guate rigs rule!

Let me just start by saying that it is a crying shame that I only captured 2 of the many amazing rigs I saw in Guatemala. It's not surprising there are these fantastic genius rigs everywhere you look. Everywhere your eye lands in Guate you see handicrafts and handmade stuffs galoure! It's just a dreamland for critters like me.

I think the use of this bottle is pure genius as a drainage spout!!




Whoa!! One of those big ol' rectangle plastic water bottles as a lamp shade! SWEET!

I love Guatemala and will be going back asap.

showers in guatemala

I can only assume the showers in Guatemala are Italian because of the Italian writing on them. They are weird. I mean you get shocked once in a while when you adjust the water flow (unless someone was really super smart and put a rubber coated knob thingy in the shower). I quickly got used to it and would only adust the water with a cloth unless I was standing out of the shower, ie: not in a puddle of water just asking to be shocked!

At first I was a little leary of these showers but, I soon grew to love them! They are electric (obviously, right) and the hot water is generated right there in that big ol' weird showerhead....which means...as much hot water as you want. Now. The water pressure wasn't all that fantastic but, it wasn't any worse than at my Tampa Casita so, all in all, Guate showers win over Tampa showers! When do I get to go back??

Let's talk about the wall colour in the above 2 photos....nice!

As you can see here in this shower...the handle has a rubber sheath on it....there were no shocks in this shower. I really wish I would have taken a picture of every shower I was in there. Each one was so very different. One of the many aspects of Guate that I find so endearing.

Look for a Guate ghetto rigging blog soon!

the amazing pila of guatemala

This is a large pila for a big household, typically found in the old colonial houses. There are 3 stations to wash and 2 separate basins for holding the clean water for use.

This pila was in the Don Quixote Hotel we stayed in. I alwasy woke up to the sound of the the basins being filled.

This is the typical pila you see in homes. Actually they are outside of the home. So a typical Guatemala kitchen does not have a sink in it. It's rather amazing at the ingenuity of this country and its people. Things are functional, purposeful and extremely practical. I was impressed, awed and just smitten!

Another classic example of the outdoor pila. The are most often seen in shades of blue and aquamarine. You'll see the occasional yellow or red one. These pilas are set up to hold water in the middle section with two side sections for different purposes. The left section generally has grooves cut into the floor of it for washing clothes and the right section is used more for washing/drying dishes.

Once again, an outdoor pila. This is the most handsome colour if you ask me, the red ones (though I didn't get a picture of one) are rather dapper too! I aspire to one day have a pila of my own. I think they are just the most functional thing ever, super economical and they just make sense to me! Seeing Guatemala households and how the function really get me thnking differently.

I had the pleasure of traveling to Guatemala in December 2009. What an amazing trip. I've always been fascinated with seeing how other cultures live. I was just pleased and amazed with how genius Guatemalans truly are. They use everything around them. Every where you look you see something created out of nothing that is most functional! Seeing inside the households and how they are run interested me to no end. I fell completely in love with their 'pila' that I've featured in this post. I am playing with the idea of putting together a book on the pila!!

Meg of Nest's Nest.

Just a super quick peak at one wall in Meg's more than delightful home!

I had the pleasure of visiting with the Coles the beginning of Dec. It's always fun to see what Meg has done with their Nest, I don't think things stay the same very much in that household (as far as decor goes...it's eye candy galoure!) This wall was above their dining room table. It is simple as can be but, freaking great!!! Just love it!

Santiago Bay!

This is one of those pictures that just took my breath away! 

AND...I can't stop thinking about it. 

It's officially on the list of places I need to visit.

a nice visit with matt

                       

         matt and danny grabbed me from the airport and we went in for some sunshine.

....................

                   we took a little stroll through the woods to get to a favourite little watering hole of danny's.

               pretty chillax            



                          we watched these geese thoroughly clean themselves. we were fascinated!

this is a cicada. i've heard them buzzing in the trees in florida most of my life and this is the first time i've ever laid eyes on one.

well, there are a lot in delaware and in turn there are a lot of cicada killers. ...these huge buzzy bugs that look like a dragonfly wasp! apparently they do fly-by stings!

yep! matt and i got 'our' favourite beer!

it is the high life, after all. matt's still

as grouchy as ever, haa ha ha!

uhh, then we drank malibu with 7-up, that some crazy girls brought over. 

that pretty much sums up the first day.

HAWAII.

and big surprise!! i wanted to move there. i had my sights set on maui. outside of the city. acquire some land in this old dairy farming area at the bottom of a huge mountain (14,000 feet) that is mostly a huge state park. ....yeah, acquire land. ...enough to qualify for ag. this area is in a tradewind...constant wind...lots of rain and tons of sunshine. it's so lush!!! and the wind energy, sun energy and amount of fresh rain dumped would make it so easy to self-sustain! a total dream!!
here are some pictures of the area: