Blogs from Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 99

Fellow Gringos, The past few days have been exiting. We have traveled to many smaller towns up and around the Highlands in Guatemala. One stop was Chichicastenango. This town has the largest street market in Guatemala. Walking through the streets one will see street vendors selling corn tortilla with meat, ice cream carts, shoe shiners with a small black tool box, and a variety of handy crafts such as wooden animal masks and bright colored blankets. There is an endless amouant of jewlery and the seller is aggresive. The hotels have been nice. The rooms typically have two small beds and a small table. The walls are usually barren, but some have Mayan art framed above the beds. The day starts around 6:30 am and the hustle is very loud. The cobble stone steets have no ... read more

At 4:30am the alarm starting ringing. I jumped out of bed more enthuastically than normal while my brother rolled over and tried to ignore my attempts at early morning conversation. We put a few things together and prepared to leave the room. I didn't feel as fresh I was making out but I was looking forward to the day ahead, Rich still looked asleep although his eyes were open and he was standing up and moving about the place. There seemed a suprisingly large number of people moving around the hostel for this time in the morning, either about to start a trip or returning from one. We walked a little bit down the street to our meeting point and sat waiting for the van, still pitch black. In the distance the gentle rumbling of a ... read more

Die erste Woche Sprachschule ist vorbei! Am Montag um 8:00 gings los, und um 12:00 war ich total erschoepft und halb betauebt vor lauter geistigem Input. Meine Lehrerin ist eine 22jaehrige Indigena namens Lucy (eigentlich Lucia). Es ist ziemlich grossartig mit ihr, und gerade am Anfang hatten wir einigen Spass auf meine Kosten, weil ich staendig Woerter verwechselt habe und meine Aussagen dadurch etwas ins Groteske gerieten... (z.B. "Tische"- mesas statt "Monate"- meses macht nicht so viel Sinn, ein anderes Mal habe ich wohl statt "Vogel" zu sagen ein uebles Schimpfwort benutzt....ich schreibs jetzt besser nicht auf fuer den Fall dass ich es wieder verwechsle). Aber ich mache auf jeden Fall Fortschritte! Und naechste Woche gibts noch mal clases, diesmal en la tarde (am Nachmittag). Und danach werd ich dann wohl fliessend sein :). Die Nase ... read more

My stomach has been a wreck all day today because yesterday I decided to leave the family I was with and accept a new one. It didn't seem to bother them but I have been very affected by it and I don't know why. My new place has a real shower, though I'm told hot water runs short in the morning after 7AM so maybe I will try to remember to shower at night. The house is very neat and clean, with a glass table top instead of a dirty cloth one. I ahve a table in my room, also two light bulbs instead of one, and shelves to put stuff on (only had a window ledge before, and the window was into the kitchen area (glass you cannot see through). This one is right across ... read more

We spend most of today on the buses to and from our destination. It wa about a 2 1/2 hour ride each way because it required at least three different buses/taxis. Going, we took a minbus to the outskirts market of Xela, and a chicken bus to Huehue (luckily it was not crowded and the backs of seats were padded, and I could sit with my foot in the aisle. The mountain scenery was great but being on the aisle and with dirty windows I could not take pictures. The buses are all old worn out USA school buses, and diesel, so the funes from the dozens of them that jostle for space and passengers are at tiems almost overwhelming. At Huehue we took a taxi to the side - an old dillapidated one! We toured ... read more