Smoke in Guatemala
(Wrote this draft a couple of weeks ago and forgot it). Back from Salsa at a nightclub here in Xela, in the Guatemalan highlands. Good fun, but way too much smoke - had to leave early.

Mainstream social activities, revolving around cigarettes and beer, don't work for me. I need to find what alternatives there are here, formal or informal.

One of my favorite bits of advice (that I haven't tried) comes from rococoabean: When in a new city, join a choir.  Choirs are filled with interesting and intelligent people, who are willing to get of the couch, or skip the bar, and come and do something challenging and cultured.

Another thing I would do (as I'm much geekier than rococoabean) is to join the local Linux Users Group - the kind of place to meet intelligent people with interests in open source, and collaboration in tech. There's actually one here, but there's no meeting information :-(.

Update: As of December 15, I'm told that smoking will be banned in Guatemala, in public places such as nightclubs. Yay! That's not a complete escape from smoke, in a culture where, like Indonesians, they just love burning things. But if it's enforced at all, it will be a big improvement.