Moneda Guatemalteca

Perhaps more for my own sake in remembering these fun (yet nearly valueless) coins, I’m recording them here. And for those who like to learn trivial facts about other countries… I present to you the coins in circulation in the Republic of Guatemala: TAILS. All of the coins feature basically the same thing on the … [Read more…]

Some Blog Updates

For those faithful readers, I thought I would go back a few posts and provide an up-to-date report on some recent events (rather than post comments on 2-month-old posts): Frutas Extranjeras: Found out that the jocote is also known as the spondias mombin, the gully plum, the Spanish plum, the hog plum, the Ashanti plum, … [Read more…]

George Bush and the price of corn

About a month ago, Guatemala (and many other Latin American democratic, free nations), was graced with the presence of G.W. Bush. President Bush was here to make deals for purchasing Guatemala’s corn to make ethanol. In the days after Bush flew home, the price of corn increased by 20-25%. “Wonderful!” you may think, “Guatemalan’s will … [Read more…]

A Fraud Story

Internet banking is very handy. I have been using it for 5 years to pay bills and track expenses. What’s really great though is that I can live in Guatemala and maintain an account in Canada without having to walk into a bank. For two weeks, I went without internet at my home because a … [Read more…]

Q/kWh

I feel as though our electric bill is very expensive and I’ve been meaning to ask what it costs everywhere else. Here’s how my bill breaks down: Fixed monthly fee Q10.79 = CDN$1.67 = US$1.41 Monthly public lighting fee Q34.70 = CDN$5.38 = US$4.53 The first 100 kWh costs Q0.779/kWh = CDN$0.121/kWh = US$0.102/kWh Every … [Read more…]

Bills

I’m picking up a short term mission team in Guatemala City tonight. They arrive late, so we spend the night and then visit a couple sites in the capital then drive the 4 hours to Tactic tomorrow. Les isn’t here, so I have to do all the paying for the 19 of us in the … [Read more…]