Our First Week of 52, or more...

We arrived in Guatemala City on Thursday, March 10th, 2011.  Julie lost a contact lens at DIA  and did her best pirate imitation all the way to the hotel.  After a couple of days of realizing that "wow, we really don't speak any Spanish at all" we made our way to Quetzaltenango -- Xela for short, pronounced "shay-la" -- for four weeks of Spanish school.  Our cab driver in el Guate pulled over about nine times because he couldn't find our bus station, but I'm pretty sure we tipped him well for the spontaneous tour.




Courtyard of our school, Celas Maya

Xela is amazing -- second largest city in Guatemala but you wouldn't know it.  It's a mountain town at about 7,500 feet, warm during the day, cool at night.  Everyone is super friendly and accomodating.  We live with a very cool familia - Albina and her two sons Eric and Diego, 24 and 20.  They don't speak English, but they are very patient and enthused to help us with our Spanish.  The boys and I talk futbol, musica and Hombre de Famila  - or "Family Guy."  I tend to do a lot of listening during the futbol portion of our conversations.



View from our rooftop bedroom!

Our school, Celas Maya, is tough but fun.  One on one lessons with locals and a very cool internet cafe with pretty much everything we need.  We've met some great people from all over the world - Germany, Austraila, Sweden, Russia, the UK, even exotic locales like Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Ohio.

Julie had her first bout with the baddies.  We took a "Chicken Bus" to Mercado de San Francisco, the largest market in Central America.  People come from El Salvador and Mexico to buy fruit, veggies, animals, clothes, you name it.  Julie thought it might be wise to eat chicharron, or fried pork fat.  And...Buenas Noches.  She hasn't been that sick since she tried scrapple in Philly. 


Local women walking down the street in front of school

Friday night we -- not Julie, still illin' -- did a midnight hike up to the top of Santa Maria during a clear night and a full moon.  Rough five hour trek, quite chilly as we approached to the summit, but well worth it.  Beautiful sunrise, amazing views of everything, including an erupting Volcán Santiaguito!  Sounded like a train.