iHola! I´ve been in San Pedro, Guatemala for a week now, learning Spanish for 5 hours a day, then going home for meals and chit chat with my Guatemala family (and Swedish-Iranian ´brother´), so it seems the right time to send a few notes on learning espanol. 1. In Mexico, of course, the currency is the peso. The Q on Guatemalan price tags does not stand for queso. Queso means cheese. 2. Be prepared for your first day of class - brush up on enough vocab to fill five hours with conversation about politics, economics, immigration, emigration, discrimination, and others ics and isms. 3. If you are eavesdropping and don´t understand a world that your new Guatemalan family is saying, don´t be too disheartened about your progress with the spanish language - they are probably speaking ... read more

Mexico City: one of the largest cities in the world. Guidebook? Who needs a guidebook? Map schmap. Sans guidebook, I managed to see prehispanic pyramids, hispanic castles, modern art, museums, parks (with real live squirrels!), plazas etc etc. All bueno. But speaking of guides, the best sight I saw was on the subway. There were three blind people all walking in a row, sticks busily tapping the ground, hands on the shoulder of the person in front of them. Truly a case of the blind leading the blind. On that note, here's a few things that a guidebook might have been useful for: 1. The population of Mexico City. Whatever it is, a third of them are always riding the subway and a third always riding the bus. The one-fingered amputees prefer the subway, jabbing you ... read more