Taco Wednesday.

No, not Tuesday.  Wednesday.  I don't know why. At Mr. Jon's.

It's all you can eat for Q55. Lots and lots of choices for fillings: beef, chicken, pork, tofu, fajita vegetables, rice, frijole negra, sauces, shredded cheddar [rare in Panajachel], sour cream [very rare in Panajachel], sauteed piña, Pico de Gallo, flour tortillas, corn tortillas, tortilla chips, chicharron [fried pork belly], cowboy candy [sometimes; sweet pickled jalapenos]. It's become somewhat of a tradition for us. And becoming very popular. It's probably the most crowded restaurant on Santander on Wednesdays now, and likely to get worse as high season progresses.

Adam paying for his taco buffet.

Not many leftovers!

This Saturday is Decembriefest. [Just like it's not Wednesday,  it's not Oktoberfest]. Bratwurst, weisswurst, polish sausage, and more. GERMAN POTATOE SALAD! Sauerkraut. All homemade by Mr. Jon himself. He's a former Minnesotan and has written  a book on spices. He promises it will be good, and stresses not to miss it. He made about 40 pounds of each variety sausage, and has no idea how long they will last. This is the first time he's doing this. If successful,  he may try it on a semi-regular basis. Q12 [$1.65] for a simple sausage on a roll; Q15 [$2.05] for deluxe, with sauerkraut and/or other special fixings.

Move over Smokin' Joe's. We're  going elsewhere this Saturday after the meeting.

Sanitize Your Fruits And Vegetables.

I may have mentioned this before, but most fruits and vegetables get sanitized before consumption. One sister new to Panajachel didn't know this, and was sick for a week or so.

We generally use GSE,  grapefruit seed extract,  because it is the safest for consumption and adds the least unwanted flavor, especially for soft items like strawberries. GSE is the most expensive product but requires only a dozen or so drops in a quart of water. For something like strawberries,  I leave them in the plastic bag and thus conserve paid-for drinking water and GSE.

The second disinfectant tgat we use is a lemon based product. Less expensive, but can leave a lemony taste. We'll use this on hard skinned items that often get peeled anyway. We don't want to get "transfer" from handling and peeling.

The last disinfectant we use is a chlorine bleach based product. This is the least expensive option, but doesn't often get used because we feel it is the least safe for consumption. We might use it for large batches of stuff, just because we have it already.

All of these products are available in Panajachel,  though GSE can only be found in the higher-end grocery stores. Sanitizing fruits and vegetables is new for us here, but it was probably only a matter of time before we would have been doing it in Wisconsin [as many of you already are doing].

Rack full of goodies from the mercado drying after being sanitized.

The price break on most fruits and vegetables in the open market is around Q5 [$0.75], give or take a Q or two. Piña,  sandia [watermelon -- still haven't purchased one, have to carry it home on the moto], 2 rojo pimientos [red peppers], 4 aguacate [avocados],  pound of cebolla, zanahoria, o papas [onions, carrots, or potatoes].

Raquel bought the aguacate across the lake along with some leaf lettuce. There is an expat that grows it, so hopefully less likely to be contaminated. It still got sanitized. There is also an expat running a butcher shop across the lake where fresh and smoked meat and sausage can be found. [He also does a BBQ in Panajachel on Saturdays.]

Pickle.

Just a quick comparison of the cost of some items here. One of the things typically missing from the hamburgers in Panajachel is pickles. Funny how you get a tatse for something when they are scarce or expensive.

A pickled mix. Q139.75 or just under $20. Notice the toothpicks in the onions.

Another pickled mix. Q177.75 or just a bit over $24.

An olive and gherkin mix. Q226.75 or about $31.

All of these were about half gallon size jars. I noticed these when I was looking for ingredients for pizza. As much as I had a hankering for something salty sour, these were all out of my league. I settled for a small can of black olives and a pouch of green olives.

Ants!

This house has been fairly bug free throughout our occupation. Our previous place on Calle Rio had a bit of an ant infestation. The only thing we've regularly seen here is sun spiders. And the solo mosquito late at night when they buzz in your ear in the dark just so they can see you futilely slap yourself.

But now Raquel and I have noticed ants in our bathroom.  [Josh's is still apparently clear.] First in our medicine cabinet, then around our sink. Little teeny, tiny ants. We were squishing them to discourage them, moving some cosmetic argan oil they seemed attracted to, and spreading aromatic oils to try to repel them. Nothing seemed to be working. [They are tough little things, very difficult to crunch!]

Then one morning I noticed the thrush-like birds resident here circling in the sky, and was reminded of gulls in Sheboygan doing the same during ant hatchings. I watchwd more closely where our bathroom ants were coming from, and observed this:

Hot water faucet handle.

That is rust and a badly corroded screw that was under the top cap of the handle. But all of the specks around, under, and INSIDE the handle are ants! They had nested inside the hollow clear plastic handle.

I tried removing the handle but the screw was too corroded, so resorted to banging on it to knock the ants out. After about half an hour and several follow up sessions I killed most of the ants or flushed them down the drain. The few remaining ones left. Hopefully they haven't taken up residence somewhere more difficult to reach.

Cold Weather!

I'm  sure everyone back in Wisconsin is laughing at this post title. It's dipping below 60°F at night and very windy; but this is nothing compared to what many of you are experiencing.

Our thermometer showing 62°F outside AND inside.

