Tag: Guatemala

Inoculated for Guatemala

I leave to attend my niece’s wedding in Antigua, Guatemala in one week. Squeal!!! But wait a minute. According to the Centers for Disease Control, travelers to Guatemala should have the following inoculations: 

“Make sure you are up-to-date on routine vaccines before every trip. These vaccines include measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine, and your yearly flu shot.”

I’m okay on those above, but just this week I thought to check on other suggested immunizations: 
Hepatitis A
“CDC recommends this vaccine because you can get hepatitis A through contaminated food or water in Guatemala, regardless of where you are eating or staying.”
And:
Typhoid

“You can get typhoid through contaminated food or water in Guatemala. CDC recommends this vaccine for most travelers, especially if you are staying with friends or relatives, visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or if you are an adventurous eater.”

Now, I’ve been running around shopping almost non-stop for my trip, but did I think about needing inoculations? Nope.

On Monday I told my doctor, whose name I am unable to pronounce, so I’ve dubbed him Doctor When, that I was leaving for Guatemala on April 8th, and needed to be inoculated against Typhoid and Hepatitis A. In response, Dr. When laughed. 

“Your inoculations would be of no use taken this close to your trip,” Dr. When  said. 

“You’re probably going to die,” he added before climbing into his Tardis and departing for another point in time.

Ok, I made that last part up, but that was what I took away from the exchange.

He did prescribe an antibiotic just in case I ran into anything nasty, but I believe I’ll do as my brother instructed and self-inoculate with plenty of cerveza and vino. No waiting period necessary.

 

No street food for me. 😢

  

But fresh produce should be ok! 😃

  

And maybe I’ll skip eating and just shop!

Peace, people!


Trip Prep Mania and Gratitude

Without fail I go through a sort of manic preparation before embarking on a major trip. Before Studly and I went to Scotland two summers ago I had six months to scurry around shopping for just the right accoutrement (Studly uses the term “crap”) for our journey. 

 With a trip to Guatemala looming in early April I have less than two months to get my accoutrement together. It’s not that I don’t have enough clothes already, it’s that I don’t have the RIGHT clothes. I can hardly be expected to wear my normal t-shirts and jeans when traveling to a foreign country. 

Travel smith.com is getting my business this time around. I’ve ordered two items from their website:

IMG_2669

and,

IMG_2670

Both earned a respectable 5 star rating, and I hope they live up to their respective reputations. Since I have a wedding to attend in Guatemala, it’s important that I look good, but not too good. One wouldn’t want to outshine the bride, after all. So maybe I’ll bring my crepe-y, saggy arms along instead of a firmer, sexier pair.

After I wrote this I came upon a blogpost that my sister-in-law shared about how much we have to learn as a country about happiness and gratitude. http://adventuretrio.com/one-thing-we-learned-about-north-americans-from-central-americans/ 

I hope you’ll read it. It puts my mania into a different context. I have so much, yet think I need more. Sigh.

Peace, People.

Greased Lightning Bug

I’m trying to lose some weight before I go to Guatemala in April. Even before I scheduled my trip I’d managed to lose 12 pounds, but I’d reached a plateau and needed a bit of motivational energy.

IMG_0740

The prospect of going to Central America fit the bill perfectly. And, there’s a wedding involved, so there’s twice as much motivational material.

I’m not much of an exerciser, even though it would be in my best interest to get involved in some type of physical activity. Like opening wine bottles, perhaps?

IMG_0764

Occasionally I’ll get off my butt and walk around our beautiful neighborhood. Today the weather was just about perfect, so I dug out my tennis shoes, left Doright Manor and set out at a brisk pace.

My Pandora radio station was set on the Grease soundtrack, so I twirled my walking stick, bopped, danced, and sang along to the music playing through my earbuds as I walked. I’m sure any neighbors watching believed me to be possessed by some unseen presence as I danced my way around the block. I’d occasionally grow self-conscious and stop, but soon I’d forget I was in public and start dancing again.

Turning down the home stretch, I was singing to “Greased Lightning” when a large insect flew into my mouth and down my throat. I saw him coming, but couldn’t react in time to avoid contact. One second it was, “Go greased light…” the next second it was “ack ack ack!”

I couldn’t get the darned thing out and I could feel it scrambling around. “Ack!” I gagged, but I could still feel it in there. Tenacious little devil. My eyes were stinging and I stopped to cough and gag every few feet. When I got home I grabbed a banana. I don’t know why, but it seemed like maybe the banana would help the bug find its way to a better place. Like a raft of sorts. It didn’t.

Then I thought back to what my mom used to say about catching more flies with honey than with bananas, or something like that. Sure enough, honey did the trick. I’m not sure if this counts as a life hack or not, but my readers might want to bookmark this post just in case.

Peace, people!

Guatemala Bound

I booked my flight to travel to Antigua, Guatemala! My trip isn’t until April, and Studly kept urging me to hold off on booking.

“Prices will come down,” he said.
“Be patient,” he cautioned.

Does he not know me better than that?Patience might be a virtue, but it’s not one of mine. Now that I’m booked I can start on the other tasks I’ve set for myself, namely shopping for appropriate Guate-wear and brushing up on my Spanish.

Having grown up in Texas, I have a decent vocabulary of inappropriate Spanish. I won’t plan on using any of those unless I get into a heated discussion with someone smaller than me.

I did take two years of high school Spanish. I remember how to ask where the bathroom is located, and I can tell someone that they should take only one piece of toast because two is too many. Surely that phrase will come in handy with the toast-eating crowd.

IMG_0708

Viva Guatemala!

Peace, People!

Going Guatemalan: Apology

Did you know that Guatemala is in Central America, not South America? After posting my article, “Going Guatemalan” last night I slept like a baby, but I awakened this morning to learn that I’d placed Guatemala in the wrong place.

IMG_2468-0

My sincerest apologies to those from Guatemala. I should have looked on a map. I hope they don’t bar me from traveling there based on this error. I’ll just have to double down on my Spanish and learn how to blame this on Studly. How does one say, “scapegoat” in espanol?

IMG_2466

A scene from Antigua:

IMG_2467

Peace, people!

Going Guatemalan

If I had plenty of money I would spend it on travel; whereas, Studly would spend it on golf and motorcycles. Fortunately, I don’t mind traveling on my own, and if I leave him enough food and water he can survive on his own for a few days.

Last night the older of my two “little” brothers called me from Guatemala where he’s been all week visiting his oldest daughter, HH. She works for Teysha, an incredible company involved in empowering indigenous peoples in Guatemala. Check them out at teysha.is They sell the most exquisite handmade shoes and boots.

The lovely HH and her fiancé are planning to marry in Antigua, Guatemala, in mid-April. I hadn’t really given much thought to going, I mean, it’s in GUATEMALA, for Pedro’s sake, but then my brother said, “What’s it going to take for you to come for the wedding?”

I put up all sorts of objections. He had all sorts of answers. Bottom line, I’m going to Guatemala in April. I didn’t sleep a wink all night. I’d almost doze off and then it would hit me again: I’m going to South America!

There are so many things I need to do: brush up on my Spanish, lose 10 pounds, buy a dress, learn the Guatemalan national anthem. Do I need shots? Fortunately my passport won’t expire until this fall, so I don’t have to deal with that.

Of course the Studmeister isn’t going. After our trip to Scotland a couple of years ago he declared he’d had enough international travel to last a lifetime. And, honestly, I don’t think Guatemala is ready for Studly.

Look at these gorgeous shoes!

2015/01/img_2464.jpg

2015/01/img_2462.jpg

2015/01/img_2463.jpg

Peace, People!