spanish lessons in Xela

So I took myself off towards the north west of Guatemela to a town called Quetzaltenango - mercifully abbreviated to Xela (pron. Shayla) by the locals - to learn spanish. It´s the second largest town here with a paltry population of 125,000 compared to the 7 million in Guatemala city! I loved Xela; it´s relaxed, not very touristy, has a strong student population and alot of music. The english speakers who go there to learn spanish tend to stay for longer in central America and be on more of a budget than in Antigua.
It was kind of comforting to be in a routine again, although this one was a bit different - woken any time after 5 by firecrackers (they are everywhere in this country but seemingly particularly popular in Xela), then by barking dogs. I stayed with a local host family, so breakfast was always "tortillas and something" to the sound of mass on the radio. Then a 10 minute walk to my spanish school where I had 5 hours of lessons a day with Paco. Home for lunch. An afternoon of "studying", reading, chatting. Dinner, which was usually "a variation of a tortilla and something". 3 nights a week I took salsa lessons, and the other nights I was either in a salsa bar or a cuban/central american music bar, with some people from my school.
On one of my days off I walked up a volcano to a sacred mayan lake, guided by a 14 year old guide. And then I chicken bused it down to Antigua to start the construction project. I´d write more about that but I´m already exhausted after 2 days of it, so that will have to wait for the next entry!

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