While there are hundreds of car lots all over Guatemala, if you’re in the business of buying a car you may want to check out the vehicles that are for sale at GPautos.com.
This web site gives you online access to thousands of vehicles in a searchable layout. You can pick from cars, pickups, SUVs buses, trucks and even boats from all over the country.
If you’re selling a vehicle, this site can be a great place to present your vehicle to the rest of the country.
As new missionaries in Guatemala, we needed to get our residency papers so we didn’t have to leave for Mexico every six months and still be legal in Guatemala. Here are some of the things we wish we had known when we were going through the paperwork process for residency after we moved to Guatemala.
Read on, but get the following papers together so you can impress your lawyer and get things moving quickly:
According to our lawyer and other sites there are three main long-term residency visa options (not including student, diplomatic, etc.) Since we just had our baby here in Guatemala, we opted for the Parents of Guatemalan child option. While others are available, I have listed three main options here: Continue reading ‘Residency papers for expatriates in Guatemala’
U.S. citizens who live abroad need to get their paperwork right when they have babies abroad. Here’s how we got our Guatemalan birth certificate and passport after our son was born in Guatemala.
Before you go
Before go to get your baby’s papers, you need to get your papers together. We went all out because we knew we’d need to get our Residency Papers filed later so we had more than required. Here’s what we needed in 2011 when it came to getting our son’s birth certificate and Guatemalan passport.
We also needed to pay several fees at BANRURAL, the national bank where you can pay for taxes and fees for your paperwork. Often there are BANRURAL locations near the paperwork offices, but you can go to any BANRURAL to pay for the following:
We went to the San Cristobal RENAP (Registro Nacional de las Personas) office because it was nearby, but they said we could not file for our son’s birth certificate outside of the district he was born in unless we could show a utility bill from the San Cristobal district that has our name on it or by brining our landlord with us to prove that we live in San Cristobal. Since we couldn’t do any of these, we had to head into Guatemala City to the Central RENAP office to get the birth certificate. You should be able to go to the RENAP in the municipality or district where your child was born without any trouble. Continue reading ‘New baby papers in Guatemala’
Chrisi at the Chichicastenango municipal sign
Pregnant and moving to Guatemala
On January 28th of 2011, we moved to Guatemala to serve as missionaries when we were six months pregnant (about 25 weeks) with our first son. We wanted to have our son naturally, and we very quickly found out that this would be a bit difficult. With C-section rates at 80% in the private hospitals in Guatemala, we realized that we needed an alternative. We started checking our options. We were studying Spanish in Xela so we checked out an APROFAM public clinic that has a birthing center, but it still wasn’t what we were looking for. We did have an ultrasound and bloodwork done at APROFAM and every thing was looking great!
BabyBjorn Travel Light
Preparations
In Xela we prepped the baby’s bed by buying 5-inch mattress foam and cutting it to fit inside our BABYBJÖRN Travel Crib
Family at clinic
Centro De Parto Natural
While Mayan midwives or comadronas are common across the countryside of Guatemala, finding an English-speaking midwife in Guatemala can be difficult. As best as we can tell, we found the only American-trained, English-speaking midwife in Guatemala City when we found Hannah Friewald at the Centro De Parto Natural where she specializes in water births and has one of the only, if not the only, water birth centers in all of Central America.
Hannah’s Story
Initial newborn exam
Hannah is from Germany where home births are the norm. She has been around it her whole life and also speaks perfect English. She trained in the States through Maternidad La Luz in El Paso, Texas and is also certified in Guatemala (which can be an important thing if your international medical insurance only gives coverage for certified medical care).
Hannah has worked as a midwife for years and has attended some 1,400 births as of May 2011. She said that she has never lost a baby and even told of a couple breech babies she has delivered and some v-bac babies she has delivered, along with a couple emergency situations. She has delivered babies for the ambassadors of a couple different European countries here in Guatemala and seems to keep a full schedule. Continue reading ‘The midwife option for natural birth in Guatemala’
Tri-lingual childrens book helps bring selfworth to children in three languages.
Ishi, Un Simple Monito (Ishi, the average monkey), published in 2008 (ISBN 1-930992-23-8) is a beautifully illustrated book by Todd Aaron Smith that helps children realize that they are unique, valuable and special.
Written in English, Spanish, and the Mayan language of Quiche, the story is set in the Guatemalan highlands and features native animal characters like the quetzal, Guatemala’s national bird and namesake for Guatemalan currency, jaguars, and of course, Ishi, the monkey.
