G4: Celas Maya

Celas Maya is a wonderful school to learn spanish with skillful teachers and a pleasant atmosphere. It is seriously, well organized with lesson plans, homework, and scheduled optional lectures and outings. The 8 t0 1pm day can be a little long but the daily 10:30am pan dolce and and coffee/tea break help to keep the creeping lack of focus at bay. Isabel's daily homemade specialities offered us a chance to taste regional snacks like tamales with greens, empanadas, and chicken pastillas for about 1 Q a piece so that's about 10cents. Talk about a deal! (This also helps stave off hunger pains from smaller than expected host meals.)

Some of the outings included a trip to San Andreas, a mayan town with a large garish yellow church, a chocolateria tasting and demo, and an opportunity to spend an afternoon with some orphans. (I did this though there is some dispute as to whether they were really orphans or wards of the state because their parents cannot or would not take care of them due to their disabilities or mental capability. It was kinda like craft time and snack time at a VBS.)

My teacher for the week was Monica. She was so lovely and patient. I discovered that my spanish speaking ability was fairly good and the grammar and verb conjugation review was very helpful. We talked about everything from cooking foods at thanksgiving to gang activity and what I do at Lawndale. I agreed to send her a packet of stove top stuffing, as stuffing is such an american food. Quite fun trying to describe that in spanish! In the end my last lesson was replaced with a cooking demo: A typical guatemalan meal.

I was hoping to learn to make Monica's special seafood tamales, but her mom said the prep time would exceed our lesson time. So we walked to the Democracio market with Kathy, a fellow student and new friend from Arizona, and her teacher to pick up the needed grocery items. Then they taught us how to make chicken empanadas with fresh salsa and fried platains and a sweet summer fruit soup. I contributed a lesson on how to saute asparagus with garlic and lime and we had limonata(club soda and limes) as our summery beverage. It turned out wonderfully! We also fed an additional 20 ppl or so as we made about 50 some empanadas. All of the teachers were especially impressed with the asparagus as they had never known how to cook it before--though they often saw it at the market. When I return to chicago we will have an fiesta de guatemala so you can taste them too!

G3: Road to Xela

Sunday is the day for half marathons run on cobble stoned streets in the shadow of Antigua's volcanoes. Lucky for me that I happened to leave a little early to find my pick up point as I had to literally cross the finish line to get to my street pickup. Lots of runners warming up and the sponsors booths lined up around the Park Central, reminded me of our Chicago races--but I don't think it would be so fun to run on cobblestones. Met a nice guy strolling around snapping pictures while I sat on my pack waiting for the shuttle. He was the 4th missions group in Guatemala I've met (2 on the plane, 1 on pacaya) seems like all the Americans here are on some sort of missions trip. The shuttle did eventually show up, then we drove around Antigua picking up other passengers for an hour before finally leaving for Guatemala city. We changed to a large Pullman bus for the next 4 hours to Quetenzelanago (other wise known as Xela--pronounced Shay-la). Met a couple of other travelers to language school in Xela, a Canadian couple (Raquel and Barnes) and Johann, a first year med student from Denmark, who I initially thought was their son. We were all headed to different language schools but in the general area so when the bus dropped us off in the middle of this crazy bus terminal/street market we all shared a cab into the city center.





Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala, after the capital Guatemala City. It has a completely different feel than Antigua. The roads are still a mix of cobblestones and pavement with a lot more traffic. The buildings are larger and there is more industry and commerce. At the Park Central Americana, I said goodbye to my fellow travelers wondering if I would ever run into them again. My school was only 3 blocks from the center and fortunately the office was still open. Even better, my host family was just steps outside the front door. I really amblessed in this aspect. My host mom Claudia and her adult daughter Maria Fernanda, share a rather spacious (for Guatemala) 3 bedroom 1 bath condo. My room is very comfortable with 2 beds and only one student this week. The bathroom has a shower and hot water, once you light the pilot light. This will be my home for the next week. They also have a chihuahua named Bon Bon, definitely not as pretty as Weibel. Thankfully, he stays hidden from me most of the time.



