Jocote - The Namesake Fruit

Coffee Process

Fact: A cup of medium roast and cup of dark roast have the same amount of caffiene.

Nice ripe coffe. See some leaf rust.

What is Growing

Easy-sticking succulent ground cover with a pretty little flower.

Ive learned a lot about plants here in Guatemala, a lot about propagation.  Luckily, it has to be one of the easiest places on the planet to garden and make new plants.  What is most amazing to me is that for many species, you can simply cut a piece of aomething and stick it in the ground and wait.  Just when start to feel like a real asshole because of the stick thats been sticking out of the ground in your garden for month doing nothing, surely dead, it pops, and a little pointy green tip comes out of it and soon you will have a leaf and now you have a new plant.  This has happened in the net two photos, and its happening all over the place around my house.  I put in as many as possible while we had good rain and in the future I can propagate or move these plants as I see fit.

Bouganvillea starting up.  This will climb up into the fence.  It has spikes and a brightly colored brack(?) around a small white flower.  Also some nice plastic fertilizer in there.

Jocotelcast 001

Apologies to anyone who has been looking for an update lately.

This time around, I'm making available a recording I made that will bring any listener up to speed with my goings on here in Guatemala.  I set forth with a couple topics listed in my mind and no notes and came away with a 37-minute unedited monologue.  It's ambitious, but I'm happy with it and you might like it.  If not, I apologize but I can do nothing else for you at this time, unless you visit.

I do not have fancy hosting but the talk is available from my google drive.  Click the link here to go to the shared file.  It may or may not let you listen straight away, but you can download the file with a button at the top of the page and listen where and when you please.

Jocotelcast 001

This goes out to my cousin Jeff, who encouraged it, the people who've been listening lately to other things, the people who have sent recorded messages back to me and most of all, the people are coming down to see me.  Enjoy.

Volcanic Morning: Volcan Fuego blowing smoke

All Well at El Jocotel plus KITTENS!!!

Heres the lake part of the view from my front porch.

Grey Water System.  Tube feeds from the kitchen sink.  There are seven plant species in and around the pond.  Enormous taro leaves should dominate and cover everything eventually.

I asked Negra what she thought of someone climbing in, breaking the fence (I fixed it already) and stealing a big stump for firewood.  

By the time you read this, I got a haircut.  This is the semi-rare and beautiful Flor del Izote from my very own tree which is a fencepost as well.  Maria pointed it out to me; Im embarrassed for not noticing.  She said you have to cut it down because if you dont, one of the neighbors will.  The flower petals are edible and I ate them all sauteed in a bit of oil with tomato and one egg.  They reminded me of brussell sprouts.  I hope theres enough smile in this to satisfy my mother.

The same flower on my dining table, showing the kitchen in the background.

Kittens, as promised.  I really need the pageviews.  Theyre not mine, but I may be adopting the mother soon.  She looks just like the white one.

Revenge?

But what did the Jews ever do to Moctezuma?

Km148 to Puerto Escondido

After crossing to the westbound sde of the Pan-American highway, I advanced on foot to urinate in private at the roads side.  Only with an empty bladder could I smoke half a joint and before boarding a bus toward Xela.  Once done, I strolled back to the little plaza where the other Xela-bound folks waited.  I wondered both how high I would be and how much I would be aired out before a passing bus stopped to pick up the group.

I boarded last with my backpack still atteched to me.  Stepping into the full bus, a quick count let me estimate about 6.3 people per row.  Beyond six adults, one cant really be expected or ordered to sit down, so I stood, with my backpack still attached to mem wishing I had unloaded it with the ayudante to be strapped on top.  I stood there, a lone gringo in the aisle among a chicken bus loaded tot he gills with Guatemaltecos.  The backpack situaton couldve been easily solved , but Ill admit that a high brain fart precluded me from being the one to solve it.  All I needed to do was shift a couple bags in the overhead racks and insert mine sidewys with the top sticking out a bit.  Solved.

Next came the process that seems as impossible as it is uncomfortable.  This is the one where the ayudante has to pass by me tot he front of the bus.  There are already six men sitting in the row and me standing in the aisle.  I cant think of any other situation where such a hetero man on man ass-crotch rub occurs, but I take solace knowing he is so used to it that he wont think twice and I know itll be over quickly.  A quick firm rub-squeeze, and he is past.

Someone exits the bus and Im upgraded to the third seat with two fully grown men between the window and myself.  On a good curve, Ive got three quarters of one cheek on the seat.  An unadvantageous curve leaves my ass suspended above the aisle.  This becomes a test of core strength and indirect forces work certain leg muscles in ways they are not used to.  This test is set to last until my personal seating arrangement can be improved, an unknown.

The bus is going faster and taking the curves harder than any other Ive experienced on this stretch.   Its a little more interactive for the rider and a little harder on the gas tank, but we are barreling toward Xela just that much faster.  I examine the driver and can assert a hypothesis of which Im very confident that his above average heft allows him to feel less relative centripetal force around these bends.  He has more Normal Force than the rest of us; he is less likely to slide out of his seat.  I imagine he has spent at least one year, if not several more, creating a form-fitting ass and back groove, an advantage us riders do not have.

Now that Im satisfied with my Physics 101 assessment of the bus, the driver and the passengers with free-body diagrams drawn clearly in my head (Ive also noted the twin styling of the driver and his ayudante including a white tee and short, curly gelled hair), the gassing begins.  With far less cientific proof and out on a limb, I blame the man immediately to my right.  Ive spent just shy of 30 years studying, and enjoying, the smell of my own farts but I have never derived pleasure from the stench of another.  Drawing again from all that research stored away neatly in a very important area of my brain, I diagnose the cause of this particularly dense and awful odor to be a beef dish of an integrity some notches below top, probably ingested by my neighbor at last evenings supper.  The farts are coming about every four minutes and each time one does, I can hold my breath only until I am forced to draw in one horrible breath before the chaotic, Brownian (no pun intended) motion of air disspates the offending molecules and returns the local atmosphere to tolerable.  I hate the farts, but I do not hate the man.  I would let loose, too, even at 6.3 people per row.

At this point, my thoughts turn within for a look at my own mood.  Let me count the ways this situation could cause one discomfort or even induce a phobic reaction:

• being a lone stranger in a foreign land
• overcrowding
• highly aggressive driving
• noxious air quality
• physical discomfort
• loud music

None of the above are at all atypical for a camioneta Guatemalteca, but this stretch at this moment offers them all, all at once.

Despite the list, Im in a great mood.  The marijuana tunes my senses into everything (helping with the meat of this paper) and causes me to laugh it all off.  Im traveling again.  Ive built a comfortable and simple home in an amazing place, one to which Ill be overjoyed to return, and left it in the hands of trusted friend.  Ill move through some new places for a couple weeks and arrive at my sisters wedding, and event that brings about the largest gathering of family and friends that we have ever known, to take place in Northern California at a perfect time of year.  In life, I am in a great position, and in no way is it passing by unappreciated, but just the opposite.  Im blessed and and I am thankful, all the time.

I just finished my second cup of coffee as the sun begins to set behind the 18-foot tubes crashing in from the Pacific at Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.  Ill see everyone soon.