So we arrived in San Pedro de la Laguna and enrolled in the Spanish course. My first teacher was pretty shit although I did learn a lot about her recent break-up with her boyfriend. Brilliant. That´s what I´m paying for? Anyway I ditched her and ended up with the best teacher in the world :) I stayed there for a month learning Spanish and living with a Guatemalan family who were lovely too :) I also learnt some of their local Mayan language which my Guatemalan mum was really excited about! Another student was living in the same house (Maaike from Holland) and we got along really well. We both volunteered with a local project and taught English to the children for a month. It was a really wonderful experience and I miss them now :(
I had the chance to be creative and make educational games to play with them. We had a great time and their English improved which was great to see. They especially liked the cake we bought for them on the last day :D The language school had activities every night and we took part in every single one - even the football game against another school. We won 8-1 and I miraculously scored one of the goals (and no it wasn´t an own-goal thank you those who were inevitably thinking that):) We even managed to make friends with owners of the only 2 salsa bars there (one of which wasn´t oficially open which meant we had our own private bar woop!) We studied hard, volunteered every day, did our homework, took part in the school activities and still found time to salsa :) Overall I learnt a lot, taught a lot and had a great time. I even taught some of the teachers how to dance salsa and bachata. An English girl teaching Latin American guys how to dance?!! Disgraceful state of affairs. I taught Josue to salsa and he cooked us lovely food and was great company, and put up with my "developing" Spanish language..
We enjoyed a nice horse-ride where I realised that by this point I was known by most of the village who called out to me as I rode by which was a lovely feeling. I made a particular friend at the school who sold me popcorn everyday yum :) It kept me going through the classes... Oh and we kayaked across to San Marcos one day, got a bit lost on the lake but made it there in the end...
I took a chicken bus to the huge market Chichicastenango (try saying that drunk.) We only just avoided a head-on collision half way up the mountain with another van (not a fun moment) and then almost crashed on the motorway - there are some insane drivers in Guatemala. They got me to the market three buses later anyway. It was a huge market with so much to look at and vibrant colours everywhere but I prefer the San Francisco market for authenticity. Anyway that in a round about way concludes my month in San Pedro. I miss the children though!
Maaike and I left San Pedro together and headed for Antigua. We arrived at 12.30 and by 1 o´clock I was on a bus on my way to hike up another volcano....how did that happen?!
I ended up witnessing the semana santa celebrations on the way, climbed the volcano and cooked marshmallows in the incredibly H.O.T. lava, watched the sun set up there, got back to Antigua and salsa'd the night away. The guys in that bar were almost rivals to cuban dancers so we had lots of fun! We left the next day and made our way to Livington. This place gave me weird vibes to be honest...one bar sported a sign which read ´´Blacks and whites welcome´´. Hmmm. Shady. I didn´t think I had to check that kind of thing. A couple of local guys from the hostel took a few of us to a bar but it was all just odd. We went to the beach and some waterfalls where I got to jump in of rocks. That was fun. Overall though I wouldn´t recommend Livingston. Weird weird weird.
We travelled across to Honduras and took the ferry to Utila...ready to dive!
