Latest / bit of a Rambler / 012 Ramble On

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012 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to a little bonus episode of ramble On
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: where I talk about what went on in my life
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this week. Well, I'm in a new neighborhood, my transition
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: location between Guatemala City and Schella, Shela also known as Katzaltenango,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but that name's too long, so everybody just says Shella.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Shella is three thousand feet higher than Guatemala City, which
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: is already the height of Denver. So I'm pretty excited
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to go get some slight altitude sickness and run around
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: some mountains. All of the mountains in Shella are way
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: closer to the city than the mountains near Guatemala City,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: so I'm pretty excited to go because I should be
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: able to just walk out of the city for several
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: hours and hike some peaks, and those are going to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: be some tall, tall peaks. Also, at eight thousand feet,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it's going to be pretty chilly, so I'm kind of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: looking forward to some colder weather and rainy season starts
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: this month. It finally started to rain just a bit
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: with regularity this week and I'm kind of curious because
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: it's a drastic increase. In Guatemala, it's like five to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: ten millimeters in January and February, twenty millimeters in March,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: about forty fifty millimeters in April, and then one hundred
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and sixty millimeters in May. So I'm about to see
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: three hundred I should be seeing three hundred percent increase
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in rainfall this month, and next month it's even more,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but not such a drastic increase, but I wouldn't mind
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: some more rain. And it has been much more cloudy
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: this week in gray, which is nice because it was
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: getting a little warm for me in Guatemala, Guatemala City anyway.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But that will quickly be remedied in I don't know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: twelve hours or so, as soon as I jump a
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: couple thousand feet in elevation few thousand feet. Really excited
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to see how I feel at eight thousand feet elevation.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I've never permanently lived. I don't think I've spent that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: much time before at that elevation. Yeah, that might actually
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: be the highest I've ever been in Denver. I drove
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to other towns that were a couple hundred feet up,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: but that's still subs six thousand feet and this is
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: going to be nearly eight thousand without climbing any mountains.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't even check how tall the mountains are. The
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: place I rented in Shella next to this mountain Kalbaoul.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I just checked that that's already eighty six fifty eight thousand,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty feet, and the mountain right next
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to the town Almolonga is ten thousand, five hundred feet.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So I don't even think I can climb something that
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: high without some kind of winter gear. I don't know.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I'll walk around. I'm very excited to go now it
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: should be fun. I mean I was already excited to go,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: but now I know that I might get frostpied or
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: hypothermia plus rainfall. Oh okay, I just checked. I'm glad
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going tomorrow. There's two more cloudy days and then
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it's apparently thunderstormy for the next two weeks. After that,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I might get my fill of rainfall. You know what,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I don't even have an umbrella anymore. Oh, I don't
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: even have any shoes that. I don't have any boots
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: or anything. I just have my boat shoes, which don't
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: block water at all. And then my my slippers that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I made myself, my waraches or in Ketsaltonago in Guatemala,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: my chankleitas, which are just like simple sandals. Whatever. I'll
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: figure it out. Oh dang, you know how Guatemala City
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: was like two hundred or one hundred eighty millimeters of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: rain or whatever. Shella in May is actually the highest
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: month of the year and is five hundred and fifty.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So I'm going from fifty to five hundred fifty. Whoa,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that is even more. That's gonna be a lot. That's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: in one month. That's more rain in one month, the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: month I'm arriving than most countries get in a full year.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: That's twenty inches of rain in a month. That's almost
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: an inch of rain a day. All right, I'm into it.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I was just talking about how I missed the rainy
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: weather and how it's looking forward to it, and I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: am gonna get my bill. Probably just have to stay
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: in So I'm playing video games all the time. Still
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: working on Ghost of Tsushima. I'm like thirty percent in.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I finished Act one. I think that's a big game,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: pretty fun so far. I marked all the places in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Sheella and Guatemala that I can climb all the volcanoes
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: around there, and I don't know which ones are active,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: but I'll check that before I start walking in that direction.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: But honestly, with five hundred and fifty millimeters millimeters millimeters
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: millimeters of precipitation, that's I really don't know if I'll
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: be able to climb anything out there. But I could
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: take a couple of cool videos. I can pretend I
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: climb them and tell you won't know any difference. Now,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I'll definitely at least Bawoul all one hundred percent climb
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: ba Wool. If they have guide ropes to hang on
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to during the rainy season, jeez, they might actually close
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the trails that much rain. Oh, I'm so excited to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: see this, and I'm very glad that I'm taking the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: bus tomorrow instead of in a couple of days when
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the rain is supposed to start. That much rain should
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: make a significant difference in the amount of vegetation. But
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: also it's three thousand feet higher, it's a thousand meters higher,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: so everything's going to be different. Oh, I'm so curious
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: what this is going to be like, because it's the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: second largest city in Guatemala, so it can't be, you know,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a terrible place to live. Although everyone in Guatemala City
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I know says that they won't live in Shella because
