Land and Lawyers

Friday 30th Nov.

The next stage of our land purchase and registration goes through.

First we return to the municipality to hand on the paper the mayor has written for us to 'dismember' our plot from Gonzalo's whole landholding. We meet the municipality officer again who asks why we have come back. Hmmm? We say to give you the documents you asked for. He sort of shrugs, accepts them and hands them to someone else in the office. We get time for one question. How long with the process take to get legal title.

Twenty days or so he says. The mayor of El Remate will be told, he'll tell us - or Carolyn - the Canadian who is going to represent us and then we go to a lawyer to finalise everything.

Our next stop today is to visit the lawyer to arrange power of attorney for Carolyn. We explain what we want to do at the desk and things take a dark turn. The receptionist explains we have not yet bought anything. Have we paid any money? Yes. But only a little amount? No, it all. Sucks teeth. Oh dear, you must get Gonzalo in this afternoon to sign a letter saying he will give you the title to the land. We try and explain that he does not have title yet but we get nowhere.

Shaken, we sit down and wait to see the lawyer - a big emotive man behind a big wooden desk. he glances at our papers as Georgia explains. It is strange being on the edge of a conversation in another language and not being able to contribute.

He glowers and in a deep, serious voice explains that we have not bought anything, the papers are worthless and that we must get Gonzalo in. Georgia says that the municipality AND the Mayor have not said anything about this and think everything is in order. 'They are wrong or lying' is what I tihnk he says. The atmosphere darkens, our insides liquify. Bugger! He brusquely picks the papers from me, which he has stapled together, and asks where the lake is, where the road is on the map. We say a long distance away, this is not the main road but a lane. The land is inside not lakeside. Instantly he leaps to his feet, smiles and shakes Georgia's hand while proclaiming 'no problema'. There's no problem then, everything is in order, the right procedure has been followed, give Carolyn photocopies of your passports and she can act for you when the title is ready to be legally finalised. Goodbye.

A scene from Not the Nine O'Clock News or the Guatemalan legal system?

It left us perplexed though a lot happier.