|
Back to school Well our free salsa lesson confirmed we danced like ducks, but we had more expectations for Spanish school and the chance to live in one place for several weeks. But first we passed a few days in Antigua to get to Quetzaltenango. 
Surrounded by several volcanoes, Antigua was the Spanish capital of Central America and is now a tourist haven town of cobbled streets. It still retains a different distant feel to the rest of Guatemala and is also much cooler and comfortable. However it doesn't quite feel real and our first night we ate suckling pig tortillas and Gallo beer, the proud cock of Guatemala in a Bavarian restuarant. 
We soon discovered reality too. Walking 10 minutes around the bustling labrynth market, Johanna's new indigenous bag was silently knifed, luckily she didn't lose anything. Later however an sweet old lady lifted our spirits with a delicious cinamon rice pudding drink and empanadas as we sat amongst the colour of corn, mangoes, apples, carrots, onions, giant radishes, flowers, cucumbers, tomatoes, hanging chicken and beef.
We were keen to enroll in Spanish school and took a minibus to Quetzaltenango or Xela as it's locally known from it's Quiche routes. Traditional clothes are common here, women wear elaborate hand woven colourful skirts, blouses and head bands, some men in surrounding villages wear traditional outfits too.
I once read that across Latin America these designs originated from regional villages in Spain, were brought across during Spanish rule and then mixed with native ideas. We heard the dress and Mayan languages were heavily discriminated by the government 30+ years ago so it's good now to feel the resurgance in pride and equal rights.
At 2335 metres the air in Quetzaltenango is thin enough to get out of breath while walking and talking at the same time. It can be 30c in the sun but it's also the start of the wet season. The nights are cold without heating and the afternoons visited by rain and clouds. Just as well there are lots of nice cafes and bars here to hang out in and do our homework.
We enlisted at Celas Maya Spanish school on Monday and lessons began on Tuesday.
http://www.celasmaya.edu.gt/
It costs 75 UK pounds per week for 22.5 hours of personal tuition, 7 nights accomodation with a family and 6 days full board. Its one of the best and most economical places to learn Spanish in the world.
Starting mid week meant we were placed with an untrialled family. They were lovely people to speak with, but our initial delight wore rapidly thin as the annoyances mounted. The food was dull, the old lady was staring all the time, the sheets and towels covered in horrible stains and everything I touched in the bathroom seemed to break.
It's was horrible making our polite lies but we had to leave. But were immediatly happy with our next home and host Albina Sanchez and family. Albina lives with her 2 sons and her close family in adoining houses. She took great care helping us with our Spanish and cooked tasty and healthy traditional food such as tamales, tortillas, empanadas, refried and broad beans. And we hardly ever ate the same meal twice. The first 2 weeks also staying there was Mike from Leeds and Aarron from Washington DC.
The world economic crises is affecting everywhere we go, here the fuel prices have risen a lot and the price of basic commodities such as rice, flour and chicken have also gone through the roof. Its very hard for a lot of people to live with the same quality of life as before.
Johanna took a different teacher for each of the 3 weeks as its often better to change for learning purposes. However I got on really well with my teacher Gustavo, I'd already learnt some grammer and so we spent a lot of time talking and laughing in Spanish which was very beneficial to my ability to communicate. I can speak okay Spanish now with the right person but out on the streets sometimes it feels like I can't understand a word.
Our first Saturday off we took a local 'chicken' bus to Fuentes Georginas, a natural volcanic hot springs in the hills. The heat creates it's own tropical sub-climate and floating in the hot pools you can look up against a silloute of mist and ferns as if in the jungle. We stayed there most of the day until our hands are toes could take no more wrinkling. Then on the way back we stopped at the village of Zunil and visited the pretty old church with frightening wooden statues of Jesus and Mary and many of the icons who were oddly carrying swords.
Nearby we asked locals where the Mayan shrine of San Simon was. San Simon is an effigy that is moved to a different house each year to maintain a balance of power. He originates from a Mayan god but blended with Christianity in order to continue it's worship during Spanish rule.
In a small concrete room sat San Simon in a cowboy hat, endlessly smoking cigarettes and the odd shot of rum. People would ask him for help with their lives, for health, love, success with their farms, work and money. Each would try on his hat while chanting and making the sign of a cross with his cane.
Outside huge fire crackers went off, a man was burning an unplucked chicken and others were making elaborate colourful 4 pointed circles with choclate cakes, colourfull candles and sweets. Then pouring over rum and small prayer notes before setting them on fire as a ritual sacrifice. Outside lay a man on the floor clearly competely intoxicated with cane spirit.
Another weekend we hiked to a sacred volcanic crater lake called Laguna Chicobal. The steep ascent was tough at this altitude and it started raining just as we arrived. At first the mist was so great we could only see the flowers left as offerings then as we ate our lunch the mist would clear in rolls revealing the beautiful special crater and lush rainforest we were in.
The tail of an early hurricane passed over the mountains and we had nearly two weeks of rain and cold weather wearing us down. But we achieved our goal and our Spanish has greatly improved for both of us and we met lots of new friends at the school. Now its time to continue our travelling and hopefully now gaining more from our experience.
|