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: it's too cold. They all lived there for three months
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: or six months or a couple of years, all the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: taxi drivers I talked to and the people I've met here,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: but none of them want to keep living there. Everyone
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: in Guatemala City is like, Nope, couldn't keep living there.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Too cold. But no one mentioned the insane amount of
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: rain that's going to be there. But I can handle
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a few weeks of that before. Where am I going
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to go next? I'm thinking of Panama, Mexico City, or
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Costa Rica, someplace safe. I was into Ecuador, like I mentioned,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: but those express kidnapping, I mean, not crime rates so much,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: which doesn't really bother me, but the violent crime rate,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: like the straight up violence attacking people, seems to have
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: sharply increased in the last few years. And I'm right
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: next to Panama and it would just be cool to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: see the Panama Canal. I don't know, I'll tell you
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: next week. I'll probably have an idea or decision by then,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: or not it'll probably be two weeks from now, but
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: maybe who knows. What are you doing when you're not
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: playing Ghost of Sushi Monk Hi? Well, I am pickling.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I've been pickling onions. Pickled onions are the best vegetable
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: right now that I love the most to pickle. I've
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: been eating them every day, pickling him every few days,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: and just crunching them up. I've been actually beering it
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: up this week because I've been rewatching some shows. So
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of Corona with lime juice and lime peels inside,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of Firefly, Infinity Train, Tucker and Dale versus
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Evil Samurai, Champloo Over the Garden Wall started that again.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Keno Nottabi finally finished the rewatch. I'm on the third
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: light novel of Quino, which I really like. I'm they
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: captured the books really well in the TV show and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: now I kind of want to watch the new TV
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: show again. Did I mention Firefly? That's been a trip
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to start rewatching again. It might have finally been long
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: enough where I can rewatch it and enjoy it. I
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: watched that so many times I just couldn't watch it
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: again for a decade or something because I remembered everything.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: That's not fun. But I was checking out the first
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: episode again and while I did still remember everything, it
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: was still fresh enough. And I haven't read any of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the comics recently also, so I think I'm going to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: watch the show, maybe the movie, and then definitely check
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: out the comics again and see what new comics have
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: been published since the last time I read them. I've
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: been reading a lot of comics lately, pretty interested in
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Brian Michael Bendis's autobiographical comics, one where he tried to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: make a movie, or was rather offered offered by Hollywood,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: let's make a movie together, and then they didn't go through.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: And then this other failed Tale of Broadway where he
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: was supposed to write Spider Man the musical and that
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: somehow fell through also, but I just started it, so
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know what happens yet, but it's really fun
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to get back into comics again. It's been a while. Oh,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and I just rewatched Hannah, which is like my favorite
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: movie and I always think of naming my daughter after
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Hannah when I have one, or Syrsha, Right, isn't Syrsha
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: such a cool name name of the actress who plays
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Hannah in the movie. But then I was like, you
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: know what, the show's over. It's complete. The TV show
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that they made, it's kind of a reboot. So I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: tried to watch it, but the first thirty minutes were
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: so bad compared to the movie that I couldn't even
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: finish it. If anybody has seen Hannah the TV show
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and liked it, gently encourage me without any spoilers, or
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I will bite my thumb at you to complete the show,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: because the introduction of the show is absurd, and I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: get they want to do stuff different, but none of
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the choices they are making seem like Hannah at all.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering if maybe they're just introducing the character and
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: they're gonna make her cool life, but I don't that's
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: not the point of Hannah. I will finish the first episode,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: but boy, that first half hour was not entertaining or
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: interesting and did a lot to make the characters who
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I love in the movie people to ignore and criticize
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: in the show everyone I like all of the characters
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: significantly less so far. Oh yeah, and pickling. So I've
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: been pickling. And then the onions go on nachos and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Tamali's and just a jar of him to eat while
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I watched these shows or read something. Piggled onions. I mean,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like that was a stand up comedy punchline
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: a lot. But boy, boy boy, I just made some
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: tonight actually red onions too. I'm into pickled red onions. Now,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: those are the jam. You know. There haven't been any
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: holidays for the first time since I've been in Guatemala City,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: in this new place I'm at, And I don't know
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: if it's because I'm in a different neighborhood that doesn't
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: like allow for large gatherings like the old one I
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: was in for a few months, or because the months
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I spent in like overlapping holidays in that other neighborhood
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: have finally ended, like just in time for me to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: move on, and maybe ended just in time for the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: rainy season which would flood everybody out. Wait a minute, Okay,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I just looked at Flagstaff. Sheella has twenty inches of rain,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty milliters. Flagstaff, Arizona only has five
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: inches of rain, and I watched the floods literally carry
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: cars down the road. All Right, I'll let you know
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: what this is like if there's anything left of me
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: after this trip. Good gosh, that's a crazy amount of rain.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: And I looked it up and there's a few paragraphs
