Casa de Joyce

For some reason we never posted photos of this amazing house. From sunrise to staff, it was the best of everything in Guatemala. There was a time early on, that we would have jumped at the opportunity to buy and put down roots here. But it was bad timing all around, and here we are now. New house in Patziac.

What makes Joyce’s house so special are her dramatic gardens. They are like none other we have seen. She has put time, care and love into crafting different terraces, planting a mix of indigenous and exotic plants and building something truly unique.

We were graced with 3 months in her beautiful house, facing San Pedro Mountain. Her house filled with collections from markets and local craftsman, and some unique features like her chest-high bed. She has some of the best artwork we have seen in all of Guatemala and a terrific staff. We felt at home in her abode and are grateful for her hosting of us. It came at a time when we needed a win here, and we found it at Casa de Joyce.

New York Times Article on Joyce’s House

Joyce Maynard found in a second home a sanctuary for writing, swimming and teaching workshops, until nature took it back. 

LA Travel Article 

As the boat glides through the beautiful waters of Lake Atitlan and around one last rocky outcropping, a dream comes true. Like a shining white gem, Casa Paloma stands out among the deep jungle greens while still somehow existing in complete harmony with its surroundings.

The water at Joyce’s is amazing. The water’s edge is always cleared up and the dock has a very easy to use ladder, which have discovered is an anomaly here at the lake. Because of the lake rising, we have been able to really enjoy jumping in and not worrying about the waters undergrowth coming through. Just like where I spent my summers as a girl, the water here is refreshing, a little chilly and clear. We love it!

Joyce is a writer who has invested most of her career towards romance, intrigue novels. She is best known for her recent movie Labor Day with Kate Winslet, and To Die for with Nicole Kidman. My favorite is her book written when she was freshly at Yale Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties. She is also infamous for having an affair with J.D. Salinger who wrote the The Catcher in the Rye. And she is uniquely a San Marcosian vacation implant for around 15 years, living in New Hampshire and then California for most of her adult life.

 

 

Internet in Guatemala, What!?

Let’s just say that the lack of internet in my life has provided me with one of the largest life lessons; “stress doesn’t make it any easier.” Exercising patience is my new motto.

For the last 2.5 months I have not been able to really work. As the primary bread winner for my family, and living in a foreign country with limited opportunity to network, relying solely on my existing contracts and relationships, I require internet for my survival. We require internet for our survival.

1 month of that time was at Casa de Joyce in San Marcos and it was a frustrating mess of dropped and inconsistent service. We had upgraded the service to the highest package available,  but it was rendered useless over the last month (other than a few sporadic uploads and downloads here and there) during the rainy season. This was expected, but also wildly frustrating. (I should note that we are lucky TIGO 3G works regularly and were doing a lot of work from our phones by using it as a wifi hotspot).

Then we moved to Patziac. For a monster set up fee and a monster monthly fee, we were under the impression that we would actually be able to get some level of service. How wrong we were.

So, about a month ago – about 15 days after being patient – I started reaching out to Mayanet, who is our service provider and documenting every time the internet went out. We had about 3 days one week without internet, 1 of those days due to power outages at our house. The last 2-weeks have been an in and out series of “power outages” in San Pedro (I quote it because we look out the window and there are lights, but apparently our internet has its own power?), and a series of other excuses why we don’t have internet:

  • Reason 1: The weather (i.e. clouds) are interrupting the signal
  • Reason 2: A pinch in a wire bringing internet to San Pedro*
  • Reason 3: Power going out in San Pedro, “The infrastructure in San Pedro is messed up and old”
  • Reason 5: The backup system he installed and we paid for (meant to kick in when the normal internet goes out) runs out of money
  • Reason 4: He doesn’t know

Below is an overview of where we are to date. We have spent everything on the left and are committed to the Monthly Payments. Do we move forward with the new Pana Plan? Do I follow through with the My Plan? For a reference, here is what we are paying in monthly rental costs, improvements, etc. so it seems absolutely insane to virtually 3x that cost by adding in a permanent internet structure. But, it is one idea, and may end up being our only one to get consistent service.

The below portrait is a visual of  what our gorgeous house is going to end up having added to it, in order to support our internet need that Carlos has outlined through the Pana Plan. It is terrifying and locks us into this property. But it is a very intriguing and interesting visual. 
Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 1.59.50 PM

While I am not an expert, for shits and giggles, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I called TIGO and had a fantastic conversation in English with a sales rep there. We discussed some opportunities and it might be a potential to work out a situation with the TIGO company.

Funny story though: We don’t have an address here, so when the rep asked me what it was, I had to explain that we are our own little space, no street address, no street, etc, we have a walking path and water! So, he asked me for my coordinates. If you are planning on coming for a visit, you can now search by coordinate:

Area de Uso Multiple Cuenca de Lago Atitlán
Nahualá
14.731739, -91.226821

Casa de Patziac
Jabalito y Tzununa
Panajachel, Solola

Hell yeah. Surviving in Guatemala!

 

*I complained so much and Mayanet called the internet provider so much that the company Claro (yuck) actually ended up looking into the problem. It was effecting tons of people. What?! No one seemed to have a complaint except me? Crazy! I guess people just expect intermittent internet service in emerging countries.