First, the tooth thing. Two teeth need to be replaced and speaking as one with an implant in the front of my face I know how unpleasant it is to have a hole there. Layne has two holes making her self conscious about smiling. Both of the holes are at stage six in the pictures below.
The Guatemalan dentist started on picture seven cutting open one implant base to see about screwing in a false tooth, picture 8. What he found neatly embedded in Laynes’s jaw is a receptacle (pictures four and five) inserted months ago but of a type not compatible with the inserts he uses. There are it turns out hundreds of incompatible tooth implant inserts. Who knew? So…After the dentist in Algodones did not respond to his request for information on the type of implant used in Layne’s jaw we had some thinking to do.
If we continue south looking for a solution every visit to a dentist will require cutting open the gum to see if the insert is compatible. Or we go back to the dentist that inserted them and finish the job. Layne had thought about flying but she does not want to be 2,000 miles away and have a problem crop up when she is all by herself. We do this thing together, the three of us.
So there is the advantage that if we go north for a few months and then return in November the weather will be good and it will be the right season to travel. Travelers in El Salvador and Nicaragua report 100 degree temperatures and here in mountainous Antigua we get daily thunderstorms, not exactly Rusty’s delight, along with almost daily rain.
Given that we want the tooth thing fixed we plan to take advantage of a summer in the States, visit friends and do some early maintenance on GANNET2 which will give me peace of mind. Interestingly Layne has found a pilot in Panama who will fly the three of us for a reasonable cost to Colombia so when we ship the van Rusty won’t have to be in a cage in the hold of a commercial airliner. I was looking forward to putting that to the test and we will next January I expect. Also we have paid a deposit to the Overland Embassy in Panama to get a place in line for a container when the time comes. I have set myself a deadline of November 1st to be back here so we are not planning to give up.
“Here” puts us in the foodie capital of Guatemala, a city dedicated to foreign visitors, a city now suffering the growing pains of wealth generation that displaces locals everywhere in the world that becomes fashionable.
We did our part having lunch at an Italian deli owned by an Italian, above, who grew up near the Swiss border and has emigrated here of all places. The prosciutto and Parmesan sandwich on crusty bread was excellent.
Antigua is a city of ruins, knocked down by earthquakes in 1773 when the two hundred year old city was ordered abandoned by the Spanish authorities who moved the capital 20 miles away to a safer spot.
Those that remained used the 16th century street grid as the base on which to build an 18th and 19th century colonial city around the ruins that were left in place and ignored.
These are the ruins of the Antigua Guatemala Cathedral, open for you to wander for the low low price of three dollars a head. Quite evocative.
Friends of ours from Bend, Oregon in a Jeep Gladiator are leaving today for El Salvador, just three hours south of here. I get a twinge hearing that but Courtney then says they are planning to take hotels as the heat will be unbearable.
Roll on November I say.