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: about the rainiest month in Sella, which is May, and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: they're all like an explodeion of precipitation of rainfall. So
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I'm in for it. I better hike. Like the first
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: day I get there might be late afternoon, so okay,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'll definitely try and get out the second because I
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: don't know if I'll even be able to go outside
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the whole rest of the month. Maybe that is why
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the holidays have ceased. It's just too rainy for partying
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: in the streets these days. At least, I'm kind of
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the city, so I'm not going
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: to fall off in a mudslide or something, although I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: am right next to a giant mountain, so hopefully that
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't mud slide onto my neighborhood. Just some cheery thoughts.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I'll say this new spot in Zone eleven versus Zone one, Misco,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: though I'm in Misco Norte now is nicer because there
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: are no karaoke and there's no dogs barking literally all night.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I couldn't record this because there were dogs barking
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: until three am or people singing until three am, not karaoke.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: They pretty much always ended that around ten thirty eleven,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: but sometimes some drunk guys would get together in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: alley behind my window and hang out there for a while,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and rarely too long, but one time it happened till
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: three thirty am before I could start recording anything, which
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: is too long, folks, too long to drunkenly yell at
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: each other while you're next to a residence. That's it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: This week, I'm just into finding out what the rainy
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: season is like in the rainiest land of them all. Wow.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I just checked top cities and there aren't a lot
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: over three thousand millimeters per year, and cat saltan Ango's
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: at thirty three hundred. So this really is gonna be
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: This is gonna be a doozy good thing. I love rain,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Otherwise this would be an unwelcome development. Instead. This is
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: when I landed in Guatemala and checked the map and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: there were forty volcanoes, and I was like, oh, great,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: volcanoes are cool. I like volcan I just found out
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to the rainiest one of the rainiest cities
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: in the world. Really, there aren't a lot on this
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: list that are over three thousand. There is one that's
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: almost twelve thousand in Columbia, which is crazy. That just
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: must be flooded all the time. Or maybe that's like
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Kilo and Hawaii is just like the top of a
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: mountain that catches every cloud that goes by it, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it's a constant rainforest. Do I sound nervous, I'm not nervous.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: It's fine. Oh, before I forget. I also watched The
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Mole Undercover in North Korea, which is a real life documentary.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: This guy was seemingly randomly interested in infiltrating the Danish
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: friendship association with North Korea and contacted this documentarian who's
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: known for sensationalism self admittedly matn Sbruger. And it just
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: keeps growing and growing until this guy straight up infiltrated
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: North Korean weapons deals and like high level officials in
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the government by pretending he needed weapons to buy from
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: North Korea, which if you don't know, is internationally illegal,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Like that's the country you don't do deals with, and
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: they build a whole weapons base and everything. I would
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: recommend checking this documentary out it's just called The Mole
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Undercover in North Korea by Mads Bruger. That was a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: truly shocking documentary. I'm going to watch The Black Swan
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: next because now really interested in what this guy makes.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: It is so much fun remembering all of these stories
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: when I'm traveling and finding old journal entries and making
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: these podcasts, because some of the stories I get to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: tell are still some of my funniest memories ever. I
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: just remembered that I had roommates for like four months,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: six months something like that, because I just wanted to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: try what it was like, and those people were wack
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a doo, but I got some really funny stories living
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: with them, and it was an experience living in the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: middle of Beijing. So I'm gonna share a few of
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: those stories in the first ones about popcorn, and I
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: might change the order just so I can get the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: popcorn one out sooner. But yeah, it's so much fun
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: remembering and telling these stories again. Oh, I just rewatched
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Scott Pilgrim, which is the best comic film adaptation ever.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: It's so funny. I don't know if I mentioned this,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I'll mention in the Guatemal episode, but it's really cool
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: here that something can be completely closed and locked, but
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: if the cool little lantern or lamp above the door
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: is on, then it's totally cool to knock on the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: door and they'll answer and serve you, just like as
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: if the door was open or everything was open. But usually,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: for the first month I was here, if something was closed,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I just didn't go there because I thought they were
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: closed once the door closed. But that's not how businesses
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: work here. They're open and then they close at like five.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But if the lamp is still on, you just knock
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: on the door and then they'll keep doing business. Oh
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and talking about awesome stuff. I remembered when I first
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: bought at Tamali, the it tasted like artichoke, like they
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: had mixed artichoke in and I was like, that is
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: such a perfect flavor to be mixed into the maize dough.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And then I realized that it wasn't artichoke. When I
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: steamed the Tamali. The banana leaf it was wrapped in
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: was infusing the dough with the flavor of banana leaf,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: which I guess to me tastes very similar to artichokes.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to me. Ramble on if you
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: want to talk about your rainy adventures, I am a
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: bit of a rambler at gmail dot com or all
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the socials, and I'll catch you on the flip flops