There are five reasons I can call this cold:
1. There is no heat in the house. While you can turn on your furnace when it gets cold outside, we don't have that option. Pretty much what the temperature is outside is what the temperature is inside. Although we do have a fireplace, we haven't located and bought wood yet. Even then, the fireplace will only warm the living/dining room area. The bedrooms and bathrooms [showers!] are still chilly.
2. We didn't bring a lot of warm clothing. I have three hoodie sweatshirts.  Raquel has one or two, but they're the lighter type. Josh and Lydia have some sweatshirts as well. But none of us have any sort of coat or jacket [other than dress jackets]. We just weren't prepared for temperatures this cool. Raquel did buy a knit hat for Lydia,  and is on the lookout for one for herself.
3. Our only transport is by motos. We dont have the protection of a windshield and can't turn on the heater. At least it's not also raining!
4. This is the coldest others have experienced here. Although it's not a big sample pool, some in the congregation have been here over five years.
5. Our "hot" showers and "hot" baths are more warm than hot. At times the water can seem hot but it's just more than a trickle and after awhile it's not enough heat or volume to constitute a "hot" shower. We won't complain too much in this regard, since most of the natives swear by cold showers.

This morning I ran errands.  I dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, shoes, and socks. The FIRST time I've worn pants and shoes other than service or meetings. [No, haven't gone au naturale,  just usually wear shorts and sandals.]

Electrical.

An old two-prong outlet.

Because they used metal conduit most of these are actually grounded and easily converted to three-prong. One of the first electrical modifications I did in this house was in Josh's bedroom; there were wires coming out of an outlet that had exposed [bare] connections! [I've subsequently used that wire for grounding my new receptacles; see below.]

Why three outlets on these old receptacles? I don't know that three cords could actually fit; maybe the older type. Surprisingly, though, these better fit our night lights than the newer receptacles.

New receptacle with nightlight barely fits coffee maker plug. Old three place receptacle was actually roomier. 

A new three-prong replacement outlet.

I've done seven of these so far. Most of of our electric devices have three-prong cords. The narrow slot is supposed to be the "hot" wire, but since the wires coming into the electrical box are generally the same color I sometimes mix up hot and neutral. The wiring to these outlets is all two-wire, with the metal conduit providing the ground. That means I had add a third wire to ground these plastic constructed receptacles back to the conduit.

New power conditioner and surge protection at the tv and blue ray player.

The power is so schitzy here that all devices should really be plugged into some sort of protection. This conditioner can constantly be heard clicking as the power fluctuates. So far haven't had any long unplanned power outages. Have had one planned power outage that lasted most of one day; some sort of maintenance work that affected the entire lake, twelve or more communities. 

New Furniture

 Many people suffer for years with their furniture here, especially living room furniture. Most of the couches and chairs we've experienced or heard about are wood with cushions -- basically outdoor patio furniture -- and uncomfortable. Or often the furniture is cheaply constructed with inferior materials that quickly wear out; cushions that compress and lose their cushioning,  fabrics that wear through. Our living room set in Jucanya was worn and stained, and we mentally cringed every time we sat on it.

Furniture is a big part of making a comfortable home. And  a comfortable home is one of the keys to enjoying your stay and making it long term.

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Our living room set.

There are several stores in Panajachel that sell furniture, but for sake of simplicity we bought from only one. This limited our selection to three living room sets, three price ranges; we bought the most expensive because it seemed the most comfortable.

Our new plush chair and our new TV with blue ray stereo system.

New dining room table and chairs. Cardboard Noah's ark in middle of table was consructed for a toy animal set Lydia just got. The kids have played here but hasn't been used for dining yet!

Outdoor hammock chairs. There are also two lie-down hammocks in the bag on the plastic chair. Haven't figured out a place to hang them yet; the trees in the yard aren't conveniently spaced. 

The old outdoor 'barby'.

We can smell carne [meat] roasting on an open flame from some of the hotel and small restaurants around our house. Really makes me want to fire this baby up! Now if I can only find decent meat and charcoal...

New washer and dryer.

To hook up the washer was relatively straight forward -- only had to replace the two-prong outlet for a three-prong outlet and connect the hoses. The dryer was almost a week long process: searching at 5 or 6 hardware and construction supply stores;  figuring first one way and then another way to vent it depending upon what I found available; communicating with our LP gas supplier to install a new tank, hose, and regulator. It's vented through the window screen; not ideal but works.

New L.P. gas supply for the dryer.

Washer hoses are hooked up into the wall behind.

New stove. Nice!

Purple stool is Lydia's.  It's supposed to be in the bathroom for washing hands at the sink, but ends up all over the house.

Bottles on the countertop to the right of the stove are STRICTLY medicinal!

New hose and regulator on our L.P. gas supply for stove and hot water. This is our third tank of gas in the six weeks we've been in this house! A bath tub and washer really add to the consumption.

The old stove. Broken grates and erratic flames.

Old built-in double wall oven and broiler. We kept smelling rotten dead animal odors until we figured this had a pilot light that needed delighting. Haven't used this yet, but having a pizza party tonight may try it.

Brand new state of the art refrigerator with linear converter [means it monitors and regulates how hard the compressor works depending upon actual need]. The doors beep if you [kids!] leave them open too long.

Let there be light!

Note the "semi-automatic" ice cube maker under the shelf in the freezer. Manually fill the trays with water, wait to freeze, flip a lever, and the cubes [hopefully] drop into the bin underneath. We'll see! 🤔

The old fridge didn't seal tight, so the freezer iced-up solid and dripped water across the floor constantly. It was dark and sort of scary inside -- what is THAT in there! I didn't realize how bad I hated that fridge until we replaced it.

There are still some furniture pieces that I would like to get: a decent coffee table; a larger tv stand; desks for study and play in the bedrooms; a work cart in the kitchen. But all-in-all we've been settling in and getting more comfortable.