Antigua Guatemala Archives

October 2, 2015December 27, 2018

Trip Advisor Review: Caoba Farms, The Best Shop!

“No Need for a Grocery Store or the Market, You Only Need Caoba Farms!”

5 stars for us: Check out our Trip Advisor Review.

We have fallen in love with Caoba… and might never find another place quite like it! Kurt and I are food obsessed and our life has been surrounded by wonderful ingredients living in LA, London and NYC. Here in Guatemala we were literally starving for quality organic food living in Atitlan (although Shad’s Atitlan Organics is pretty special… they are just starting out and the variety isn’t there yet). Moving to Antigua and finding the farm was incredible.

At least 2 times a week we come to the farm to enjoy the atmosphere and relish in the expansiveness of the views. Iza loves seeing the animals and playing with the cracked shells which line all the walkways. And once a month is the most wonderful farmer’s market which allows for all of the suppliers in the tienda to showcase their wares. It is really a special experience with live music and delicious food.

This is the only place we grocery shop. Aside for the very rare occasion of Organica, we nearly buy everything from the shop at the main farm. They have wonderful artisanal products from local suppliers and abroad and all fresh produce grown on their farm. The coffee is exceptional as are their wine selections, honey and peanut butter.

This is literally the best place on earth.

Saturday mornings offer a great routine for Iza and Rache who head out to the farm right at open time at 8am. They walk the grounds, get a little fruit ice popsicle and then they do our weekend food shop. It is a great way to kick off the weekend.

Recently we decided to do our family photoshoot and we decided that the best place to do it was here. So, we put on our tie dye and headed to the farm. Luis Pedro Gramajo did the photography.

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August 24, 2015August 24, 2015

5 Ways to Mitigate Pregnancy Challenges

It’s interesting to go through the stages of pregnancy because I can see how quickly the ebb and flow of nature really works. I am like an ocean with changing tides; inevitably I am always going to come back to a calm sea, but there are going to be waves, manmade disruption and natural disasters like storms in between.

For the past 4 days I have really had a rough go of it and while I am nearing the end of my rapidly short rope of patience, I am trying to gently remind myself that it will come around. I still have 6 weeks left which is not an encouraging time span. It feels like it will literally never end, but I know that 6 weeks from now I will be sorry I did not relish in the quiet moments when I could. It is all a balance and test of give and take.

Here are some ways I am trying to deal with it:

Surrounding myself with strong female supports who have been there and being very directed and clear with my husband about what I need him to support me with (don’t leave it to be a guessing game, ladies. They don’t get it!)
Going for long walks by myself and spending time alone when Iza is at school
Laying in bed as long as I need to and not feeling bad about doing one more thing around the house
Canceling meetings as needed and letting go of the need to do anything
Writing for the sake of therapy and not work

Having a toddler makes it even harder

The hardest part has been the emotional upheaval of Iza. I almost feel as though she senses my hormonal and emotional shift and as a result her emotions have mirrored mine. She is a disaster of clinginess and desperation. She is hanging all over me and gravitating to one of our rooms at night (oh yes, we are sleeping in different rooms now so my tossing and turning is done without strain on our marriage), so none of us are sleeping and we are having a really hard time resetting our patience level.

What am I doing about it? I am trying to reason with her and negotiate her journey through all this too.

I am trying to keep in mind that she doesn’t understand why I am upset and that the term “Zai” to her means belly. So I am giving her the permission to go through her emotions the same way I need to be supported.
I am being patient with her realizing that she may not quite yet correlate that it is a human life in there and that mama is having a hard time supporting all the weight and the changes physically
We are taking a bath together every night as a family so she can still climb all over us without having to lift her up
We are allowing her the time to talk through and draw out why she is “scared”
I am relying very heavily on my terrific new network here in Antigua, Guatemala to help take her mind off it with playdates and activities

Even in writing this quick little post, really helped me to relax my emotions for a minute. #5 is maybe the best help of all for me. Check out the post on Tips n’ Tricks for Coping with Baby #2 to get some insight on how to manage all of this, not just the hard parts.

June 17, 2014December 28, 2018

Problems in Antigua, our first couple of days in Guatemala.

Just before we left for Guatemala I had a really bad flare up of my inner ear condition, which could be Meniere’s syndrome, but I’m still not sure what it is exactly. It is often caused by stress or pressure changes in the weather but I don’t really know what caused it this time. I haven’t had any problems with it in a long while and it seems to have come back at a really bad time.

What happens is I lose most of the bass frequencies in my left ear and get extremely nauseous with migraine headaches and extreme body pain. It basically is like having the most devastating hangover you could imagine and it usually incapacitates me for the first two or three days. Poor Rache really had to rally (like always) because I was bedridden for a day and a half. It was just the beginning of her vacation and she only has a week so I really felt bad that she had to watch Iza the whole time while being really exhausted from our travels.

Fortunately she kept a great attitude, stayed positive, explored the city with Iza, met some great people and found some really nice healthy places to eat.

One thing that sucks about Meniere’s is that is is caused by a fluid imbalance in the inner ear and I have to do everything I can to control it. That means no caffeine and very little salt. And here we are in Guatemala which has some of the absolute best coffee in the world! Well, we have lots of time here so I will give it a couple of months then sample some of their great java.

Now that we are in Lake Atitlan I am starting to feel much better and ready to explore this really beautiful place we now call home.