On The Olympics

I didn't watch any. Not a single event, not a single highlight.


TV is gone from my life.* No commercials, no DVR; my wish to never see the face of Bob Costas again may have come true. If a couple stateside gringoes I converse with hadn't mentioned the games, they may have passed without my recognition. A winter olympics has little to no bearing here in Guatemala, or rather the Mayan lakeside. As Dan put it to me midway through the games, "Guatemala hasn't even sniffed a podium." That is likely to change for Summer 2016 if they add Tamale Eating to the line up. Diego, the Hospedaje Mirador's grandfather-figure, fairly famous here at El Jocotel blog now and even stretching back to The Reprieve Report days, will be a strong contender for multiple medals in both the Speed and Quantity categories. Tamales disappear from the 'monton' before him so fast you would suspect he was breaking off half for a chucho under the table. This infringement, the sport's most egregious, is sure to be monitored closely by the IOC.



*This statement is completely true now, but I would watch the following at some point if they were available. I've never been one to watch stuff on a laptop, but on a limited basis, I think I could get into a good show:

• the rest of Breaking Bad
  
• Better Call Saul
  
• the rest of Treme
  
• the rest of Louie
  
• the rest of Portlandia
  
• Maron
  
• anything good, tv or film, recommended by a trusted source
  

Wh I Chose Tzununa, Part IIf

Tzununa

It's a curious thing about Tzununa and San Marcos developing so differently. One interesting fact is that each is under the wing of another municipality. San Marcos falls under Santiago, across the lake, and Tzununa, along with Jaibalito, goes under Santa Cruz, two and one villages to the east, respectively. Besides the fabric colors, the skin tones, and facial shapes, each town is really a different people, going a back a long, long way. It was told to me yesterday in accurate paraphrased summary: "people in San Marcos steal from each other. In Tzununa, and here in Santa Cruz, it's not like that. If there ever is a problem, people take care of it themselves. You get two warnings, then you go in a plastic bag." In the same way Tzununa chose to be a friendly and respectful community, I would say they exercised their right to not actively produce manmade attractions for tourists. Physically, Tzununa is the most stunning valley to enter of all the lake towns and a hike there is just as satisfying or better as any inactive volcano. We have the 'waterfall valley'. It is really something to get off the lancha at four in the afternoon and emerge from the coffee trees to the view open over the futbol field up the gut of the huge valley. At that hour this time of year, the sun hits directly the big mountain face which shines back the golden light source of dried corn onto the village from the east. I've loved mountains all my life but sometimes the magnitude of the behemoth ridge next to Tzununa from the bottom gives me a moment of vertigo.

But the people either don't want to appeal to tourists, they don't have the time or money, or they don't know how. It's proved here at one of the only two hostels in town, where the sign is so small and faded, that when I've mentioned the name, it has never rung a bell with anyone, even those from Tzununa. No one knows there's a decent place to stay here. This family did make four conscious decisions to spend lots of money sending the same number of their children to the United States. It seems like they sent a good amount of money back and told the grandparents to build a hostel, which they did, but then grandparents were lackluster in terms of marketing in the traditional Tzununa style of indifference to gringo business. When it comes to gringoes building or making business here, all that seems to be welcome and encouraged. Most men who find out want to come build for me or be guardian and elder men always seem to take it as good news for the town.

The people are genuinely very kind. They are hard-workers and really good at standard things like construction and stone work, but to my knowledge, and I hope I'm wrong, no specialties come out of Tzununa. The village has two carpenters and no metalworker. The people lead simple lives based around family, work, religion, corn, and buying and selling. It was told to me by a Polish-born long-timer here that "you can never be on the inside. But you won't be on the outside, you'll make friends and be a bit more on the inside." And I realize that. I'll always be gringo and I can't assume at this point that I would have what it takes to learn much Kaqchikel. Here's hoping I'm wrong there, too, but even learning the language doesn't bring you all the way in. It makes sense. My Spanish will always improve and that should continually improve my overall experience.