The artwork depicts many features of Guatemala including volcanoes, cornfields, futbol and more.
From what I understand, Smith originally wrote this book for and featured his adopted Guatemalan daughter as a secondary character.
We’ve been able to help distribute some copies of this book in the Guatemalan highlands among the Quiche Mayans.
Part of the Mayan Children Missions Project, this book has the unique feature of being in three languages.
Michael with teacher Luis.
All language schools are not equal, nor is finding the best place for you as simple as reviewing a few schools online and then picking one. I’ve been there and there’s a lot of info out there, but making a decision of where my wife and I were to spend our next six months or so as we studied Spanish was kind of like diving into a river after talking to others who swam there before. We hoped to hit the right spot and not drown or hit any rocks in the process.
When you’re looking for a place to learn Spanish there are many elements to take in to account: Location, Cost, Perks, Experience and more.
First of all there is the consideration of countries. There are lots of Spanish Language schools in Spain, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and probably every Latin American country on the map. Here’s a list of 90 schools in 14 countries. We wanted to learn Latin America’s version of Spanish and we have plans to be in Guatemala for a while so we chose to study in the beautiful highlands of Guatemala. Once the country was settled, it became a matter of what city: the main choices are: Antigua, Xela / Quetzaltenango, or Panajchel but about 10 cities offer language studies in Guatemala. Private tutors can be found in other places, but you’ll need some sort of contact to connect with them since there’s no central way to find them.
Getting the right teacher is very important. One thing we learned is that in one-on-one teaching sessions, the individual teacher really makes a difference. Don’t be afraid to change teachers if one doesn’t work for you. Usually within one week you can know whether or not you and your “maestro/a” are a good match. If you’re not, change so you can get a better fit and learn all that you can. Continue reading ‘Spanish Language Schools in Guatemala’
Every year, students from the public San Carlos Universityof Guatemala (Universidad San Carlos De Guatemala) gather for the Desfile Bufo…a time of student drinking, extortion and rants about public officials.
Students take a week or so off of classes right aroundThe parade in action!
Semana Santa (in 2011 it was the week plus a few days prior to Semana Santa) and on the parade day (also called the “Huelga de Dolores” parade) they take to the streets dressed in masks that look like colorful Ku Klux Klan outfits or Halloween costumes. Continue reading ‘San Carlos University Desfile Bufo Parade (Huelga de Dolores)’
Cafe Baviera Logo
Cafe Baviera is a quiet cafe/restaurant with several locations to choose from in Xela / Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Known for it’s European feel, cafe, and casual feel, Baviera is also the home of some great sandwiches, specialty coffee drinks and some very smooth banana shakes. Their cakes and desserts are also very refreshing to he traveler’s taste buds.
Interior at Baviera Cafe I
Often frequented by expatriates and featured in Lonely Planet, Baviera I is a great place to quietly study or strike up a conversation or discuss this city’s unique history and stories. Although, you have to be careful where you sit. If you want to study your Spanish, the upper couches are a bit more private than the lower couches. We were sitting on the lower couches when we ended up in lengthy English conversations with other expatriates when we were really there to study.
The frames of Baviera Cafe I
The downtown location (in Zona 1) has an eclectic feel with walls plastered with framed photos, posters and more depicting Guatemalan history and international imagery. Decorations also include many old memoribilia, cameras, metal banks, car parts and nostalgic radios.
Baviera Cafe II (in Zona 3) has a beautiful courtyard with seating for guests. We enjoyed taking guests to this location. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but like many buildings in Guatemala, the exterior seldom hints at the treasure within. This location was converted from a house into a restaurant. The conversion really turned out nice.
Prices for sandwiches, crepes and salads are in the Q20-30 range and my favorite shake is Q20.
Camera+ logo
Camera+ is my new favorite App for the iPhone. ($1.99)
I’ve been using the standard camera option on my iPhone 3GS. It was handy but nothing fancy and with pretty much no options or editing capabilities. Camera+ has so many options, filters and editing tools built right in that it turns your iPhone camera into a photo machine that gives you customized images that look awesome!
Summary
Fresh bean dip
Easy to use and great additional features for your iPhone camera including zoom, filters, self-timer, and more! Many options are available without paying more than the basic 99 cents. (There are additional features available for additional costs but they’re just more filters.)
Things I love about it:
