We love new cities to explore. We usually have one thing in mind to do on any given day—often just a restaurant to go try—and then spend our day walking a new path to get there.
Ouest is outgrowing clothes faster than we can buy them.
Most days their imaginations are enough to propel them through hours of play. A tiny park like this is enough to really jump start things. This is a pretty typical playground in the countries we visit—and even these can be few and far between—so when we stumble on them it is a happy treat for everyone.
Plaza de la Constitución and the Cathedral of Guatemala City. Bird feed for the kids to feed the pigeons. A time honored tradition. There were plenty of snacks to be had as well. One teen was selling the little dried banana chips that we like so I grabbed one and asked him how much. Fifty Quetzales, he said. Bargaining isn’t something you normally need to do with the people that sell food around the plazas, but I immediately knew he had eyed us as marks and decided to give it a try. Fifty Quetzales is seven dollars. This is a bag the size of the palm of my hand. I just set them down and walked away. Forty Quetzales! Thirty Quetzales! Twenty Quetzales! Fifteen Quetzales! He followed us around the park, but I was having none of that business. We bought them from another guy for ten.
We always get our picture taken by these guys. For a buck or two they take your picture, then run off and print it out and bring you a print a minute later. We lined up like this family, snapped one picture, looked at it and nodded his head. We got it back and it was totally washed out and both the kids had their eyes closed. That’s the fun of it. We have a stack of similar pictures at home.
8 Comments on “City Life”
In a couple of your pictures is a church with a fenced in area in front of it that faces the plaza with the big fountain. One each of the sides of each of the several columns are lists of names. At the top of each list is a sign reading “victims of massacre”. Tens of thousands of names. That affected my thinking about the recent history of Guatemala.
Ouest really is growing like a weed! How tall is she now?
Good for you on that ” Fifty Quetzales, he said.” experience! So many people feel sorry for locals & just pay any price to “help the person out”. But really what they’re doing is promoting seeing travelers/tourists as “walking wallets”. I traveled 40 years ago & in those days travelers were treated as real people, not just “marks” as you called it. Glad you continue to have real life experiences with locals-these are golden for your kids too! Thanks for the great photos-such fun to visit these cities through your eyes.
you know….it is the darndest thing, keep feeding them and they continue to grow! ha
blessings
scott
Emily, what happened to your blog?
Well, it kind of fizzled once we stopped traveling. We got stuck in Florida for over a year while I went through orthodontia, and while there found out Paisley had congestive heart failure, so we really couldn’t be traveling all over where we didn’t have a local vet. Once I got my braces off, we sold the RV, flew to Mexico, and now live in a small village on the Yucatan gulf coast. Not traveling and seeking a semi-private life where not everyone knows all our business since we’re in such a small town. I still post on Facebook, but our blog is on hiatus for now and possibly forever. We’re doing well, and so is Paisley, with daily meds and low-sodium food. 🙂
Okay, now I need to ask, what was the blog?
Just our little friends and family travelogue…not a famous blog like Bumfuzzle! 🙂 https://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/