Considering the people, it adds up to a friendly, hard-working, pretty honest group. Through the years, few enough gringoes have come through parts of Tzununa that one strolling around will inspire some seemingly dumbstruck looks and excited, often scared, children. I can only imagine exactly what they are thinking as they look look on us here in their village. Folks are quick in their replies to buenos dias or buenas tardes, that is, if they don't offer up their own greeting before you. On the way past, a quick 'thchoowok chick', see ya tomorrow in Kaqchikel, will warm their hearts and bring a giggle to any group. Many people, even kids, speak very little Spanish in this area.


The beautiful women of Tzununa and the colors they wear remain a reason that I dig this town. Will I marry a local and have kids here? Not right now, no. Later, I can't say.

Why I Chose Tzununa, Part IIc-e

Location

Besides Charlie, Tzununa's location on the lake is good. It's easy on the lancha, though it can be rough in bad weather with a crowded boat, to other towns. The village is at the end of the road. To get to Jaibalito, the next village, you need to walk a path or take the boat. You can't drive your materials in there. I already mentioned Tzununa's proximity to San Marcos and I'll say much more about Tzununa itself later, some relating to location.


Safety

Tzununa prides itself on being a very friendly, safe community and that was a big part of the decision. Things happen around here sometimes. In San Pablo, a tourist van may get held up at gunpoint now and then. In San Marcos, there are three known, fairly skilled and elusive, if drug addicted, theives who may or not be connected in the municipality building. They rob with machetes and their intention is to scare and steal and not hurt. They tourists on paths but break into homes gringo and local alike. The tourists and locals alike were getting tired of this happening and, with the help of my friend Tim's testimony regarding a Yoga Forest incident, they locked one of the guys up. Locals aren't always eager to step up and say something in court against one of their own.

There could be a risk on the road between San Marcos and Tzununa or the path between Tzununa and Santa Cruz, but with little money and valuables, I walk all around with no fear. In the hills above Tzununa, I'm concerned only with not injuring myself, not robberies. We all hope that with a rise in visiting gringo numbers, which the town people seem to approve of, we can remain a safe and friendly town.

Shad

Shad's a name I've heard since being back at the Yoga Forest. He's actually the reason the town of Tzununa was mentioned to me the first time I remember hearing it. The Yoga Forest was on its way to becoming a great permaculture food forest, but was hampered by frequent, noncohesive changes in garden management. The word in the forests was that Shad, over in the next village, had his own permaculture farm that, while less flashy and view-rich, was highly functioning with some really cool and creative systems built in and lots of animals. He sells vegetables and products made from the milk of his eight goats at four or five markets per week. He had nine goats, but he slaughtered one before Thanksgiving and I was lucky enough to have some of the meat, though not with Shad, with my friends Tom and Riley.

I consider Shad a permaculture rock star, certainly in this region. He has people who've heard about his operation go up to visit almost every single day. He flip-flops on the issue of whether or not to accept volunteers, but he always has a steady supply of people ready to work mornings and glean the knowledge just for a lunch. Volunteers are coordinated by my friend, Tim, who did the same job back at the Yoga Forest. Twice a year, Shad teaches a Permaculture Design Course. The last course (two weeks,~$1500) in December had 18 in the group. I've absorbed a lot from my time around here about how to maximize your output and work all the systems of your garden, animals and life together in symbiosis, but I think Shad will help me develop a working, yielding farm that runs at a level of involvement that's manageable for myself with some help from visitors and a local staff. The truth is that ecotourism is cool and it's growing. I'll admit it's pretty fascinating to go to the farm of a 27-year old dude who bought land and moved to Guatemala to build up a successful, diversified and healthy farm and is a great friend and benefactor to the community.

Shad's another busy type, and despite all the visitors, he and his wife are fairly private people. I'm told some volunteers are disappointed that Shad's presence and interaction can be minimal during their time there. Maybe that's how he gets people to stay and take the course. I've still only had two or three chats with him, always rushed and in passing. I've heard he likes drinking a few beers in a row so my plan is to lure him up to my place with beer. I'll have my notebook and pen ready because it's often said that Shad is a nonstop font of useful information and I think he'll start talking when he sees the land, again, for he looked at this plot himself. Whenever I have a question or problem with my garden or animals, Shad's as far as a phone call. He preserves and sells seeds and his vegetables will be a diversified, healthy, extremely local food source.


I have no idea how our friendship will play out in the future, but any way it happens is sure to be fine. Shad is busy and also married. He's also a very valuable mind in terms of knowing how those from here think and how to do well by them.

Why I Chose Tzununa, Part IIb

Charlie

Charlie Rendall was an English something or other who arrived at the lake nine years ago and found himself becoming an architect and builder. He is perfectly English and polite, friendly, knowledgable, and mavenly. He is arguably the lake's most prolific natural builder and I've taken him on as a consulting architect. He knows everything, its price, where to get it, and who is a good guy to have build it. I'd like to do almost all of the design myself, but run it by Charlie while looking at the land to ensure all gaffes are avoided. He is extremely busy and since he's based in San Marcos, I considered his realistic range pretty limited. He's already working on the bamboo at Shad's hotel, so I know he can handle Tzununa. He also rides his motorcycle to the construction site of the medical center in San Pablo. I can tust him to visit one town from San Marcos either way, but beyond, there's probably far less Charlie, if any.

Charlie has a lot to do with this whole plan, certainly more than he knows. He was the architect at the Yoga Forest. His work there was mostly complete while I was around so his presence was limited but the cabanas, dry rock wall terraces, greenhouse and yoga studio were all quite impressive. The master bedroom there I thought was a bit ambitious with the rock face as the back of the room. It was hard to seal up where the roof met the rock so when it rained a good deal, water would trickle down on the rock, causing a backsplash onto the floor. Besides his designs and his expertise, Charlie is really one of the most pleasant people you could ever be around. I intend to keep designs simple and use Charlie only as a consultant because he is just so busy. He seems to know endless small things to do at the constuction stage to keep your house from falling down long before it should. He's in so many places but when you're actually in his office, he doesn't rush anything and you feel welcome.

One time, Charlie was going to give a lecture on natural building for the Permaculture Design Course at the Yoga Forest. I didn't take the course but he invited Tom and I as his guests. Just before the group of us walked up to the Forest for the lecture I was sitting in Charlie's office as he loaded up the digital presentation onto portable media. A moment into this task, he received a phone call, which he took. While his right hand worked the mouse, his left hand held the phone around his torso to his right ear. The call ended before he was done loading the files, but he was so distracted, he forgot to lower the phone. It stayed there for at least a minute or two. I had time to concentrate on suppressing my laughter and though I considered letting him know he still had to his phone to his ear long after his conversational counterpart had released the call, I didn't want to hurt his feelings and wanted to see for how long he could hold the pose.


At Charlie's lecture, he spoke just loud enough for those in the back to hear, but his expertise is so completely obvious that everyone made sure to catch every word. He is certainly the go-to guy for natural building in this region. While studying the way locals have built and survived here, he's been (I'm guessing) reading, doing internet research, talking to other builders and architects, traveling and building plenty himself. Charlie is an invaluable aid on a building project here and I'm happy he agreed to be involved. I'm also considering doing some teaching in a new carpentry workshop he's created. Geometry is a big part of carpentry and locals lack most geometry education. Charlie Rendall is easy to find on the internet. His blog and website is called Return to the Forest. If you're ever here, ask me for a tour of his structures.  

Why I Chose Tzununa, Part IIa

Where the author explains the first reason he chose Tzununa


Tzununa came together to be the almost perfect village to buy and build right now. I was able to come up with some distinct reasons I chose this village, and I'll go into each a bit in ensuing updates.


Dollar Signs
I'm not and have never been much of a business man. I don't care about money or having lots of it, I'm more interested in creating a life I love designed around things I enjoy doing and transfering a good amount of the money that comes in into Mayan hands. I've also never spent this much time in a tourist destination and I couldn't help but see some opportunity. I arrived in the rainy season and went right to San Marcos. The Yoga Forest, where I had lined up a stay ahead of time knowing nothing about the lake villages, happened to be in the mountains above San Marcos. On the lake's north side there is, from west to east, San Pablo, San Marcos, Tzununa, Jaibalito, and Santa Cruz. When it was rainy in San Marcos, it wasn't too busy so gringoes were limited. I stayed and the rain stopped and saw how many white people were in San Marcos, which is the hippiest village and the one most loaded with yoga, spiritual centers and the like. San Marcos is real nice but over-gringoed which is bad enough on its own, but it also means higher land prices. As my friend/architect Charlie told me, three times more expensive in San Marcos than Tzununa, the next village over.

Gringoes are literally spilling out of San Marcos and they need somewhere to go. Right now, at the time of this typing, Tzununa has four hotels. There is Lomas de Tzununa (10 rooms?), fairly expensive and you could almost consider it out of Tzununa on the path to Jaibalito. Nice place. There is the brand new Maya Moon Lodge, gringo owned, which you could consider out of Tzununa on the road to San Marcos. Both those places have amazing views. The Moon Lodge (14 beds) has a beach bar with swimming and Lomas has a small pool. A real nice place, it's new and more budget. There is the Hotel Yac (six rooms), the awful budget place my faithful readers remember. The Hotel Yac only has a view of its own bathroom. The Yac is being remodeled and will be much improved but I still harbour some trauma behind my time there. The last is where I'm currently living, the Mirador, where I have installed my own three-burner stove with a propane tank. This place has the best view in town hands down. This is where I sit and type these words, with a perfect picture postcard view framed by cement arches and columns in some lovely yet hard to name color between pink and orange, and fairly dull on the saturation scale. Tiles are popular around here and these folks chose to go with that. I love them. If I could choose one single best view in Tzununa, it would be here at the Mirador or about a third of the way up toward El Jocotel from here around the spot where the two cantones Sancwhoyoo and Chinimujuyu border each other. There is also the Xocomil Hotel and Restaurant, whose high walls I have tried to penetrate multiple times with no success. I've never heard of anyone staying there. There is Shad's bamboo hotel in construction above the center of town. Very nice build so far. That will have four rooms. El Jocotel could be the sixth hotel in Tzununa, above Shad's on the hill and just above the village on the 'loma'. There are also some private rentals and my place should hover between small hotel and fully private rental. My current plan is to have four rooms in three different structures. My place will have a view better than Shad's place and about 70% as good as El Mirador. My lake view, that is. My place would have the best view of the mountain across the valley, which is fucking enormous. It juts up from the lake and riverbed at least 2500 feet real quick. It's a wash of trees and rock with at least two or three seasonal waterfalls. What's maybe more impressive than the hill itself is that a huge portion of the impossibly steep terrain is farmed with corn, coffee, beans, squash and different fruits. This is status quo around here.
Besides the lodging bringing in money, the land value, as always, is going up and Tzununa is arriving onto the map. Hotels are popping up and 'siempre vienen las turistas. The tourists always come. It's not that people don't know about it, but it's got little enough going that the last printing of Lonely Planet (a hugely popuar line of travel books) I saw has Tzununa on the Atitlan map as a lancha stop but makes no mention of it in text even though it's right next to the major destination of San Marcos. I don't know the politics of Lonely Planet, but I think they'd add a town that now had six hotels especially if we as a group of owners tried to make it happen. We may not actually want to. I bought my land directly from a Tzununa man at a good price well under the gringo rate and, as I said, one third of the going rate in San Marcos. I believe that if I made a concerted effort to find a bankrolled gringo interested in nice land, I could sell my plot at a profit next week. That's not my intention.


The Castillos of beer fame, like most or all the super-rich families in Guatemala, have lakeside property. As far as I know, Gallo and Brahva, Guatemala's two most popular beers, are both run by a Castillo brother. Partially irrelevent to that: here and there, the Gallo Beer Company chooses a pet town and puts money into construction projects there. Tzununa is one of those towns. They're already responsible for one or two roads here (these are rock roads that may mean a driving speed of five miles an hour, but they are passable roads (mostly)), but just the other day, they had a big ceremony down on the futbol field with a tent and a helicopter to announce the launch of the next phase of charitable work: a big, new health center and more road. (It seems a bit Guatemalan to build something and then forget about it. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with the health center and they ensure it remains staffed as was intended. If any visiting medical folks would like to put time in there while here, I'm sure it would only be as complicated as showing up and working.) I don't know exactly what road the beer company is doing, but there is talk of building a path at least for tuk tuks up to the top of Chinimujuyu, right by El Jocotel. This isn't a huge expense, one I would even hope to fund in a few years time, but it would cut the required walking from the closest motor access from ten minutes to three minutes. That would do well for the potential price of my land and ease my life there for my time. It's a bit steep getting to the Jocotel.

Why I Chose Tzununa, Part I

Part 1
Where the author almost arrives at why he chose Tzununa


Let's go up one level. Why Guatemala at all? And why Lake Atitlan? For one thing, it's a lake. Though I may not have said that living by water was a real concern of mine, one quickly sees how extremely nice is it to live by water. A lake to me feels more personal than a river or ocean, more a friend, especially this lake. Atitlan has no outlets; it's mountain and volcano-locked. The reasons for the surface level rising and falling are a mystery. Of course, the rain is one cause for rise, but no one is sure why it goes down a certain amount, less and less recently, each year. Theories include volcanic and techtonic activity and underwater river mouths clogged with trash. Right now, the water is at a major recent high. Gringoes, and some rich Guatemalteco families, along with municipalities and businesses have lost a ton of land to the water. I'm told if the surface level rises 15 meters, it will top out there as it begins to spill to the ocean via an outlet to the south. Some people say it's on a 50 year cycle of which we're approaching the high end, so it should begin to recede soon according to those folks.

The rising and falling is part of the Atitlan magic, as I think of it. There's enough of this magic to write a book on, but I don't want to attempt that now. I'll just mention it has to do with the shape of the lake, the water, the wind, the contours of the mountains, the active volcanoes, the lightning, the tremors, rivers, waterfalls, rainbows, rocks, stars, sun, clouds, moon and all the other ways that nature, weather and landscape impress the spirit as they impose a way of life on the Mayan people here.  A day living here is so saturated with beautiful landscapes, cool plants and birds, and food loves sprouting from the earth and falling from trees.  It is a privileged place to live.

Being lakeside is definitely better the longer you stay. The more you learn about what's around and can handle walking up and down steep hills to get to those places, the more fun you'll have. You'll get strong, you'll get in shape. You'll relearn to breathe and walk around slopes that are so steep, if still farmed with corn and coffee, that you worry you'll fall right off the face. I easily admit that living here, or even visiting here, isn't for everyone. If you're OK with the reasons that Guatemala is different from home, like unfixed pricing, transportation you have to jump on and off, language, food, and chuchos and chickens everywhere and you don't lament the lack of things you just don't get here like internet shopping, choices in ethnic food, affordable dairy, tv shows about cakes, or your car and you enjoy all the things that Guatemala throws into the deal like incredible scenery, terrific people, and an inexpensive life then you may really enjoy that life or visit here. For me, it makes sense with the mindset I had nine months ago. Go for less stuff, more experience and cooler surroundings.

So I got here and though the plan had been to stay awhile then take off and explore Central then South America, I got pretty stuck here. Maybe it's being a little older and also listening to my buddy Aaron tell me that you need to travel but also have a good home base so you don't have to come home broke and stay with mom and dad again, but I felt like this was a good enough place to set up that home base. Walking around now, after four months, at times the world-class lake and volcano view starts to feel pedestrian, like walking through our own Forest Park, but most days I'm as stunned by the landscape as my first day here. So when I say it's good enough, I mean it's an incredible place to build a house. I still want to explore Central and South America and the rest the rest of the world, but I'm setting up my home base, and it will be here on Lake Atitlan.


As far as Guatemala in general, I have had nothing but a good time in all my excursions away from the lake. I've seen some amazing things and have loads more to see for the first time. The people are friendly, helpful and interested. The traffic infrastructure is efficient and smooth and any journey, if a bit cramped at times, is so entertaining with bus vendors, bus driving, scenery and conversation that trips seem to come to their end swiftly. Even though very mountainous, Guatemala is only the size of Pennsylvania, so your domestic journies can't be that long. I've spent some time in the infamous Guatemala City and was surprised at its moderness and cleanliness. My opinion is that the US State Department Travel Bureau has some motive for deterring citizens from traveling to Guatemala, or maybe traveling in general, and misrepresents the true level of danger here and I think that's unfortunate. Having lived many years in the United States, I know it has its fair share of dicks, thieves, drug addicts and drunks, probably a higher share per capita than Guatemala. Take measures to reduce your chances of being targeted and when you show up here your worries will quickly fade.