| My first trip to Guatemala was Christmas 1995. Three
years earlier I had meet and married a beautiful Guatemalan woman and was
anxious to meet her family and see where she grew up. After spending 3
months traveling the countryside by bus I was hooked. However, it took
me 3 more years to finally convince my wife to return to her native land.
In March 1998, we loaded up a Jeep Cherokee and pulled a Nissan Sentra full of our stuff from San Francisco to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. It was a great adventure, but I will leave that trip for a different article. Quetzaltenango, locally known as "Xela" pronounced "Shey-la" is situated at the base of the Santa Maria Volcano about 3 1/2 hours Southwest of Guatemala City. Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala with a population of approximately 125,000 people, however, it is nothing like Guatemala City. Xela is the commercial center of the Western Highlands and therefore has all the luxuries of modern life. Piaz (like a Safeway or Krogers) groceries store, a wide variety of restaurants, Mexican, Chinese, American, Italian and even a brand new McDonald's. There is also an abundance of trade taking place daily with several large open-air markets selling everything imaginable. Life in Xela is much more tranquil than many of the more familiar places in Guatemala. If you are looking for the laid back, tranquil lifestyle Xela may just be the place for you. Below you will find a break down of our monthly expenses in November 1998. We buy all of our food at a large market twice a month and then supplement our daily needs from the local stores and vegetable market near our house. I am sure some people could live on less money but we like to travel and live comfortably! Basic Monthly Expenses for 2 adults, 1 Child (2yrs old)
and a housekeeper
How do we make our living: After returning from Guatemala to California in 1995, we began looking for business ideas that required very little out of pocket cash to start. The business had to have a universal appeal or could be operated over the Internet from Guatemala. One of our long term goals is to have a business that can be operated from a laptop computer anywhere in the world with Internet access. Our first idea was co-op advertising; we produce placemats for restaurants and sell ads on the mats to cover the cost of printing and our profit. This is a simple idea that is working very well here in Xela providing a very nice base income. We design the placemat and have a salesman that actually sells the ad space. One of the hottest industries in Guatemala is tourism and because a great deal of my interest lies with the Internet, I decided to build an Online Travel Guide for Quetzaltenango, everything you wanted to know about Xela, but were afraid to ask! Pointing your browser to: http://www.xelapages.com In addition to the web site, we sell Internet dial-up accounts, domain name registration, web site design and promotion services as well as teach Internet navigation/email classes. We have also been working very hard on other Internet based business ideas. My wife teaches English to 6 children twice a week. Given the right situation a person can make up to $10.00/hr, which is great in Guatemalan standards. It has been easier for her, because she has childhood friends that want her to teach their children English, so she had a leg up from the start. Interest income is another great moneymaker. If you have money to invest, you can receive rates on dollar based 3 month CD accounts as high as 8 or 9% and on Quetzal based CDs 12 to 15%, sometime more. These rates are with reputable banks located in Xela. I would be happy to share my banking information with anyone who is interested. Simply email me at xela@trafficman.com for more info. Renting, buying or building a house: There is an abundance of houses to rent in Xela. You can expect to pay Q1500 to Q2,500 a month depending on what you want. Q1500 will get you 2 or 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, living room, dining room, kitchen...etc. Q2, 500 will get you a modern house containing, master bedroom w/private bath, 3 bedroom, 3 bath, garage, maids quarters w/bath, living room, dining room, kitchen...etc. This will be a very nice house. One thing that you need to consider, when you rent a house here it does not come with a stove, refrigerator, washing machine, or dryer you will need to supply your own. You can find furnished homes but they are going to be more expensive. Buying a house in Xela is almost as easy as renting, if you can pay cash. There are dozens of nice developments with new homes for sale and dozens more being built as I write this article. A nice modern home will cost anywhere from Q350,000 to Q500,000. You can find less expensive homes, but from what we see you are better off spending the money to get a nice, comfortable and secure home. There are real estate agencies all over town just waiting to help! We decided after looking at the houses for sale that we wanted to build our own home. We had a pretty good idea of the house we wanted from looking at books and magazines on home construction. We then searched and found an architect to design the home from our ideas. Construction on the house began in January 1999. We hired the architect to build the structure of the house here this is called "rustico." Once he finishes the structure we will then have him or another team come in an do all the finish work. Expected date of completion is October 1999. Construction costs are approximately Q1200 to Q1400 a square meter (1m2 = 10.78 ft.sq.). This amount will include all construction costs cement, block, tile, bathrooms, kitchen, plumbing and electrical. Most homes are built with reinforced concrete and block, as wood is very expensive. The other component in all this is the cost of the land. Depending on where you are buying, land will cost between Q150 m2 to Q300 m2 and is available in wide variety of locations and sizes. Overall, we are very happy with our move to Guatemala. We are fortunate to have a supportive family and friends to help us along our way. If we can help any of you with your decision to make the move please feel free to contact us anytime. Also, if you are ever in Xela don't forget to stop by for a chat and a cup of hot Guatemalan Java! Tom Lingenfelter
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