How to Stay Cool in Guatemala

Posted on March 8, 2010 - Filed Under Guatemala, Simple Life | 2 International Amigos Said

It’s hot right now around here. And by hot, I mean HOT. It’s 40° C in our main room and a balmy 28.6° in the bathroom (a good reason to have a concrete roof on your house!). In light of this body melting heat, I thought I’d share a few of our favorite ways to cool off.

1. Shower. Or, if there’s no water, which frequently happens, drop small children into the pila and pour the water over them, then let them throw guacales of water at you.

2. Soak your shirt. Take that sucker off, run it under the cool tap water, wring it out and put it back on. Repeat every five minutes, when the shirt dries.

3. Drape a cool cloth around your neck. Twisting a couple of ice cubes into the middle where it hangs against your neck will keep it moist longer.

4. Eat ice cream, Popsicles or ice cubes. Enough said.

5. Keep a jug of water in the fridge. For best results, don’t eat all morning, then chug it. Your belly will turn into a temp cooling facility.

6. Sleep on a damp towel. I take a nap every afternoon so I can work until 3 am (when, by the way, it is FREEZING!), but with the intense heat, it’s really hard to sleep. So I take a towel off the line that was washed in the morning and is still quite damp, lay that on the bed and pillow and sleep on it. Works wonders!

7. Put your feet in ice water. Only one part of your body needs to be cold in order for the rest of it to cool off. My mom used to say that if you put cold compresses on areas where the blood ran close to the skin (inside the elbows, back of the knees, jugular, etc.) then it would cool your whole body. No clue if that’s medically sound, but hey, it seems to work!

8. Get lots of fans. We’re constantly fighting over fans in our house. We have a broken one that is hung from the ceiling but does little good because we have a tin roof, so it’s just pushing hot air down, and a regular one which i usually commandeer because “my computer is overheating!”

9. Lie on the floor. If you come into our house any given day, you’re likely to find children and adults alike sprawled on the cool tile floor. Those tiles almost never warm up, so they are the perfect place to relax. You know, apart from the back breaking hardness. The boys even nap on the floor from time to time.

10. Hang out outside. If you have a tin roof like we do, then being outdoors in the shade is cooler than being inside. Which is why we have been eating and even working out in the breezeway lately!

And, once you’ve cooled down, don’t forget to stock up on blankets, hats and sweaters because it only lasts til 6pm and then the cold sets in!