Posts Tagged ‘beach house’
Beach Again
I now return you to my tales of our Guatemalan adventure, reliving our third day at their beach house. It was now Friday and we awoke from another sound night’s sleep in which neither my wife nor I heard even a hint of rain. From the looks of things, it must not have been much of a storm, after all.
I’m not usually one to crave a hot beverage, but when I walked out of our room that morning, I instantly had the thought of wanting some hot chocolate. While we were seated at the table visiting with Marco, Dunia’s dad, and Jose, Dunia brought a cup of hot chocolate and set it in front of me. Neither of us had discussed it, and without a word, she acted on a sensation she felt to look for their chocolate and then brought me a cup. It is not the first time she has demonstrated her acute sense of intuition. Priceless.
I elected to join Dunia and Cyndie for a walk on the beach that morning, picking up stones and shells along the way. Walking a beach has the potential of being an endless activity, and at one point I offered an invitation to Dunia to consider not walking too far. She graciously listened to my idea, and then continued on in conversation with Cyndie. I found myself choosing to slow down behind them a bit and soon after, she and Cyndie turned around and were walking toward me. Moments later, Marco showed up on the 4-wheeler to check on us. I think he and I were thinking along the same lines. Plus, it was soon time for a big breakfast!
When we got back, I made a small tower of stones and left it on a ledge for them.
Marco’s brother arrived for the day, and Bill and Karin and their niece joined us for breakfast. Guatemalan breakfast was served, plus pancakes and amazing fresh fruit. It was all spectacularly delicious, especially Marco’s salsa again.
The rest of the day was filled with lounging around the pool and people enjoying a variety of arts and crafts, with Dunia and Marco working mostly on their paintings on the wall.
The boys took a few turns playing a game where they try to kick the soccer ball the full length of their field and strike the cross-bar of the goal. I played the role of photographer.
It was idyllic.
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Luxurious Relaxation
It felt great to sleep a long night. On Thursday, we woke leisurely and then gathered with people around the table where the coffee drinkers enjoyed their morning treat. Once everybody was fueled up, Cyndie joined Dunia and her mother for a walk on the beach before the sun got too hot, and Marco invited me to join him on a trip to the vegetable market to buy fresh produce. There wasn’t space in the Land Cruiser to pick up anything when we passed by the day before.
Even though I already had pictures of this place from my first visit, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a few more shots of the wonderful array of colorful fruit and vegetables.
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On our way back to the beach house, we stopped to buy fresh mangos from a street vendor selling out of their front yard. Marco said he didn’t buy them from the market because these would be better. Marco is a very skilled chef and he added some flavor enhancements to the fresh-cut mango that were a particularly special treat for my taste buds.
Dunia’s brother and family arrived with contributions to a brunch meal. While preparations were underway, I played cards with Jose and then programmed a music playlist before the food was served. Marco’s fresh salsa was an outstanding addition to the scrambled eggs. Dunia’s mother made a dessert of chocolate covered plantains that I’ll remember for a long time, too.
After brunch, I played ping-pong with Jose and Marco, enjoying many ferocious battles, where the winner stayed on the table in a rotating series of games to 7 points. We got drenched in sweat by our effort, which led to some relaxing time in the pool.
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After a break for lunch, for which Marco had slaved over the hot, hot heat to grill ribs, the boys wanted to play some soccer. Bill & Karin’s son, Anthony, wasn’t around to make it 2v2, so Dunia’s brother volunteered to play. I was having so much fun that I tried a little too hard and strained my calf muscle stepping quickly forward to steal the ball. I got the steal, but paid the price. I tried limping along to continue play, but further sporting activity was dramatically curtailed.
We jumped in the pool after soccer and eventually Cyndie, Marco, & Dunia joined us for a relaxing soak until dusk threatened an onslaught of mosquitos. After a shower, I climbed the new spiral stairs to their TV room to play some cards with the boys before calling it a day. While we were up there, it started to lightning outside and we heard a few good rumbles of thunder. When I came down, I stepped out from under the roof to check the weather and enjoy some of the lightning activity. Bill had stepped out from next door to look, as well, and he described the usual storm activity. If it comes from the ocean, as this one appeared to be doing, it is usually a pretty good storm.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be awake to see it.
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Driving Adventures
When we awoke on Wednesday, the beginning of our 7th full day in Guatemala with the Morales family, we started packing almost immediately. It was time to leave Bill & Karin’s beautiful lake house and embark on a road trip to the beach house, reported to probably be 2-hours and 45-minutes duration. After a short time, just as we had on the drive to Lake Atitlán days before, we arrived at a mysterious stretch of road where up and down directions are reversed.
Marco stopped our vehicle, turned on the 4-way hazard lights, and shifted to neutral. The Toyota began to roll uphill. It’s crazy-making!
When we approach a “T” intersection very near to our planned restaurant stop for breakfast, the traffic came to a complete standstill. We were just a couple of car lengths from where we wanted to make a left turn, but were pinned with nowhere to go. Several guys on foot seemed to be trying to augment the single traffic cop’s attempt to orchestrate some progress, but many drivers just chose their own solution and drove around any vehicle in front of them. It only served to complicate the mess.
Patience turns out to be the best course of action, and eventually we made our turn and got to stretch our legs and sit down to eat. The restaurant had a roof, but no walls around the seating area. Cyndie ordered in Spanish; an omelet with vegetables for me, pancakes for her.
Breakfast automatically came with cups of coffee and a bowl of a sweet porridge. I noticed Cyndie and Marco set their cups aside after their first taste and he ordered better coffee for the two of them. I normally don’t like cooked oatmeal or porridge, but this was sweet and not heavy. I liked it a lot. It was a great breakfast on the road.
Shortly after departing from that restaurant, we came to a stretch of divided highway with a very long backup of stopped traffic in the lanes approaching from the other direction. Shockingly, we suddenly spotted vehicles driving toward us in our lanes! After multiple cars switched lanes in reaction, everyone going our direction adjusted to the right lane. After the initial alarm, it wasn’t as unnerving as you’d think, because there is a lot of driving in each other’s lanes to make passes on the two-lane roads everywhere else. Still, they were driving into traffic and it was very hazardous, so Dunia got on her phone and reported the situation to authorities.
Despite the traffic challenges, it seemed a relatively short time had passed when we reached sights that I began to recognize from my visit there with Marco a week earlier. The beach house was just ahead.
Upon arriving, we were able to meet Bill and Karin. The two families each have adjacent beach houses beside the large shared pool. It reminds me very much of the community of families at Cyndie’s family vacation home in Hayward, WI. We also are greeted by Karin’s sister and niece, and later, Bill and Karin’s son, Anthony.
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It was significantly hotter this day than any other we’d experienced, in large part because we’ve come down to sea level and it was sunny all day. I get my first chance to play some football with the Morales boys and Anthony, followed by a jump in the pool. Dunia’s parents arrived and we met them as Marco began preparations for a dinner of grilled lobster tail.
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As the sun got low, mosquitoes and the heat contributed to drive us into our air-conditioned room at around 6:45. It feels much later than that and we give in to beckoning sleep early, after a day that felt like we mostly just lounged in the pool. Hardly the exerting activities that should have caused such tiredness. Maybe the week was finally catching up with us.
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Relative Something 