Andres.

My recent trip to Guatemala with Amira -- my first journey there

since 1979 -- enabled me to track down some old friends...

who were young friends back then.

These shots show our amigo Andres at 11 in 1977 and 45 in 2011.  He

 and his little brother Manuel lived next door to Linda and me in the center

 of the tiny village of Santa Catarina Palopo.

The two of them were constantly hanging about at the coolest casa on la

calle principal (aka, main street), and who could blame them?  That's where

we lived!  Amazingly, Andres now works in the kitchen of the restaurant

 of the hotel where stayed, the very same hotel on which construction

was just beginning during our first visit there (1977).

Andres, who still lives in the same house, now has five children ranging

in age from 2-16, and I met them all, and his parents, wife, and various

cousins.   Sadly, little Manuel, one of our favorites, became an

alcoholic (Guatemalan men are notoriously terrible drinkers), and he

 died several years ago in his early 30s.