Xela - Week 2

Last weekend we went to Laguna Chicabel, an extinct volcano with a green lake in its crater. As you can see it´s very beautiful, but whoa it was hard work getting to it. This altitude thing is very wierd - it has some strange effects on the body. Xela, the town we´re staying in, is at 2300mm above sea level!! It doesn´t feel like it to live is because its surrounded by much higher volcanos on all sides. The walk to the lagoon was about a +500m climb and with less oxygen it is a toughey!! The worst bit was the 615 steps back up from the lake over the lip of the crater.
The other strange things about being at altitude is that you get tired very quickly needing siestas and about 10 hours sleep a night, also after two beers you feel quite drunk!!

Marco, Jorge, Pat, Andrea, us and a greedy dog!

A typical Guatemalan village

We went to see a game of futbol on wednesday night, Xelaju against Zacapa, which was very funny. The standard of football was quite good but it was the atmosphere that made it. As the team came on the pitch the crowd went crazy, loads of fireworks went off, bands were playing, and it seems they do that every match!!

We played a five-a-side match against another spanish school on Thursday night which was exhasting mostly due to lack of fitness, but made worse by the altitude. Everyone on the pitch was better than Katie so she got a bit stroppy and won´t be playing again next week.

Yes, Katie will be sticking to the merengue - had a great night out last night being flung round the dancefloor by a few different guatemalans! (Unfortunately you can buy a litre bottle of rum in the clubs for seven quid which is a bit lethal..!).

A funny can of sardines!!

Xela - Week 1

We went to a little village called Zunil on Tuesday which has a lovely 14th century church and a cooperative where you can buy locally weaved cloths etc.

The highlight, however, was 'Saint' Maximon who travels round Zunil and different houses (it is a great honour to have him in your home). He is a local idol and people bring offerings of candles, alcohol and cigarettes in return for him granting their wishes. He has his own walk in wardrobe and each night, the homeowners put him to bed in his own room with telly and video!!

Oh yes, and at the moment, he appears to be dressed as Michael Jackson - SHAMONE MF!!!

Yesterday, we went with the two Canadians to Fuertes Georginas which are hot spring baths in the side of the volcano. It was very beautiful and relaxing after an intensive week of Spanish.

Spanish school in Xela - Week 1

The first week in Xela has been great. Spanish is coming along great guns!! Katié´s teacher is very serious (but very nice) so she has lots of grammer and the boring stuff. James, however, appears to spend most of his lessons talking to Jorge (his v cute Guatemalan teacher with lovely big brown eyes... K) about boobs, beer and football and arranging the next night out!! Not sure how the Spanish is coming on but James has some 'different' vocab.

There are 10 of us studying at the school at the moment, six (yes, SIX) Swedish and 2 Canadians. There are lots of voluntary projects going on out here so we will probably start something in the afternoons next week.

They do activities at the school every afternoon so we have been making chocolate, having salsa lessons (except James stormed out after 10 mins in a sulk so Katie had to dance with Irwin, one of the Guatemalans. It was great, learnt Salsa disco spins and everything!) and visiting local towns. James had already decided that the activities are gay so he´s joining the local gym on Monday instead (perhaps more gay??).

Jorge, Katie, James & Lucky

Katie studying while getting sunburnt...

Xela is lovely (see main square below). There are lots of nice cafes and restaurants, a big market and lots of bars. We went to bar Bari on Thursday night to see a live Guatemalan singer doing U2 and Crowded House numbers in Spanish.

The family we are staying with are very friendly and we´re managing to communicate a bit more now. James decided that he wasn´t getting enough protein (although the food is generally very nice - tortillas, pasta, fresh soùp, fresh fruit juices), so he has taken to cooking his own 3 poached eggs for breakfast every morning. The Guatemalans have never seen a poached egg cooked before but the sniggers are lessening every morning. They think he´s mad...

There is Edna the mother, grandma and two kids, Fernandito (below, the brown one) and Titi.

Books read: The Backpacker, The Full Montezuma

Guatemala City to Xela - Week 1

Well, four days in and all those niggling doubts about leaving the house and becoming unemployed have been left well behind!

Guatemala City was fantastic. We stayed at a lovely hostel with a great host Ana who drove us round in her car and gave us loads of good travel advice from how much to pay for a taxi (which admittedly, we usually paid well over but we´re getting used to getting ripped off now!!), to a travel plan round Guatemala, to booking us into Spanish school!

It happened to be Guatemala´s Independence Day on Friday so we spent all day in the city watching processions, listening to live music and eating delicious food from the street stalls. It was absolutely packed full of people (all locals - we spotted one other gringo) and we had a great day.

Then yesterday we got the bus to Xela which is a four hour, terrifying journey away! James said that he wouldn´t even have driven the Clio that fast around the corners of the cliffs - that´s how scary ; ) !! The scenery was spectacular though - mountains and volcanoes all around and just the odd shack or farm along the way.

So now we´re in Xela which is a lovely little town - we feel at home already! We were picked up from the bus station by the couple that run the Spanish school who speak no English so we had a very confusing tour round the school and explanation of what we can expect for the next 4 weeks. Basically we´re just hoping for the best!! We then went off to our Guatemalan family who also, understandably, speak no English at all. It´s quite hard work at the moment(dictionary and phrase book are our constant companions!!) but we should have this Spanish malarkey down in a couple of weeks...

The family are lovely - there are tons of them there at the moment because all the cousins and auties have come for the weekend for the Independence Day festival. Nine of us piled into the car last night (James and cousins in the boot) and went off to the fun fair which was fab. Going on the dodgems with Grandma at a Guatemalan fun fair with no Spanish to speak is an experience we won´t forget!!!


And today we are getting our bearings of the town and relaxing before school starts tomorrow. As it´s Sunday, very little is open except the churches (Auntie Mimi gave us a tour) so we have time to catch our breath and listen to a bit more Spanish tuition on the mp3 player in an attempt to not look completely crap at school tomorrow!!

Leaving party

Thanks to everyone who could come for the leaving do last Saturday - we had a brilliant time! About 50 people made it over the course of the evening from all over the country and we very much appreciated all the effort to get there! (And thanks to V&D who hosted the 'left over buffet lunch' at their house on Sunday!).

And now it's down to the final few days in the UK - looking forward to big, drunken work leaving dos tonight and a 'Wright-style' family send off at the weekend (Horse & Jockey be warned!).

So with less than a week to go and no house, car or jobs to think of, we are anxious, nervous and mega-excited. This time next week we'll be shacked up with a bunch of smelly backpackers in some run down hostel in the scary Guatemala city - what are we doing??!!!