From Hot and Flat to Cold and Hilly
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| Xela-click for more photos |
We are in Quezaltenango, Guatemala now, commonly referred to as Xela. It is a big town in the mountains on the ‘Gringo trail’. It is much, much cooler here. I bought another sweater to wear here and broke out the blue fleece again. We were told that Xela is at about 8,500ft altitude. It took us 4 hours by bus to get here from Guatemala city. It was a winding road through the moutains of Guat. I wouldn’t want to do it with stomach issues. We met two other women from Washington also going to Xela. They are also going to the same Spanish school, ICA, as we are. We also moved in with our new family, the Lopez’s- Mario and Monica (parents), Javiar (15), Daniel (10), Alejandra (7). They seem to be a really nice family in a nice house about a 20 minute walk from the school. There is also another American woman, Helen, living here. She has lived with the family for 7 years and works as a special ed teacher. We don’t see much of her. The family just built this house about 4 years ago.
The woman, Gilda Arroyo, that we stayed with in Guatemala city had told Jess and I that women are expected to do most everything in this society. Gilda was frustrated at times because although she is a single mom with 2 teenage daughters and her own bed and breakfast business, her mom still expects her to wait on her brothers when they come to her house. Jess and I were prepared to move into a family where the wife does everything and the husband gets waited on. Surprisingly, we have a very, very progressive family. Mario cleans, cooks, and pitches in as far as we can tell. Helen was saying to us that this is very rare here. Thank goodness we are with this family…I wouldn’t want Jess to pick up some bad habits.
We had one week of classes so far at ICA. We each have 1:1 instruction with different teachers for 5 hours a day. There are lots of activities planned by the school for us during the week and on the weekend. For example, we went to some hot springs called Fuentes Georginas, after school one day. One of the benefits of living surrounded by volcanos is the plethora of hotsprings. Another day, we went to a local town fiesta celebrating something to do with the cross (as in cross of Jesus). We spent the weekend at Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. Panajachel is a big touristy town but the lake is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Rumor has it that Bono from U2 has a house on this lake. Unfortunately for us it was foggy both days we were there, so we didn’t get to enjoy the beauty as much nor did Bono invite us over. On Sunday we went to one of, if not the biggest market in Central America. We only bought a painting and a piece of material (to make a pillow). The crowds deterred us from spending too much time in the market. On the bright side, it is very easy for Jess and I to spot each other since we are giants compared to the local population.
We don’t know yet how long we’re going to stay here. We’re in week two at school and have some more places to see and more Spanish to learn.
Tags: Guatemala, ICA, Panajachel, Quezaltenango, Spanish School, Travel, Xela
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