Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@social.cleverlibre.org

@AE4WX You should be able to set up any number of subdomains, each of which can be used for anything you like whole web sites, blogs, Wordpress instances, whatever.

@trouble @pseudonym It seems do-able to me but I wonder where's the catch I must be missing? What are the hurdles? I'm sure that manufacturers have set up hurdles to make what we're talking about impossible so they can protect their closed market of people who expect to pay prices that are 250-plus percent higher.

The same thing exists with pharmaceuticals and prices that are 5 to 25 times higher than the same drug in Guatemala. But the game is rigged so you can't get around it.

@el_rubino I hear you. I'm at 4-1/2 days from first symptoms and am now improving rapidly. Good luck.

@Geojoek Congrats!

@lauren Yeah. I hadn't given it much thought before. I guess only the military needed the manuverability and ability to travel in any direction at any time regardless of the wind.

Merchantmen can wait for favorable wind conditions.

@lauren Good to know. What about traders, freighters, etc? I'll bet they relied on sail only. Oarsmen are not cheap to maintain even if they're slaves.

@Teri_Kanefield Wow. That is an absolutely excellent blog post. Pure brain candy. Thanks for posting it.

@ai6yr I dunno. Looks highly subversive to me.

@brendo @charlotteclymer At any earlier time but now they would have been.

@Dtl It's very nice indeed.

@sidereal @pseudonym Ask and ye shall receive. (I just posted some info in the thread).

@pseudonym Seems to be a fair amount of interest in this. A few seconds with a search engine would turn all this up. But if I needed to outfit a house in Guatemala again (I lived there for 15 years) I already know what I'm looking for.

Small appliance stores are common. The "big dog" is called La Curacao. They have big stores in big cities and malls down to tiny stores in tiny towns. All my experiences with them, first and second-hand, have been excellent. La Curacao is the go-to place in Guatemala if you need appliances of any kind (electrodomesticos). Best Buy is probably the closest equivalent in the U.S., except there are no tiny Best Buy stores in tiny towns.

I think we were mainly talking about refrigerators and that plain refrigerators are gone. They are not. Guatemalans, especially Guatemalan women are astute buyers. "What is this silly feature and why am I paying for it? Show me another one."

A quick look at La Curacao's web site shows plenty of ordinary refrigerators and stoves.

Here's a brand I've owned before, Cetron.

https://www.lacuracaonline.com/guatemala/refrigeradora-cetron-rcc390ovne-frost-14-ft3-439613700005/p

14 cu ft. Q4,300 or $559 USD

Type "refrigeradoras" into the search box or here's a link that should list a number of refrigerators.

https://www.lacuracaonline.com/guatemala/catalogsearch/result/?q=refrigeradoras

To convert from Q to dollars, multiply by 0.13

The following link should bring up a number of free-standing and countertop stoves.

https://www.lacuracaonline.com/guatemala/catalogsearch/result/?q=estufas

If not, type "estufas" into the search box.

You can get even better deals from small "mom and pop" appliance stores but you won't get the backup you get with La Curacao in terms of guarantees and repairs, even if you move to a different part of the country. La Curacao is everywhere so I think it's smart to buy from them.

@pseudonym If you're serious, I would begin my search for appliances in Latin America, where people don't buy products with nonsense features or that are not easily repairable. You'll find stoves that are just stoves. Refrigerators that are just refrigerators. It's like the 1960s but all new using the latest high-tech, high-efficiency, low power consumption compressors, etc.

There are many brands to choose from in Central and South America. Find out where they are sourced and import them.