Salud Para Vida Archives

September 15, 2014December 28, 2018

Fresh Direct, Mayan Style

As we have lived in Guatemala there are only a few amenities we have missed from America. Fresh Direct stands out as the biggest one, Amazon second… and maybe Seamless as the 2nd runner up. We are so used to having everything just brought to us, and we have gotten really lazy (over time).

We are fortunate in our rental to have a great staff already built in. Matteo, our assistant gardner’s family has become a fixture in our life in more ways then one. His daughter has come to play with Iza, his dog sleeps on the property at night, his brother-in-law is Kurt’s assistant and now his mom has become my personal market shopper (i.e. Fresh Direct).

There is a town on top of the hill, away from the lake, called Santa Clara. Here is where Matteo is from and his mom still lives. On the weekends and on Wednesday’s there is a tremendous market. I give Matteo a list in Spanish on Tuesday’s and Friday’s and a bounty is returned on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon via Matteo. Since Matteo’s Mama doesn’t read or write Spanish (solo Katchiquel), Matteo translates for her and then he translates back with a receipt and the costs. Normally for a countertop full of food, including a watermelon, papaya and pineapple, it is about $13 and the delivery fee is built in.

We are thinking about starting a text-message based tuc tuc system where we can have a network of drivers working together. We would text the main guy and he would text his team to deliver. We are thinking we could do this in 2 shifts of 8 hours, so most of the day is covered.

Across the water from us is Salud Para Vida, which is the health food store that imports from Miami. Here we can buy most of the food that we would buy in a Whole Foods in the States. It is across the lake (about 20 minutes) and you would typically travel by boat to get there. You can take a Tuc Tuc however, but that takes about 40 minutes and it is quite rough terrain. If we get a boat system together and have coconut ice cream, organic popcorn and Chilean wine delivered at 9pm… just in time for a Netflix Movie.

How awesome would this all be?!

July 10, 2014December 28, 2018

An Italian Surprise

Yum. Finally a real stove with pots that don’t lose their Teflon as you are serving! It is amazing to have an American-style stove and all the amenities. We will start getting more into our posts now that we are having the best meals ever and are officially back up and running. Stay tuned.

As for our 1st meal back in a real kitchen – I made the absolutely most spectacular Italian meal. We had gluten free pasta from La Salud Para Vida in San Pedro and our favorite tomatoes and zucchini from the Marcado in Panajachel. Sandra’s 2 supplied the italian seasoning and vino tinto. And finally the most beautiful lettuce leaves came from Atitlan Organics which we bought at the market on Tuesday in San Marcos La Laguna. It is wonderful to be able to work with the locals to build up our eclectic shoppers lifestyle (one that we were very accustomed to and appreciative of in New York City), mastering the ability to get the best tasting products available.

The zucchini really made the meal. They are beyond anything we have tasted in the states – full of flavor which was both nutty and sweet. They retained their shape, even though I cooked them for 20 minutes. They were browned on both sides and had the appeal of the meat of the plate. The salad was a great after complement. We quickly dug into the pasta like excited dogs (man, when you haven’t had pasta for a while it is like a drug) and then followed with the healthier finish of the perfectly crisp and flavorful lettuce leaves. Brilliant!

You can have this too, but it requires a trip to our kitchen in Guatemala.

June 19, 2014December 28, 2018

Salud Para Vida

The Salud Para Vida is the Health Store in San Pedro. This is not a hidden gem and there are a ton of great write ups on Salud Para Vida staring with Trip Advisor, but we wanted to do our own. As promised in my post from our 1st journey to San Pedro, it deserved its own post, so here you go. Walking into the space is extremely unassuming. As mentioned in my previous post we had gotten there with little time to spare and is a super small space – nearly 10’ x 8’ wide. There is one metro rack through the center and a rack on the left and a wooden spice rack on the right. There are a few tables and a pastry case out front. Iza was headed towards a meltdown, but there were two “Arf, afs” out front (dogs) so she was occupied for a moment.

The owners name is Kurt (fancy that) and he is from the States. He imports his products through Miami and only can get them important on an irregular basis, so what the store has it has until they get another miraculous shipment. The store attendant Michael was very helpful. But it feels very community / from the neighborhood.

It was as if Kurt (the store owner) knew us better than we knew ourselves. Take every product we buy at Whole Foods each week and even things that we don’t buy there we have to buy at that other specialty shop on 14th and 6th and it was here. Kurt (the store owner) hit the mark with us. BIG TIME.

We got hair products, Seventh Generation baby wipes, sea salt, chia seeds, rice noodles, gluten free quinoa granola, Bob’s Red Mill amaranth flour, almond butter, etc. It was unbelievable the personality packed into this tiny tienda and with a supplement section for the stars to boot.

As I occupied Iza on the front steps while waiting for Kurt to finish up, I whipped out the Xylophone we had bought earlier. Along came a nice family from Israel who had just arrived the night before from Mexico. They had left their life behind in Israel 10-months ago. They both had remote jobs and they were seemingly doing what we were doing. Their beautiful boys came and played with Iza and we made new friends. We shared some of the other places on the lake with them and invited them over for dinner. We see that many people our age are taking the plunge away from normalcy in their countries and seeking a more adventurous life. We were really hoping to make like-minded friends and it appears that here we have. I look at this little Salud Para Vida has brought us luck already.

What made us so emotional about this store was that it represented the possibility to live here and still have a piece of home. We could maintain our typical food base (and then expand with local specialties) and still be able to have some of the amenities we are used to like non-metal deodorant, alcohol-free baby wipes, and gluten free flours. Basically this store represents the solidification of our possibility to remain abroad here (Mom, don’t cry – we will come and visit). The world has gotten small and the opportunities greater for living outside of America and still maintaining some of the silly amenities we are not interested in giving up. It is pretty awesome.

Thank you Kurt (the store owner). Your little mini Whole Foods placed perfectly in paradise is spectacular. We hope to meet you some day. My Kurt, daughter and I are very grateful.