House Hunting Post #3

We spent the weekend back in the town of Sayaxche' house hunting. 

The entrance sign to our new town

It says "Welcome to Sayaxche" and is advertising the Hotel Del Rio where we stay.

We had recently found out that the house we wanted to rent flooded due to the recent rains.  That was discouraging to hear.  Because of that we are nervous to rent that property.  We had a few others in mind.  After driving by them we noticed that the "for rent" signs were taken down.  We went to the restaurant that our friend owns to ask her about the properties, but it was closed- due to the flooding.  So, we went to her parents restaurant to ask how to contact her.  There we met her dad , Rosendo, and he started explaining that our second and third choice houses had both been rented.  I felt the tears coming on.  After talking with him for a minute he then mentioned a house he will have for rent the first of the month on his property.  We immediately asked to see it.  The people in it now are using it as an office.  They are actually the ones moving to our second choice house next weekend.  They needed more space. 

And here it is, a view from the road

You can't tell much from the photo but it's all I could get for now.  It is a three bedroom, two bath (one indoors and one outdoors, haha), it has a good sized living room, and a kitchen.  Yes, you read that right, a kitchen.  That has been an issue in this area.  NO other house we have looked at has a kitchen.  Before you get too excited, let me explain that it's not what you think.  There is a small tile countertop, with no cabinets, but it does have a single sink.  That made us very happy!  It has a tin roof.  The bedrooms have false ceilings but not the rest of the house.  We are discussing ideas about what to do about that.  All in all, the house has a lot of potential.  We like it and feel like we'll be happy there.  I felt very safe on the property and that was a huge concern for me.  Within minutes of seeing the house David turned to me and said, "I would feel ok leaving you here".  What he meant was we know that now with the baby there will be times he'll be gone overnight and I won't be able to go with him.  I DO NOT like staying by myself, so having a house that I would feel safe in was big to me.  We both felt like this would be a safe place for us to live. 

We had another appointment to see another property later that afternoon.  We told the above owner we'd let him know something the next morning.  The second place we looked at we also loved.  It was a large apartment on the second floor of a large building.  It had a large living area, three very large bedrooms, one bath, and a large space to build a kitchen.  The only problem is that it had no water hookup.  We knew it would be a hassle and time consuming to have water, a kitchen sink, and a washing machine put in a second story building.  We decided not to consider that place. 

We ate dinner and prayed over it that night.  The next morning we ate breakfast at Rosendo's restaurant (which is steps from the house and the same restaurant we ate at on our first house hunting trip) and looked at the house again.  We decided that was the house for us and we made plans to rent it.  The current renters will move out over the weekend and we'll be able to move in on the first.  We are very excited and anxious to get moved in!

To celebrate we decided to drive into Santa Elena to eat at the Pizza Hut.  The road north ends in Sayaxche and you have to cross the ferry over the Passion River to continue on.  This will be something we will do often because we will do most all of our shopping there, and most all of our work will be further north.  Santa Elena is an hour away once you cross the ferry.

It wasn't Cruz's first time to cross but it was the first time I got out to take photos.  This is us on the ferry.

Here are a few photos of our new town from the ferry-

The river is still up more than normal.  The building that has "restaurante" written on it is the Guayacan Hotel where we have spent many nights in the past, and many teams have slept there as well.

I mentioned that we were going to Pizza Hut.  Yes, we LOVE their pizza, but the real reason we wanted to eat there was because of their horchata.  David has always liked this drink, and I am just now beginning to love it.  The horchata at Pizza Hut is really good!

Sunday afternoon we stopped at this restaurant outside of Chisec to eat.  We've seen it for years but never stopped to try it out.  I am glad we did because we really enjoyed it!

David and Cruz

Our little family, about to be on the move again. 

We've lived in five different places in the past year.  We can't tell you just how excited we are to get settled in somewhere, long term, and have all of our stuff under one roof!