La Casa

So I'm doing my very first blog post.  Becky actually wrote the last one.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to figure out how to put up pictures.  I thought I'd give some details about our where we live.  Our little apartment is in the back of a very nice family's house.  It seems all the houses here have little courtyards in the middle of them, as if the house were a square with a hollow middle.  This family cleared out the back three rooms and turned them into a small apartment.  I don't think it was too tricky, the stove isn't connected to a gas line.  It works off a propane tank, which really isn't too bad of an arrangement.  Plus I get to light a match every time I want to cook something.  There's no running water in the kitchen, but we have a huge jug of drinking water that gets delivered twice a week.

 

 Kitchen

There's running water in the bathroom so we can wash our hands, and there's a shower, though there doesn't seem to be hot water.  Its been cold the last couple of days, so that's been kind of hard, but otherwise its really not a problem.  

We have the back half of the courtyard (its fenced off to give us some security).  Everything here is pretty big on security.  All windows facing outside of the house have bars on them.  In our little courtyard is a big...thingy.  Its concrete or something, and on the right its a very deep tank sealed with tile.  On the left is a shallow corrugated bit.  Both have drains.  There's a faucet above the tank which we fill with water, and then use to dump over the dishes or clothes that we wash on the other side.

 The courtyard, the "thingy," our hand-washed laundry hanging out to dry!

We have two other rooms, a bedroom and a living room.  The bed is big, plenty of room for us both.

  

Our Bedroom

The living room has a couch, chair, and desk, as well as a tv with cable.  We don't use the tv too much, but sometimes we get worn out and just need to veg in front of it. 

The TV is to the left facing our very-not-comfortable couch. Also we named the overly friendly looking character in that painting "Ernesto"

Our place is just at the foot of a big hill that overlooks Antigua.  I think we posted a picture from there last time, there's a big cross there.  We walk up there sometimes.  There's a really nice path through the forest, everything is green and quiet.  I really like it.  Its kind of steep, so its a good workout for my calves and butt.  About a block down the hill from us is a fresh fruit stand where we can buy pineapples and bananas.  Its amazing how cheap the fresh produce is.  I bought a pineapple yesterday for what would be about 35 cents.  There's also a bakery where we buy fresh bread every day or so (they have this delicious bread that is just the perfect amount of sweetness) and a convenience store where we can get stuff if we need it quick.  Most of our shopping is done at the market, but that's another post.  Let's see if I can't find how to put some pictures up now...

The little park just outside our place.  There's at lest two or three couples making out in it at any given moment.

Our apartment is through that little door, down a hallway, and in the back of the courtyard.