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Nuestra Casa en Guatemala

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We've never stayed away from home so long before, so wanted to find a place where we'd be comfortable and the girls would be happy for a month. Braver folks might book two nights in a hotel, then upon arrival, immediately meet with a real estate agent to tour and lease a place for the month. While that would have been cheaper (and stressful!), we booked through AirBnB for ease of use and peace of mind, filtering for places with a pool and separate rooms for the girls. So far, we're happy! We're a half mile from the central plaza and markets, and basically the entire town is within walking distance. Here's a photo compilation overview:


I'm so glad we booked a place with outdoor activities. Zadie LOVES the trampoline, jumping multiple times a day. She even met a friend around her age one day, though it's usually empty. There are two pools, one shallow and one deep, but as we expected, neither is heated and they are pretty chilly since the air temp has been 60-70 degrees. That hasn't stopped Zadie, but I don't expect I'll be doing much swimming unless it warms up. On a clear day, you can see the (inactive) Volcano Agua from the pool.

While the temperature isn't great for the pool, it's been perfectly comfortable for the house. As far as I can tell, this place doesn't have any heat or A/C and doesn't need it. Guatemala is called the "Land of the Eternal Spring" since it's temperate year-round; the graph of high and low temps by month is practically a straight line.

We have 3 smaller bedrooms (wanna visit? 😉) and a huge master. Zadie immediately got settled in her room and is very proud of how she organized her things. She's been a stickler for keeping it clean, putting all her clothes away each time she changes and making her bed each morning. Here's hoping those new habits come back to the US. She thinks her room is very "fancy."


Ruth's room is on the back of the house, where there's another townhouse abutting her headboard wall. The architect brought daylight into every room, many with skylights, but hers and others have windows into a little light tunnel cutout area between our place and the one behind us. (Anyone know what that's called?) Her room also has large built-in closets like the others. Ruth likes that the house is "rustic and vintage," with lots of Guatemalan touches.


Our room has a vaulted ceiling, desk, large closet, and master bath. Bill will work here starting next week, though there are several nearby co-working spaces as backups in case he has any trouble with our wifi (solid so far, though he did have to work with his company's IT team to connect from here).

We've got a washer and dryer, allowing us to pack only a week's worth of clothes in carry-on bags. Kitchen is well-stocked with cooking equipment, though no dishwasher or oven. Water isn't safe here, but we've adjusted to only drinking and brushing teeth with water from the large water cooler in the kitchen, and boiling water for cooking or cleaning fruits and veggies.

We've spent the last few days getting familiar with the town, visiting outdoor markets and supermarkets, exploring some sites, and seeing the Corpus Christi celebrations - more to come on our adventures. We also swapped our SIM cards out for local ones ($13 for the month with 13 GB data, nice), so please don't be offended if we don't see your texts until next month (we're on Messenger). I am definitely getting a lot of Spanish practice in too, getting by just well enough not to need translation tools so far. Ahora, necesito estudiar verbos y palabras sobre comida. Adios!

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