Back to School in San Pedro

On Sunday, September 13th, we left the little lakeside village of San Marcos and made our way across the lake to San Pedro La Laguna, where we would be spending our week learning Spanish at the school of Casa Rosario. When taking the boat across the lake one more time, we took the advice of Jane, who we met at the Hostel del Lago in San Marcos, which was to never ask the captain of the boat for the cost of the ride. Apparently, everyone ¨knows¨ that it only costs Q10 per person to get from San Marcos to San Pedro. If anyone asks for the price, then they are quoted a higher price, especially if they are 1.) gringo and 2.) carrying a huge backpack. We were told that the ride was Q20 from the launcheros in Santiago! So George and I pretended that we´ve been doing this our entire life, got on the boat with our packs, and paid the captain Q20 as we got off in San Pedro. Easily done with no complaints from the captain!

San Pedro is a pretty little town at the other end of the lake from Panajachel. We beelined from the dock straight to the Casa Rosario garden where class is usually held and where we were told the director would be on Sunday. My first impression upon entering the garden was that it was not a school that I have ever been to - there were little wooden shelters lined along either side of a sidewalk winding through a green area surrounded by plants, banana trees, and cornfields (of which we had to cross in order to get to the garden). Each wooden shelter had a desk/table and a whiteboard. At the end of the garden were stairs leading down towards a small baño and the edge of the lake. It looked like a beautiful place to learn Spanish! Unfortunately the director was not present, but the neighbor next door (who owns horses for horseback riding tours) was nice enough to call for us and let us know that the director was coming. Vicente, the director, showed up shortly after and arranged for us to stay with a family in San Pedro.

We stayed with a guy named Manuel, who was a painter and who lived up the street from the docks on the second floor of a tienda (store). His studio where he paints and sells his paintings were located across the street from the house and his mother and sister live a block down on a side street. We were introduced to his family at dinner that night at his mother´s home. We met his parents, Rosa Christina and Raphael, his sister Elena, his brother-in-law Freddie, and their 3 kids: Freddie, Nancy, and Nick. Manuel has 2 daughters: Christina and Helen. They were a wonderful family and it was in the kitchen of Manuel´s mother that we ate all our meals the entire week. Dinner that night consisted of scrambled egg, fresh queso (cheese), black beans, and of course torillas, which we had with nearly every meal from that point on.

For our Spanish classes, George and I had two different teachers, Ines and Nicolas, respectively. I have had a few years of Spanish back in Jr. High and High School, so Nicolas and I got through quite a bit in that week as I started to remember a lot of what I had forgotten in the last 15 years. We were able to have some decent conversations by the end of the week (although the whole verb conjugation thing still messes me up - especially with 3 past tenses). George was trying very hard, but Ines doesn't speak English (Nicolas doesn't either, but at least he is trying to learn) and George's French constantly got in the way of his Spanish. However, for not knowing any Spanish starting out, he had gotten quite a bit down by the end of the week.

Our stay at San Pedro coincided with the Sept. 15th Independence Day celebrations. For our whole first week in Guatamela, we were constantly running into festivities leading up to the big day (Guatemaleans are extremely patriotic). San Pedro went all out, with a parade on the morning of the 14th featuring the younger school-aged kids in bands, a childern's 'torch run' on the night of the 14th (where the children of the community run through the streets carrying torches!!), another parade on the morning of the 15th featuring the older kids in bands, and a band exhibition in the town square in the afternoon featuring the 13 school bands in San Pedro. A suprising fact (to us) about Guatemala is that they are fanatic about school marching bands. We saw about five school marching band competitions/exhibitions during our 3 weeks in Guatemala, two of which were televised. Apparently all children in school are somehow involved in these bands. Two of the children in our 'adopted family', Freddy and Christina, played for Collegio Bethel, which won the regional competition in San Juan the following Saturday.

Our last day of class was held at "La Nariz de Indio", the Nose of the Indian, which was the nickname given to one of the peaks in the surrounding volcanoes as it looked like the nose of a person's face lying down. George, Nicolas, and I hiked from the town of Santa Clara (about 45 min), which we took the chicken bus to. The view was quite nice and we were able to see the entire lake, the surrounding volcanoes, and some of the towns. Our "class" was just the two of us conversing with Nicolas, which was a perfect end to our week of Spanish lessons.

Hasta Luego, Amigos!

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