It was raining in the evening when I ventured out to see the city and find a resturant for dinner. I ended up having dinner with this interesting Cali girl who over the course of dinner conversation mentioned she had developed scabbies from the apartment she was renting. I told her she should really see someone about that or go to the pharmacy. We had an interesting conversation, to say the least. Then I wandered around the city by myself catching a fireworks display--it was a Saint's day celebration--not sure which one. But I did see the parade into the cathedral. Sought shelter from the rain and had a great cappucino in Cafe Antigua before heading back to my host family. So quiet on the streets after 8pm. Just like Antigua everyone seems to be at home by 8pm and then to bed very early. Start language school tomorrow am excited about meeting my teacher and fellow classmates!

Guatemala Day 2: Volcan Pacaya

Antigua is a lovely colonial city to explore. The cobblestoned streets winding in and around abandonded monasteries, churches, and city buildings were easily the best and worst feature of the city. I tripped at least once a day and that was with Chako's on! Try running a half marathon on it's uneven surface--they held one the day I left for Xela with about 2000 runners. But on this Saturday morning, I wandered around making last minute transportation arrangements and catching a late breakfast at La Fuenta. Mmmmm coffee. The open air courtyard with bubbling stone fountain typical of most hotels in the city made for a relaxing place to sample a typical guatemalan breakfast of fried egg, black beans, white cheese, plantain, and fresh baked bread. I hoped for tortillas but the bread was very tasty. At 2pm Vic, Derrick and I joined a tour group to Volcan Pacaya. Pacaya is one of the country's four active volcanoes and fairly easy to climb. It's a 2500m or so to the summit. Our tour guide, Hector, took a pretty fast pace for the first 100m and navigated the lava rocks like it was nothing more than a stroll down any sidewalk. Felt pretty winded really fast--think that was their plan so you pay extra for the horses following the group up the path. But, the more they offered to have us use a caballo, the more I was determined not too. Though I probably should've eaten lunch before climbing a volcano. A few of the girls in our group did end up riding horses to the base of the lava rock but they were also pretty dehydrated from days of gastro problems and no sleep.

The morning rain made the views around Pacaya very misty. Fog covered just about everything in every direction on our way up. The base of the lava rock meeting the grassy slope of the hillside, combined with the blanket of fog gave a very ethereal feel to the place. When we began scrambling over cooled lava resembling a lunar rock landscape and snapped a few pictures on the purple hued formations, I was really glad I had decided to climb the whole way.

Just as we reached the summit I looked up to see smoke and softball sized boulders erupting from the crater lip. The group ahead of us was there and we had a few tense moments as we witnessed the group begin running en mass down from the mouth of the crater while our tour guides shouted "Peligroso! Peligroso!" and directed us away. One of the girls in our group got hit on the shoulder by a volcanic rock--she was okay but will have a bruise for sure. After all was quiet we ventured closer to the top and were able to get surprisingly close to actual lava flow. See the pictures of me smiling away as people poked the lava with sticks and roasted marshmallows. Really the top smelled like toasted marshmallows mixed with sulfur. In places you could stand on cooled lava rock and look down to see red hot lava flow beneath. I was not too keen on standing in such places for extended periods of time, especially when I started to smell melting plastic and rubber from our shoes and the heat was too much for my exposed ankles. Next time I'll remember not to wear capris.

The descent in the dark was much easier than the climb. And the fog lifted to reveal views of the surrounding hillside farms and guatemala city lights. My new headlamp and rain shell came in really handy that day. (Thanks Dan!) When we got back to Antigua, I found that Amie was just leaving and we would miss seeing her. Que lastima! We ate at La Fonda del Calle Real under some pithy spanish sayings such as "It's easy to kill for a woman, but hard to live with her." Funny. Pollo pepian, traditonal dish that was a cross between a morrocan tangine and indian curry was yummy. And we had the salty salty guacamole with homemade tortillas and lime juice mixed with soda. Vic and Derrick made sure I got home safely--the streets were totally empty at 10pm except for few odd people. One more night at Dorris' place and on to school in Xela tomorrow.