Random thoughts

.25. I've included some beautiful views from the road (and some not so beautiful ones). Just imagine what those roads feel like without shocks! (and none of the buses have decent shocks). The microbus shown above wasn't even the most crowded one we've been on. And, check out when the road fell through-- we ended up waiting on the side of the road for a few hours while the bull dozers rebuilt the road!

.5. A "Ferreteria" -- they must sell Ferrets! (in reality, they're hardware stores)

1. Trash. People in Central America don´t give a second thought to litter. Everyone throws their trash on the sidewalk, out the bus window, or in the river. It´s still very odd for us to see someone throw their empty bottles and candy wrappers on the ground wherever they are. It´s particularly suprising given how proud gutaemals are of their country-- you´d think they would want to keep their country pristine.

2. Reading. After not being able to find Harry Potter in Spanish while we were in Xela (it´s only the most popular book in the world), we started noticing that nobody reads books. And, I mean nobody. The bookstores (liberias) only sell paper goods and supplies (no actually novels). When Greg and I were reading in one of the microbuses, a child behind us asked us in Spanish ¨what are those and what are they for?¨ Surprised, we told him they were for fun and that we liked to read. The kid then borrowed the book just to flip through the pages and check it out. Our teachers from Xela even said that people in Guatemala just don´t read books including those who know how to read. We´re pretty sure its much easier to find English language novels than Spanish ones.

3. Note: do not steal our multi-million dollar business plan. since we have a lot of time to spare, we´ve been thinking about our future plans to make millions. We discovered a drink in Guatemala called Ades which is a soy-milk based fruit juice. Even Greg loves it and doesn´t care that its ¨soy¨. Our plan is to either become the US distributor for Ades (no pronounced AIDS), or to replicate the recipe and create a new product for the US. No, this is not stealling. We´ve been discussed possible target consumers, marketing, and other business plans in great detail.

4. When not planning the start of our Fortune 500 company for soy-juice (help us think of a good name, please!), we´ve been disucssing what kind of restaurant we would want to own. Shana´s favorite so far is ¨A la mode¨ where dishes are accompanied by an appropriate scoop of ice cream (e.g. rhubarb crips with strawberry ice cream). She´ll also do weekend brunch. Not surprisingly, Greg wants a sportsbar and steak house which organizes recreational sports leagues in its next door field.