid walking the dark streets alone.

Time for lunch.

(Robbie, if you read this, EMAIL me or leave a comment with your email address! I can´t find it anywhere!)