You will be missed. My family hasn't been here very long if you think about it ( 1950's ). Sorry to hear you are leaving. I have been considering the Canada move for my family also. It looks more and more tempting every year. Comcast does rock though! I love my high-speed Comcast line ( I'm in Oregon ). It blows DSL off the planet. I've lived for long periods in third world countries and I wouldn't do it again if you paid me a million bucks. I do hope the Canada thing works out for you guys, I completely understand though. I work with a guy who's Chinese and now a US citizen but his wife, mother and other siblings are not. I hear his nightmare stories about having to deal with the immigration people just to keep his family here. I hate to see America going down this route. I'll tell you a funny story though, hopefully it will cheer you up and show you how moronic our immigration policy is:

I was a Marine for 8 years. During that time you are often given a choice of training types while you are back in the US waiting to go on your next deployment. The coices I was given were "go fight forest fires" or "go help the border patrol". I took border patrol. So my job was to sit in a hole on the side of a hill out in the middle of the desert with a spotting scope and count immigrants crossing the fence, usually at night. Then I had to call on the radio to the border patrol the position of the immigrants and they direction they were headed. Then border patrol would go pick them up. So myself and this other guy were assigned to this hide-hole. During the day not many people cross. It's to hot and they can get seen easier so we ended up talking alot during the day to pass the time. I asked him how he got into the US as he was hispanic, if his family had been here a long time or had they come more recently? He said when he was a kid his parents brought him over the border at night and later on he'd gotten his green card. He was earning his citizenship by serving in the Marines. So there we were, me, a Norwegian who's parents had immigrated to the US in the 50's and, him, a Mexican who came into the US illegally and we were out helping the border patrol catch immigrants. It made both of us laugh at how stupid things have gotten.

LOL is all I can say :)

Mike, Funny and Ridiculous what I've read. Some often I come to your site to read your blogs and some of them are good and very instructive. I’ve always learned things from you. But now all I can say: “You made me laugh a lot”. Who the fuck said Guatemala is a 3rd world country? What are the facts that makes people like you think or say that? Maybe because the water is not "pure"? or because there are no "nice" and "advanced" airplane terminals? maybe because we have not "Las vegas" or a “huge” liberty statue? or could be that the fact that the 60% of the people is analphabet.
It could be the stupid policeman, the stupid cashier, the stupid sales person, the stupid, the stupid, the stupid…who? You may find lots of “stupid people” and “reasons” to call Guatemala a 3rd world country.

But those who have all at hand to be a real “nation” and real “human being behaviors” and don’t “think” and “act” like they “actually have it” makes me feel shamed of them: “the 1st world nations”. If you have water to drink, why go to other countries and bomb the natural reserves? If you have acres and acres for living and hundreds of working opportunities, why depend of other countries labor force or look for “cheap” places to live? (makes think of those “blood suckers” called in Spanish “sanguijuelas”). It’s so absurd to see that the “culture” you have is nothing (I should say shit) compared to ours: we have kept for centuries “humanity, compassion, honesty, friendship, loyalty, piety, carefulness” and so many virtues that you’ve completely lost.

I estimate friendship and other things from you, but I cannot accept to see how you are coming back to Guatemala and come along with that thinking. Does Gabi accept that? Does that means that you formed you 50% of your professional career and knowledge in a 3rd world country? Does that mean that you married to a 3rd world girl?

You better reconsider how you call us, before yourself gets confused about what you really are and do.

Your good friend Herbert!

Hey Man!

I didn't invent the phrase. I guess I shouldn't use it either? I mean, you know what I think of other "advanced" countries like the USA :)... The fact is, a lot of people use "3rd world" to describe a lot of things you mentioned. Living in Guatemala City, there's nothing wrong. Go up to where my parents have their clinic, and well, you decide.

I agree with you on everything! In fact, I think it was myself who came up with the "culture" argument against the U.S. even before I moved to Guatemala! I lived there for 6 years, married a wonderful girl there, made great friends, and did a lot of cool stuff there. Having it considered "3rd world" by some never came into my mind. I think you know this quite well.

So, here, I'll redefine "3rd world": anywhere I can't get a 4Mbps connection to the Internet for less than $100 a month, have 99.9% uptime, and have the service installed within 2 weeks. :) :) How's that?