Pausing Here and There

Xela. Oh, Xela. I have heard a lot about this town as many of my friends have studied here, or spent a significant amount of time here. I had a lot of expectations for Xela, and perhaps that is why I am slightly disappointed by it.

Arriving in Xela, we successfully navigated our way on to a city bus and into the central part of the city, also known as Zona 1. For anyone traveling in a country where you do not speak the language or know the lay out of a town, this can often be the most frightening part of arrival. Still, we made it and found a hotel, clean, but with very sunken matresses.

I was eager to explore my new home for the next few weeks–I think–and so I left Sarah and Megan to wander round the city. Xela is a gray place, with rundown buildings and stinging smog. The central park is not sunny and inviting like Antigua’s, but a little scary and surrounded by loud cars and many less trees. I located my language school, a large yellow building where I think I will learn a lot about Guatemalan culture and politics (I am very excited about this). I also located Yoga House and attended a class there. It was fine, though a little dank and dreary. It felt nice to be doing yoga again though. I looked into living there, and if I stay here, I may move in in two weeks. I need to give my language school and homestay a try.

What really has me down about the city, I think, is the harassment I have already experienced. Walking back from Yoga House at 8:30 (a mere 2 blocks from my hotel) two men on their motorbike stopped on the corner I was turning. One of them got off and got in my face. I yelled some obscenities and swung at him with Megan’s Nalgene bottle (yay water), then ran to my hotel. It definitely left me a bit unnerved and I will not walk around at night here alone in the future. It may have been men still drunk from the All Saint’s Day celebrations, or perhaps this is part of the norm. Regardless, it did not leave me with a good first impression of Xela. I’m sure once I begin my language schooling I will change my mindset entirely.

On a positive note, we discovered this little cafe/chocolate bar with delicious hot chocolate like none you have ever had.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.