He´d Give You the Pants off His ...

His name is Morgan. He is one of the owners of a really cool little cafe/bar half a block from our apartment. We were the only customers in Kafka tonight when we stopped by for a late night bite to eat. This seemed to be good luck for us, since we caught Morgan in a talkative mood. It was obviously not good news for Morgan, who would probably have preferred to have a full house tonight.
We originally met Morgan the day that Gene sat down and ripped one entire leg out of his pants. Later that day, we dropped by his bar for lunch and asked where a 6' 2" guy might buy a pair of pants in Antigua! "I might have some jeans that would fit you!" said Morgan. Whenever he sees pants in the market that look like they might be long enough for him, he buys them. So he had a pair that were a bit short for him, but turned out to fit Gene almost perfectly. So I don't know if Morgan would give you the shirt off his back, but he did give Gene the pants off his ... What a guy!
Still in his 20's, originally from Alaska, in Guatemala for a year and a half after traveling to various other places, Morgan turns out to be a friendly guy who loves Antigua but seems a little uncertain about what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He tells me that $400 a month is a good deal for our funky little 2 room apartment in this town. I had assumed that we were overpaying dramatically to get a short-term rental. After all, I thought, for $425 a month in Costa Rica, we have a really nice 3 bedroom 2 bath, 2 story house! And Costa Rica is known to be the most expensive country in Central America. Nevertheless, says Morgan, this may be a poor country, but Antigua is the most expensive city in Central america. Interesting perspective, given how much less expensive it is to eat in restaurants here than at home. So, it seems, housing here is expensive, but food is very reasonable. Does this all make sense? Beats the hell out of me.
I have noticed also that while there are something like 80 language schools in this town, and a couple of travel agencies on every block, I have not seen one real estate office. Now I know that there are 3 or 4 such offices, although I don't know where. But I'm remembering that everywhere else that I've ever gone, there have been multitudes of real estate offices.
Eventually someone is going to explain all this to me. But meanwhile, as I may have mentioned before, I could live here!