Alexander Ruled the World. What Would He Have Paid for Modern Medical Care?
What do King Tutankhamen, Alexander the Great, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson, and J.P. Morgan all have in common? Despite living the richest and most luxurious lifestyles for their time and era, their lives sucked compared to yours
For the low low price of 1500Q ($195), we committed to a month in a 1 bedroom apartment in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. What do you get for $6.50 a night?
On the top floor of Hotel Helen, just off the water, there is a small private apartment with kitchen, bathroom, floor to ceiling windows and sliding doors, an open balcony, and a view that is worth every penny. Our friends come daily to eat and drink in our breakfast nook and relax on the balcony, more for the view than the company, I’m sure. We wake up everyday, roll over, and look out the glass wall towards Lake Atitlán and the nearby peak known as Indian’s Nose.
Indian’s Nose, Right Outside our Door
The location is superb, just off the local boat dock and a few steps from the main intersection where we can catch a tuk tuk to anywhere in town for 5Q per person (~$0.75.) The local market is a short uphill walk away, and there are many restaurants and cafes on the lake just downstairs.
“Hmm, this is interesting… I don’t understand what happened. Hold on a moment”, says our friendly neighborhood bilingual immigration officer.
About 20 minutes later he returns with a small stack of documents
“Normally”, he begins, “all US passport holders and green card holders are automatically given a 180 day visa when they enter the country. For some reason, you were only granted 30 days. But we can process your extension application here.”
“All you have to do is….”
Never before have I seen water so blue that it blends with the sky. Between San Cristobal de Las Casas and Palenque, Mexico, the waterfalls at Agua Azul and Misol-Ha are incredibly beautiful. Both sites are great to spend an afternoon lounging about and swimming.
Lower Pools at Agua Azul
Jungle 1 – Mayan City 0
If you had to build a city entirely out of stone, without the use of the wheel or animal or machine power, would you build it in the middle of a hot and humid jungle? The Mayans did. And then they abandoned it. I speculate that this was because it was hot and humid and in the middle of a jungle, so all of the local teenagers decided to go to college elsewhere
The jungle didn’t waste any time reclaiming its lost territory, and since the modern world rediscovered the ruins sometime around the birth of the United States, only about 5% of the city has been excavated. Over 1000 buildings are still buried under dirt, vines, and trees. Home maintenance is important in this part of the world
