referring to the rains tonight, afternoon, cha cha…the umbrella was useless, the streams in the calles/avenidas deep enough to surf and so on…They pulled the rugs out from under Abassi, the Indian restaurant on 4th calle…the rug merchants gone, the retaurant moved up by El Caminante on 1st Avenida. I sense some difficult times ahead for retailers, with some unusual closures noted…Da Vinci, lights out on a Tuesday evening(alas, Claudia’s 1,2 & 3)..Las Palmas closed? La Esquina, lights out still? Sobremesa on 4th dark? wtf? yeah, the rains dampened any spirits or ideas about going out, unless absolutely necessary(I’m drenched)..long chat with JEH about tourism and the future of same here…neither of us at all optimistic…Clinton doesn’t show up anymore, Paris and Mel only here for some kinda ‘save the kids’ or working off some ‘community service time’ and the big question…why would any ‘high roller’s, aka the ones who book the hotels at $300-$500 a night plus transport, air fare and so on…choose to come here? the food? the sights? the atmosphere? JEH has his perspective, I have mine…Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel, Vegas, Hawaii…30 years of living in ‘tourist’ towns…I like it here but Idon’t see the draw…or the attempt to sweeten the pot(hello, INGUAT)Honduras has a better tourist bureau, El Salvador’s kicks serious butt, Costa Rica is a known quantity and even that Commie paradise known as Nicaragua is stealing business…and i’m not even mentioning Cuba…and as screwed up as they are, even ‘they’ are sucking in the tourist $$$’s…maybe it’s time to roll over and let the narco $$$ flow…we know that gambling is illegal in the City but casinos are there…open a few casinos in Antigua, let the ‘escort’ business thrive and open/change a few hotels along the model of the infamous Del Rey in San Jose, Costa Rica…allow some light prostitution, light gambling and light drugs..Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulez! let the International Gaming Technolgy group owned lock, stock and barrel by Sig Rogich of Vegas come in…Reagan’s Ambassador to Iceland..the 80’s..they’re in South America, Central America and all over…sell out to the hucksters,the pimps and the narcos…$$$ talks and bull shit walks…Guatemala is walking..no, limping..legalize blow, let the drug subs land in Puerto Quetzal, refuel and off load a few tons of Bolivian ‘marching powder’ and see how soon tourism picks up…it could be a ‘white Christmas’ ….beef up the cops as does Vegas and the boys from Metro…they don’t take shit from anyone..do some kinda ‘zone’ like Amsterdam..hash, blow, weed and hookers..the only thing missing from this equation is hash…with a phone call, the other three are ‘here’…get over it..you want some phone numbers?
welcome to Guatemala! pass the straw..
Our Man in Antigua 
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