Arrival in Guatemala!

Hello everyone!! Well here I am in Guatemala, the first stop on my Central/South American journey. Everything is going really well so far and I am enjoying myself a lot. For those who are too busy to read the whole entry, here it the executive summary:

Number of places visited: 2 in Guatemala
Amount of spanish learnt: not enough
Number of tortillas eaten: too many to count
Number of crude comments from latino men: Not sure, I can´t understand them
Number of people I am taller than: Everybody, I am a giant here
Number of food poisonings, scams or rip offs: none to date, let´s hope this trend continues for the next 12 months!!

My first destination after arriving was Antigua, which is a heritage listed colonial town in central Guatemala. It is quite an amazing place - set in a valley between three volcanoes, it has preserved its colonial charm with cobblestone streets and colourful buildings as far as the eye can see. And of course, this means it is the tourist capital of Guatemala which meant I spent most of my time talking english to Americans, Australians and Europeans!!

The highlight of Antigua was a mountain biking tour I did through the surrounding countryside, including a stop at a Mayan temple (the Maya are indigenous Guatemalans). If you are looking for a religion to convert to this might be it, as to ´cleanse´yourself before praying you have to drink a lot of alcohol and smoke a lot of tabacco - sign me up!!

I am now in Queztaltenango, Guatemala´s second biggest city. I am doing an intensive spanish course, which is basically a five hour one on one spanish tutorial every day. Its more tiring than working!! My spanish is improving really quickly though (although thats not really saying much as I hardly knew any to start with!!).

I am also staying with a Guatemalan family so I can practise my Spanish with them. Its really interesting to see how they live. The house is very modest with only 4 rooms which lead onto a central courtyard. The sink and laundry are outdoors but luckily there is a hot shower. Mealtimes are pretty interesting - I have never eaten so many beans, eggs and tortillas! The family is really nice and very patient as they have to explain everything five times in Spanish before I understand!

That´s about it for now, hope to hear from you all soon!

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