Lately, I’ve been really frustrated with the land workers, mainly the contractor. The others just follow his lead. He’s quite macho and only listens to my boyfriend (BF), but also wants to be treated as an equal, which makes things awkward. While BF was away for a few weeks, I had to supervise the contractor. He did fine in the first week, but in the second week, he and six workers used machetes to clear the land. I suggested splitting the team, one for clearing and another for fixing the road since it had rained a lot and the road needed proper drainage. He told me that the workers were more motivated when they cleaned together rather than working on the road. It felt absurd, like maybe I should bring him a beer to boost his motivation?

The next day, I repeated my request, but he ignored me again. On the third day, I decided to pay him and dismiss the team until further notice. It didn’t make sense to have a skilled builder and himself doing basic cleaning while I was paying them more. My suspicions that he was stalling the work to keep himself and his friends employed longer were confirmed when he came for his check. We’ve been paying him every Saturday for months. He usually takes the check, cashes it, and pays the workers. This time, he wasted an hour running back and forth for his ID, which he needed to cash the check. When he started talking about next week’s plans, I relished telling him that there would be no work next week. His face dropped. I understand it’s harsh and that they need work to eat, but sometimes you must do what’s required rather than what you feel like doing.

I also mentioned that as long as the council didn’t approve our permits, there would be no more work. They should talk to the mayor if they wanted their jobs back. We also had to go through another bureaucratic process with the land registry for our waterfront plot. Normally, plots have a cadaster number and clear limits for easy transfer. Here, someone must visit and take GPS data of the land to confirm ownership due to past corruption and people being dishonest. It took them eight months to come, and it will take another eight months to validate our claim. We had to pay an architect to draw a new map, despite having one in our notarized papers. Now we have a huge banner in front of our house declaring our claim, which seems excessive for a main residence. Bureaucracy is truly baffling sometimes.

On a brighter note, I had a friend visiting this week. He wanted to see some nearby Mayan ruins, so we took his bike and got permission from the National Park rangers to explore the jungle. The road was in bad shape, half of it was terrible, and recent rains didn’t help. At one point, a fallen tree blocked our path, but my friend managed to jump the bike over it. Despite some falls and tough terrain, we made it deeper into the jungle, although we never found the specific ruins we were looking for. We ended up at Yaxhá, a stunning site where Survivors Guatemala was filmed. The ruins are incredible, with no barriers, allowing you to climb and explore freely. It’s a stark contrast to Europe, where such sites are heavily restricted.

Afterward, we enjoyed fish by the lake and had a refreshing swim, perfect after a day in the hot, humid jungle being attacked by mosquitoes. It was a great way to end the day.