Roger, from Androsian, arrived at Valentina at promptly 7 a.m. in the pouring rain in his dinghy to take us to Fronteras to catch the bus for Guatemala City. Our bus left after 8 a.m. and we were on our way. It was a 1st class bus, with air conditioning and reserved seats. Nice. Another option is the chicken bus, which is just that. An old, school bus from the U.S. that is brightly colored and overflowing to the maximum capacity, plus many more. Perhaps, even chickens.We had a nice 5 hour ride to Guatemala City.
The bus stopped one time along the way for a restroom break. We crossed a mudslide in our lane and beautiful scenery of mountains, valleys and villages.
The 5 hour bus ride from Fronteras to Guat. City was 50 quetzals or $7 US. The 4 1/2 hour bus ride from Guat. City to Quetzaltenango was 45 quetzals or $6.50each.
At Guatemala City, we had to change bus terminals, so we shared a taxi with Mary Ellen and Randy, who were going to Antigua for a visit. We took the Galgos bus to Quetzaltenango also known as Xela (shay-la). It was a 4 1/2 hour bus ride with no restroom stops. We sat on the second seats to the back and it was extremely rough.The bus driver swerved around the blind corners of the mountains passing cars, trucks, buses, and anything else that was in front of him.
It was called 1st class, but, not air conditioned, and at one stop, 14 Mayan family members got on and all of them sat in the 5 seats behind us across the back of the bus. It was an experience just to get to Xela. We were sore from the bus ride, because it was so rough.Upon our arrival, Jose, from the Eureka Spanish School, was at the bus terminal to pick us up and take us to our Guatemalan family we were to stay with.
Our family lived in a nice, modest, large casa in the same block as our school, so walking was a breeze. We are downtown, one block from Parque Central. Our new family members were Efrain, Flory, Elvira, and Brendy. The home was very clean, and we had our own large bedroom and bath. Our room, the living room and kitchen were downstairs and the family's rooms were upstairs.
The food that Flory prepared was extremely delicious.
It was the local food that she prepared. We were pleasantly surprised.
June 12, 2006
We arrived at our school promptly at 8 a.m. It is just around the corner from our casa with our family. We met the other students and our instructors. There are a total of eight students this week. The other students are graduates from college, who are back-packing and learning Spanish for extended periods of weeks to months for future employment.
Needless to say, we are the eldest of the students.The school is a small area, with a courtyard and small rooms for studying. We both have our own private instructor with five hours of instruction Monday thru Friday.
The first few days have been memorizing vocabulary words. We were counting ovehas (sheep) in Spanish to go to sleep.
June 13, 2006
Today after our class, our activity was to go to the Saint of San Antonio festival. Every year, locals gather to pay homage to this saint. It rained while we were there. It is the rainy season here, so every day, it rains, and it is cold here.June 14, 2006
We are continuing our Spanish classes. Kay has a hard teacher, who gives homework, and Sonny has a good, but more relaxed teacher, who takes Sonny on field trips in town to visit different local landmarks.
Today's activity was to go to the cinema to see a movie in English with Spanish subtitles. The group selected Alto Impacto, or possibly High Impact in English. We did not care for the movie at all. We left at intermission and headed back to our family and to do homework. This was an overwhelming day, with Spanish.
June 15, 2006
Today, was a much better day. Things began to fit together. We felt more comfortable with classes, our family, and the city of Xela.
Immediately after class, there was a procession through town, so we ran to Parque Central to see what was happening. It was another celebration for Saint Corpus Christie at the Catholic Cathedral. These are very common.
Our activity today, was Salsa classes. Sonny and I were the only students from our school who attended the classes.
We learned four different moves and had a private instructor for an hour.
It was fun.
It was in a very small room, probably 9x12' with about 20 people taking lessons.
When we got back to our family, we had previously asked them if we could take them to McDonald's for dinner. Evita, our 11 year old friend, was so excited. It was a good evening.
Then, home for homework.......again.
June 16, 2006
Today was our last day of class. Our brains are mush, so it is a good thing. I think a week is all we can handle at one time.
We want to take another week or two within the next month or so. Overall, it was a good experience and we learned a lot.
Our instructors took us around town today for about an hour and half.
While we were in the mercado, we drank a hot drink, made of corn, cinammon, and milk.
It was OK, but, thick and rich.Our activity today was to go to a soccer game, we thought.
But, it was to go and play soccer against some locals.
Our Espańol was not good enough to be able to read the details of the activity list.
So, we watched soccer for an hour.
We came home and Sonny played his guitar and harmonica for our family, and Kay, Elvira, and Brendy played memory game with cards of Spanish words in opposites.
We then played Jinko with Efrain, and Elvira. Elvira won all three times.
June 17, 2006
This morning, we went with our school on an activity to A Los Vahos. It is a natural sauna, heated by the nearby volcano, Santa Maria.It was very hot, but refreshing.
We walked back to our home and the walk down the mountain was the most exciting part.
The view down from the mountain was absolutely gorgeous.
We practiced our Espańol and talked to some locals on the walk down. We took 173 pictures on our way down. OK....we won't put all of them on the website!
God's creation is absolutely breath-taking!
We said our good-byes to our family very early this morning and boarded the bus for our trip home. It was a very good week, a lot of work, but we are so thankful we did it. We are anxious for more classes to learn more, so we can communicate to the people in their country that we are having the privilege to enjoy.
