Home at last

We are safe and sound...We are renting a neat little house in a place called Bajo Calvo it is close to other little towns called Bajos de Orco, Guaitil, and Toledo. We are in Acosta, about five miles from San Ignacio, the municipal center. However, that five miles takes a good thirty minutes because the majority of the road is unpaved. We have several neighbors who are all more or less in the same extended family. We rent the house from this family. They are fantastic. They have great oranges and limes and we are getting spoiled on fresh produce. Our house is quite adequate. There are actually three beds. One in a guest room and one sort of out back in a storage room. I will not ask anyone to stay in this room. Anyhow, we have a place to do our laundry (by hand) and a sacadora, or machine that spins the laundry very quickly to get most of the moisture out. Our kitchen is fine, but Ancho is aching to purchase a gas stove, because ours is electric. We also are lacking an oven, which has drawbacks. The only other lack is hot water, which we are working on presently. Here, noone uses a hotwater heater, but instead they use these sort of hazardous looking contraptions that one might think of as a point of use heater in a shower head. Ethan, you should cringe now. Taped electric connections within a few inches of a shower head. Ground? GFCI? what is that? We took a long walk this morning with my friends Cecilia and Marina. It was very pretty. Ancho is finally starting to get my explanation of why running here proves difficult. You are either walking up or down, not much in between.
Anyhow, we are enjoying cooking for ourselves and having some down time. I will probably start doing some more anthropological type stuff in the coming days. Ancho is plotting his training for the Tour de France 2006. We hope that everyone is well.

Much love,
Ancho and Lefty