Latest / bit of a Rambler / 014 Ramble On

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014 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kay and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And today we're on about some rambling on. Okay, there
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: was like three minutes of me ranting about the Hanna
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: TV show because I did try to finish the first
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: episode like I said I would last week. But the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: long and short of it is that it's not good,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So I didn't finish the first episode. I got rid
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the three minutes and just put in this little
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: summary instead. Moving on to my journey to Katsaltanango, also
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: known as Shella. I'm just going to talk about my
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: very first few steps into Shella and my airbnb because
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's surprising. I made it to Shella, second biggest city
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: in Guatemala, which is kind of shocking because it's small.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: If that's the second biggest city in Guatemala, it's pretty
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: wild because yeah, it's a tiny city. It's difficult to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: call it a city. I walked literally across the whole
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: thing and I think an hour and fifteen minutes maybe.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I took one of the cross country buses. They have
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a chartered bus. It was the first thing I found.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: The private buses. I didn't realize there was a whole
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: cheap local bus chicken buses. I guess some of them
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: call them online. But still it was only ninety kits all,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: so I don't know, twelve dollars maybe, and it's a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: three hour drive. A three hour drive? Is it even
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a three hour ride in Gilligan's Island. I don't think
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I've ever made that joke before. I'm on the spot
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: performing for you. Okay, So the ride was very comfortable,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but we did go fast, and it's not like we
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: went fast on an American highway where it's straight for
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: literally one thousand miles. We were on switchbacks on the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: top of Sheer cliffs because we're already at five thousand
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: feet high, and then Ketzaltenango or Sheela is another three
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: thousand feet, so we're almost eight thousand feet high, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: he's just slamming the gas and whipping around corners that
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you can feel the bus like tipping, and you literally
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: slide across your seat left and right as they take
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: these big turns. And I was kind of shocked because
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: there's been one accident since I got to Guatemala, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: after I was on what's like a safer ride it
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: was safer than the chicken bus I got on more
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: recently down to Panahachel, which I'll talk about probably next time.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: But it was still pretty It felt precarious, and I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, and I totally see how a bus
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: dropped off a mountain, and I'm surprised more busses haven't
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: dropped down mountains recently. Because these roads are not wide,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they are tiny little roads. There's no hiking trails. You
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: gotta take one of these buses if you're gonna get
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: around Guatemala, or you can ride a BT like the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: guy I knew from the supermarket rode his bike, his
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: motorcycle eight hours north to visit his family and then
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: eight hours back over two days over one weekend because
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: he had a couple days off from his supermarket job.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: And that's also insane. Because the roads are so thin
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and nobody is particularly worried about you being there. They're
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: pretty careful, like they're pretty courteous. If you're going to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: cross the street, a car will stop for you, like
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: half the time in Guatemala, but on the highway people
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: pass each other without checking. They certainly pass each other
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: around bends, not every time, but they're not worried. Really.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: If they're on a bike, they'll just zoop right around,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and if there's a car there, they'll be like oh
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and hit the brake and slide back behind the car.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: They were about to pass on the highway on a roundabout.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: And when I say highway, I mean there's two lands.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I say highway just because it's the main, well maintained
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: road between two cities. But this is a two car
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: lengths wide highway. It's not a huge road. That said,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: we did make it too, Sala fine. And then I
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: walked from the bus station down to my Airbnb, which
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the Airbnb is probably going to be the brunt of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: this episode because it was surprising. First of all, the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: addresses are weird because half the time on Google it
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: gives you coordinates like not an address, but there are
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: actual addresses for all the places, and all the locals
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: use the name of the street address, but Google has
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the wrong street address all the time. Ways seems to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: have better maps for Guatemala, So if you do decide
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: to go to Guatemala, which does rock, I would say
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: use Ways instead of Google, even though I didn't. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: just use my offline maps maps me okay, but let
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: me tell you about my Airbnb, which looked a little weird,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't think I should get
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: this one. But I was curious, and I was only
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: staying for a week anyway, and I was like, I mean,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: at the worst, I can handle a week. At the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: worst worst, I can just leave if it's a total
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: something completely wrong. Airbnb is pretty generous with being like, yes,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that's not a real place. Okay, here, we'll rebook you
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a place with the bunny already paid in a new place.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: But this is not a cautionary tale if you take
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the very normal precautions of does your host answer when
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you message them, does the ad look legitimate? Are there
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: lots of reviews? You're not going to run into any
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of the stuff I'm about to talk about. It's sort
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of a hobby of mine to find the weird new
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: hosts that don't know what they're doing. So I wasn't
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: too worried, and I was on an adventure, you know.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I was finally getting out of staying in the same
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: city for like three months, and I did. But my
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: friend Cynthia Hey told me that I could go to
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Sheila if I wanted to. But Sheila is pretty much
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: just Guatemala City but tiny, and I was like, oh, really,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: like people talk about it like it's a whole different
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. She's like, yeah, I don't know. When
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I was there, it's just like a tiny city. There's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: still a lot of traffic. So if you don't like that,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you're not really gonna like Shalla that much. And she's right.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I was very surprised. I showed up in Kazaltanango and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: when I was walking from the bus station down to
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: my airbnb, the bus stations like in the north Cardinal
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: north of town and my airbnb was in the Cardinal
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: south east. There were more trees in Sheella and like
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: more apparent mountains close to the city as compared to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Guatemala City, but it still had the industrial Guatemala City feel.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I was walking and there was a whole bunch of
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: traffic and everything just kind of seemed similar. It was
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: definitely smaller. It's a smaller city by far, but it
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: was just a tiny city. There was still a lot
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of traffic that I didn't really like. And after twenty
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: minutes of walking, I was like, well, she was right,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and I let her know that Yep, this is just
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a tiny Guatemala city. But Cabro is from Chella, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: so I did want to get a Cabro beer while
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I was in Sheella and take a picture of it
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: for the beer with a view communities online, because that's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: as social as I will ever be. Also, a guy
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: on the bus who's from Shechella was talking to me
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, his English is pretty good
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: for a Guatemalan and then he told me that he
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: was just visiting Guatemala and he's actually lived in the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: United States for forty years, and I was like, oh, well,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: maybe it should be better after forty years. But then
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, you know people who were in
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: China for almost thirty years and they didn't learn any Chinese,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: so can't be too harsh on someone. But I don't
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: know what his situation was or anything. From working until
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: four am, like usual, I worked through the night for
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: audio stuff and then took the bus early morning so
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that I would be sure I got to Sheila sometime
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: during the day. No matter what went wrong with the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: buses on the highway, which I was assured something will
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: go wrong, and something did go wrong, but not on
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the trip to Sheela on the trip from Shella to Panahachel,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: which I'll get to in the next episode, I think,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: because I haven't even got to the airbnb yet. Okay,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I talked to a nice guy on the bus that
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was the whole story, and he told me that May
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was the craziest rainy season in Guatemala. In Ketsaltanago specifically,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: like all the rain was coming down. It has half
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: as much rain as Seattle, not through the whole year.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: The annual yearly rainfall of Seattle, half of that amount
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: happens in one month in Ketsaltenango. So it rains pretty
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: much constantly in kats Altanango in May, except when I
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: was there, which was the first week of May, like
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: May sixth to the thirteenth, so actually almost the second
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: week of May. Yeah, that's so weird that there wasn't
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: much rain there. Anyway, there was no rain, so I
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: was able to walk across the city to my airbnb
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: and then didn't rain the whole day, and it didn't
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: rain the next day. It rained a few times, but
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: it seemed just like on and off regular kind of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like Seattle. Whether it didn't seem like half of Seattle's
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: annual rainfall was falling during this one month, which almanacically
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it was supposed to. So I get to my Airbnb,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I ask a nice lady down the crooked alleys, Hey,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: where's this place? And she said, oh, just followed the numbers,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: because all the numbers are posted right in front of
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the doors, and you're on the right street. And I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was like, oh oh, and the numbers are all separated
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: by a hyphen, and I thought the hyphen meant something.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: But you can just leave out the hyphen and just
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: use it doesn't matter. Just follow the numbers. And it
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: just made sense to me all of a sudden, how
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: simple the numbering system was. So I did. I followed
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the addresses, and then I realized she must not have
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: been from around here, because we were standing almost in
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: front of the door that I was supposed to go to.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: So I did. I followed that, and I was right
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: next to a huge church. And while I had booked
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: this reservation, the host hadn't answered me right away, and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: they seemed kind of harried, i'll say, like kind of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: busy or preoccupied whenever they did answer me. But it
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: had a bidet. It had a private detached bathroom, I
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: kind of wanted to see what would happen. I just
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was like, yeah, it's nice enough. The pictures looked nice.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Although the pictures they did have writing on the pictures,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: like it was a flyer rather than a candid photo
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that they took with their phone. And I was like,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: that's weird. But like I said, I clocked it as
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a little weird, but I'm very interested in new, maybe
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: weird stuff, and it didn't feel dangerous. I ended up
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: arriving over an hour early, and originally I said I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: would arrive at three pm. So I hung out at
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the bus station for a second, checked my map, and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: then messaged my host that I was on my way.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I would be a couple hours or something. I figured
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: walking would take me a little time and then I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: would arrive closer to hour agreed upon time. So I
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: texted the host is it okay if I show up
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a little early, maybe an hour early? And the host
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: didn't answer. I've only had three hosts in Guatemala, and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: both the first and second did not answer very quickly
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: or at all. Sometimes my new host in panahatchell has
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: answered me very quickly, but my first landlord in Guatemala
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: was super slow and didn't really address any issues, but
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the place was nice, so I didn't really care, and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I liked the neighborhood a lot. And then my second
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: host in, Shechella, was also super slow and didn't address
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: any of my issues, like my issues with the room
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: specifically and how they differed from the advertisement of the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: room or the listing as poor trade. So anyway, she
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't answer me. I get to the place and I
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: ring the door buzzer around one thirty or so and
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: she answers, kai, hey, come in, Come in, And then
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: the first thing she says is I didn't know you
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: were coming. You're here really early. And that's like a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: bad sign because I had booked the room a week
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: prior and then messaged her as soon as I got
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: off the bus at the bus terminal and knew I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: had a couple hours walking ahead of me for her
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to have time to make everything ready, and I was
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: pretty close to the schedule derived time anyway, so even
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: with a week of prep time and then on the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: day a couple hours of prep time, she was already
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: throwing up disclaimers. And I said, I don't know how
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: long the bus will take, but I'm estimating three pm,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't like I arrived at eleven am. I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: was one forty five, so I was like a little
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: over an hour early. And I was like, oh, this
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: will be interesting. And then I walked in and I
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: didn't clock it right away, but it made an impression
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of uh oh, and I was like wait, and I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: walked back out to check it. Like after she introduced
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: me to the room itself inside and the whole front
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: yard is an abandoned swing set, abandoned children's playground, like
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: straight up resident evil, red, rusted metal and all this stuff.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So it looks ominous walking in, but it wasn't. It
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: didn't feel ominous. It didn't feel scary. It didn't feel
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: threatening or anything like that. When I was in the house,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: it felt like a family home, but it was dirty. Now.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: She talked to me a lot to this host, and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it became very quickly apparent that she had two kids,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: she was a single mother. She was trying to start
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: up this airbnb thing but had no idea how the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: internet worked or anything. And she showed me to my room,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: which the bed sheets did not smell bad. The bedsheets
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: like smell just like normal bedsheets and the shower tiles
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: were clean. And that's about what I can say for
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the positive parts of this room. There's a skylight one
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: meter by one. Oh. Actually, you know where we should
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: start is that it wasn't the room in the advertisement.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: It was just not that room. I don't know if
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: that room existed anywhere in the house. So the first
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: thing I noticed was, oh, this is a totally different
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: room than on that listing. And she took me in
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: and showed me the bathroom and the toilet, and she
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: was like, see, it's really clean, and it wasn't clean,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Like the inside of the bowl was stained black with
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: black streaks. Like the water part of the toilet was clean.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: The toilet bowl that was correct, because that's where she
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: put in the chemical probably and then flushed away the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: paint or whatever that was. But everywhere above the water
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: line still had black streaks, and one of the toilet
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: seat hinges were broken, so it was off at an
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: angle and you couldn't put it straight. The sink also
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: had those black stains too, They just looked like old paint.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: The shower worked, but she was like, it's super hot,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: so you kind of have to move it like move
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the switch, because there's a switch on Guatemalin showers for
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the heat on the shower head itself separate from the water,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: knobs back and forth from cold to hot, cold to hot,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and then you'll get a nice like medium. I was like, okay,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and she was like, it seems like a hassle, but
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: it's not a hassle. That would have been a hassle.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: But I knew what the problem was with the shower,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and I was like, well, I can fix that in
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: like five minutes, so whatever. She's also explaining everything in Spanish,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: which at this point is okay. It's been three months.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I remembering most things, even if I don't understand one
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: hundred percent with someone's saying, I know most of the words,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: so it was okay that she was explaining most of
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: this in Spanish. And then she explained that I had
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a work station which was a table with a tablecloth
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: that said sample text on it and was laid over it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: But that's fine. It was a work table. That's good
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: because I didn't notice for two days and then I
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was wondering what it said and I realized it just
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: said sample text one day and I really liked that
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: little detail of the room. There was a big cabinet
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: with trash bags lining the shelves. Not sure why. I
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: figured all these rooms had been closed off for some
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: amount of time, so that was like a dust guard.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: It looked like all of these rooms, because she did
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: show me a couple other rooms and they were a
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: complete mess. But my room looked like she had put
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: sheets on the bed recently that she had washed, because
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: those sheets were clean. There was a giant spider in
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: one of the sheets, and then there was a huge
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: clump of like hair and dust, like huge, as in
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the size of my fist. After she left, I picked
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: up one of the pillows just to put on the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: other one to lay down, and when I picked it up,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was right under or what,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: but there was a fist sized clump of oily hair
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and dirt, and I was like, oh, that's that's a problem.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: That's a lot of dirt. But the pillows smelled like
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: they were freshly laundered, and like I said, the blankets
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: had zero scent at all, which again was impressive. As
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: all go on here. She showed me the bed and
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: that was pretty much it. When she turned on the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: shower to show me. I saw like three of the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: holes in the shower worked, and I was like, Okay,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I'll just fix the shower while I'm here, because they
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: like clog up with calcium or minerals, and then all
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you have to do is clean the little holes in
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the shower and it works normal for a couple weeks
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: until the minerals build up. But I was only going
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to be there for a week anyway, so that wasn't
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a huge issue. But she started talking to me and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: asked me what my story was, and she told me
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: her story, and then she was like, but the door
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: has no lock on it, which I hadn't noticed until
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that point. And she said, oh, but do you want
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: a lock or no? No, you don't want to lock. No.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I do need a door
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that like locks because I have all my stuff in here,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and she said, oh, don't worry about that. Your stuff
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: is safe here. You don't really need a lock. There's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: no one else here, only me and I work most days,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: so it'll just be you every day except for Saturday
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and Sunday. Really, so it's just you and me. Also,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I do have two children. They will be here every
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: day all day Saturday Sunday, and then mornings and evenings
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: when they're not at school Monday through Friday. Also, there
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: is a man who lives across the hall from you here,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and she pointed diagonally across the hall to another room
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: where apparently a man was staying. And I was like, oh, okay,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: so it's not just you and me, it's this is
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: where you and your kids live. And then also there's
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: a guy across the hall. She was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Also there's a couple behind your room living in another
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: room and they live there. So there's five, six, six
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: six of us in here besides you, So there's seven
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: of us altogether. And I was like, oh, okay, that's fine.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I will need a lock for the door, though. That's
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of people and you know, And she was like, yeah, totally,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I'll get you a lock. I'll get you a lock.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Can I give you it tomorrow. I go to work
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: tomorrow and when I get back from work, i'll get
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: back like five or six I can give you the lock.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And there were holes on the door in the doorframe
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: for like a padlock to fit into. And I was like, yeah,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that's fine. I just was like, well, if I go out,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I'll just go out for an hour. I'll be close
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood and I'll come right back. And then
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: she explained, also, there are six cats here, no little cats,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: baby cats, kittens, kittens. There are six kittens right now here.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, yeah, no, I can see
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: them because we're standing in the hallway and there's six
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: kittens all around us and a couple bigger cats. I
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: was like, it looks like there's two cats also at
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: plus the six kin. She was like, those are their parents. Yeah,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: there's also the two. So there's eight cats. These small cats.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give them around the neighborhood and like sell
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: them soon. But they have to like grow up for
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a week or two here with their parents, so they'll
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: be here for like two weeks and then they'll be gone.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: You don't even have to worry about it. And I'm
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: only gonna be there for a week. So I was like, yeah, whatever,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I'm fine with kittens. I like cats. She's like, okay, great,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: let me show you the kitchen. And the kitchen is
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a wreck. It has a working gas stove, it has
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: two microwaves that do not work. But are in there,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: don't know why, and you can plug him in and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the lights come on, but they both don't work. I
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: don't use microwaves anyway. It's just this was such a
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: bizarre situation. I feel like I should mention the microwaves.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I used chairs to put a comforter over and then
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: speak into the microphone like that. Just a simple audio
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: setup so that the sound waves don't bounce all around
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the room. And so I asked if I could use
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: one of the chairs at the table. When I picked
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: it up, I saw that it was broken, like the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: seat of the chair itself was completely broken, which doesn't
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: matter to me for the high backed chairs. But she
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: kept explaining to me, don't sit on the chairs. They
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: won't work. Don't sit on them. And I was like, yeah, okay,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put a blanket on top of them. Okay,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: as long as you don't sit on them because they're broken.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: But there were a lot of pants to use. The
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: stove work. There was a working refrigerator. She was like,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the second shelf is all yours. You're free to use
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the stovetop as much as you want. And I said, okay, great,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: that sounds good. To me, and she was like, just
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: don't let any of the cats in here. And I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, yeah, can be messy. She was like,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: if you let the cats in here, they're going to
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: break stuff and mess make a mess. And I was like, no,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I get it. They're very messy creatures, especially kittens. No,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I won't let any of them in here. Yeah, so
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: if you open the door, make sure a cat's not
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: coming in because if it's in here and the door closes,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it's gonna make a mess everywhere. And I was like, yeah, no,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I get it, So just keep them out of the door.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And I was like, okay. Her kids must have let
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: in the cats a bunch of times or something. And
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: she was like, this is your water, so you can
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: just drink as much water as you want. And it
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: was like an office cooler water tank thing. There was
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: like half a gallon maybe a couple of liters. And
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, is there a place to refill
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it like a water filter because I do drink a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: lot of water, so this will probably be gone by tomorrow.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: And she was like, well, I'll just fill it up
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: or you if you want more water, I can just
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: order it for you. And then you can buy it.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And I was like, don't you have to provide drinking water?
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Isn't that one of the rules of Airbnb? But I
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: was like okay, because I was like, I'm just gonna
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: deal with this for a week and then I'll be gone.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: And it was only ten kuts all, so it's like
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a buck fifteen or whatever for a huge water cooler tanker.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: But after I got that extra water jar, I found
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: out that what she meant was you buy it and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: then we'll all use it, because I didn't use all
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: of it in the next two days, but it was
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: gone after the next two days. After that jug was gone,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the one I bought for ten katslas or whatever, she
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: asked if I wanted another one, and I was like, yeah, sure,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and then she said, okay, I'll get it, and then
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: she just didn't get it. So I just started boiling
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: water in teapots and that was fine. I asked her
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: about the Wi Fi. She told me she couldn't read
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the router for the password, so I went over and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: read it and then gave it to her, and she
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: asked me how she could put it on the Airbnb listing,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and I showed her she looked. She just looked so
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: rushed and exasperated and like barely alive that I wasn't
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: going to complain to Airbnb about any of this, which
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I may if she was a rude person or just
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: a not nice person, or if anything was dangerous, then
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I probably would have reported it to Airbnb and went
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: somewhere else. But it was clear that she just had
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: no idea what she was doing. She put this listing
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: on too early. She didn't ask anyone for advice or
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: watch a YouTube video about how to set up an Airbnb.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: She didn't follow any of the rules of the airbnbs,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and I figured I could talk to her after a
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: couple days. I was exhausted that day. I worked through
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the night and then got on a morning bus and
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: then I was in Sheella, so I hadn't slept for
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: a while. But I figured i'd talked to her a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: little bit later, let her know that I stay in
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of airbnbs, and just tell her a few
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: things she can do so that her guests will feel
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: more comfortable. Except I didn't rea see her again. I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: saw her one more time, and the whole week I
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: was there, and I messaged her a few times, but
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: she didn't really get back to me. And again it
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was very clear that it was because she was taking
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: care of her two kids by herself in addition to
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a full time job, and she just didn't know what
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: she was doing. But the last thing she said to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: me before I stopped talking to her on that introductory
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: day was okay, so just like for the rating, give
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: me a five star. And I was like, oh, and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I have to stay here first
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and then see how I like it, but she forestalled
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: what I was going to say and continued on with
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: or a four star if whatever you're honestly feeling a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: four or five star, whatever you're honestly feeling five or four,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you can just write that in the review. Also write
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: nice things in the review so that other foreigners will
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: want to come here. And you know what, I wanted
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to help her, but I don't get Airbnb reviews under
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: four stars because they're usually like this mom. They're usually
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: like a mom who's doing this for the first time,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and she's doing her best, and she just doesn't understand
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that the standards of a hosted domicile that someone is
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: renting from you and the standards are listed on the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: service that you are providing this room on. They have
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to be met, just the bare minimums. Like when we
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: walked in the room, she was just like, oh, yeah,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: there's dust everywhere because dust just comes down from the ceilings.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: The ceilings are old, so there's like dust everywhere. But
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I've swept it like a hundred times. I can't get
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: rid of the dust. And there was dust everywhere the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: whole time I was there. The floor was dusty, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I slowly got rid of it because I would walk
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: on it. It'd got on my feet. I'd wash them
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: off in the shower. But at the end of the week,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: there was still a bunch of dust on the floor.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Even after the dust in my room was gone, the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: dust in the whole rest of the area, that whole building,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: there was dust everywhere else that was never cleaned up.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: So I would track that back into my room because
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I had to walk down a couple corridors and whatever
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to get back into my room dusty corridors. There was
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: less dust because I cleaned it up with my feet
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and the shower, but it was a dusty place altogether.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: But she wasn't being ill intentional she wasn't trying to
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: take advantage of other people. This is a pretty low
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: income country. This was not a crazy room to find.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: When you're just renting rooms in Guatemala in general, it's
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: just not what you want to list and then have
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the listing show a completely clean room with a new shower, toilet,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: new painted walls. Show it what it is because people
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: like me. If it's a dirty place and you make
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it cheaper, I don't care. Sure, I'll pay four less
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: dollars for the dirty room. But if you say it's
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: clean and then I show up and it's covered in dust,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: or if you say you have a bidet and there's
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: no bidet, or if you say it's a private room
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: but the door doesn't lock. Oh. I also found out
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that the curtains are so sheer you can see right
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: through them. So I had been changing for a couple days,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and then when I walked outside my room, I looked
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: in one time with the light on, and I was like, oh,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you can see right through these curtains. Good to know
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: that's a problem. So I haven't left a review for
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: that particular quarter because I'm pretty sure if she has
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: more time, she's going to clean it up, and I
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: had a list. I kept a list of things to
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: talk to her about because I have done that with
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: other Airbnb people before. I've been like, hey, look, this
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: is not what you said in the ad. I got
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: her place largely because of the bidet in the ad,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: which was not there in the room. And she asked
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: me if I needed each item, like do you need
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the towel? Yeah, I need the towel, Okay, do you
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: need the soap? I was like, h yeah, I'll use
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the soap. Do you need the toothpaste? No? She was
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: like great, I'll take that and took it back. She
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: was like do you need and she took like half
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: the things because I said I wasn't going to use them,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: but just check that stuff beforehand, so you don't put
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it out and then take it away when it's in
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: front of the guests standing there. That's a weirder time
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to take back the toiletries or necessities. I was using
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: my backwoods bidet, my little bottle bidet, so I was like, well,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna use the toilet paper and she was like,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: oh you're not, and like grabbed it like that was
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: a oh my gosh. She must have had one roll extra.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And all of that said, she gave me a couple cheers.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: She gave me an extra comforter so that I could
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: set up a little studio inside the room and do
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: this after I fixed the shower. After I cleaned the shower,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't really have to fix much. Actually it worked good.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I tried to use it for like two days, I think,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: with the crappy blocked spigot holes, but like I said,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: only five of them worked, so the water was burning hot,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: burning hot. But after I cleaned out all the holes
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: in the spigot, it worked fine. It worked normally. Oh
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and then the first time I used the curtain rod
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: for the shower, it fell down on my head and
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I realized that it hadn't ever been braced into the wall.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: So I fixed that. The toilet was running, so I
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: cleaned the little seal and fixed that, and then I
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: picked up one of the pillows and a spider crawled out. Okay,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: that's part one. That's part one of sella Ketsaltenango, my weird,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: dirty airbnb that honestly wasn't that uncomfortable to be in.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: It was just a weird more homestay situation that I
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: never got a lock for my own door, and I
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: tried to message her about the lock, and then figured
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I could point out these problems with the apartment afterwards.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: But she never got back to me before twelve hours
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: was up, and usually it was a day or more.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: She didn't get back to me at all. But once
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: she did she would say, oh, do you still want
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: a lock. I'd be like, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll bring
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: it right after work today. And I got that like
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: three times, and then I never got a lock. Now
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you might be wondering, then just get your own luck
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: or just leave to go to a different place. I
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: don't mind weirdos, and she was a weirdo just trying
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to start up the airbnb business. The bed was comfortable,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: everything was clean enough except the weird dusty floors. Even
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the black marks and the toilet and the sink. They
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: didn't look like mold. They just looked like a stain
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: that she hadn't got around to scrubbing off yet. I
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: could use the kettle to boil water. It wasn't a
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: huge problem for me. I was only staying a week.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: It was a fun little adventure that didn't negatively impact me,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: and it was super quiet at night, so I could
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: record stuff like this pretty easily. But I got into
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: some cool stuff in Shella, and I will talk to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you about it on the next ramble on. Thank you
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: for listening, and I will talk to you soon