Blogs from Quetzaltenango, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 37

So away we go chasing Quetzals. Quetzals while being the basic unit of money in Guatemala are also large trogons of Central America and South America having golden-green and scarlet plumage and long tails. The latter are beautiful birds virtually impossible to find the former are common gold coins which are virtually worthless. So far we have merely managed to get our hands on a few of the coins. We arrived in Xela (Shay-La) yesterday pretty shattered. The twelve hour flight from NZ to LA went without hitch. I (Jamie) was stoked with the new Air NZ entertainment system, plenty of games including who wants to be a millionaire... We also got to watch the Southern Traverse 2005 for the humour value. Arriving in LA we decided to visit Santa Monica beach, much to our surprise ... read more

Hello everyone, I am here at my school PLQ (Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco) in Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela (pronounced Shay-la). After leaving Los Angeles on a 2:00 am flight, I arrived into Guatemala City Sunday morning at 8:30. I had no difficulties passing through immigration, and no problems finding my luggage. In fact, I was the first person to find my bag and leave the baggage terminal. The previous week, I had made arrangements with Mr. and Mrs Lizama (in Guatemala City) to pick me up from the airport Sunday morning. As I was leaving the airport terminal, I quickly found Mr Lizama amoung a crowd of 50 or so people. I felt everyone looking at me, but when I saw Mr. Lizama I felt great relief and happiness that I had made it safely. Mr ... read more

Not written in a while. No reason just havent (cant get inverted commas to work, so you just have to imagine cos I cant write without abreviations). Oaxaca was tranquillo to the extreme and our second week there prooved to be very comfortable. We had a really hard time leaving as our hostel had formed a little nuclear family sort of cell, but it was time to move on. Inthe last week we visited our two first archeological sites: Mitla and Monte Alban. Mitla is very small and has very little left of the Oaxaquenas civilisation, but what is shows incredible craft. The buildings were built without cement and include some highly intricate individual stone mosaics. Monte Alban is more of your classic pyramid idea, but with awesome views and a kind of historical memory akin ... read more

Hello all you people. I am here in Xela, Guatemala, just finished my first day of work. I think I´m gonna like this. I stayed at a hostel here in Xela Saturday and Sunday night, but today I moved my stuff to a host familiy´s house. However, in a week or two they will be done with the apartament that I will be living in. It´s awesome. It has one bedroom, a kitchen and big eating area, a bathroom, and a room to hang out in. Since it is located above the school it has a great view of the city and its surrounding mountains and good location. I´ll post some pictures of it when I move in there.... read more

I just discovered that many of you had sent comments that were not posted to my website because I needed to review and approve them. They should all be there now - my apologies, and many thanks for taking the time to express your comments. Nice to know you have been following along.... read more