Back to school

View from Volcan Santa Maria

I´ve been in Quetzaltenango (known locally as Xela) enrolled in intensive Spanish lessons for the past week. I´ve had 5 hours of one-on-one lessons in the morning, and have been taking the afternoons to explore the mountains around Xela.  If it makes anyone in Seattle feel any better, it´s been around 50 degrees and raining here for six straight days.  I didn´t realize it until I had to put them on, but all my cold weather clothes are either dark gray or black.  In a country where everyone dresses blindingly colorfully, I feel like a raincloud walking the streets.  Every day my teacher tells me I look like I´m mourning the death of a loved one.

This is what I look like at 12,220 feet

Anyway, the city has been great, and I´m trying to decide if I can bear it to stick around for a second week of lessons.  The school is very well-run, and I´ve met some really nice folks here.  The afternoon excursions that we´ve been taking have been great, but I won´t trouble you with the details of all the trips.  The one that does stand out is a recent climb up volcan Santa Maria, just south of town.  An intrepid group of myself, an Austrailan fellow, a Taiwanese guy, a French girl, two Guatemalans, and one very friendly dog made the climb up the 12,200' volcano in record slow time.

Upon reaching the top, we spent 15 minutes or so watching the clouds swirl in and around the surrounding mountains.  I was unaware that this (and most mountains in Guate) are sacred Mayan sites, and on this particular afternoon, there were multiple groups chanting, burning incense, and offering flowers, liquor, and fruit.  It was kind of a surreal scene as we caught glimpses of the Pacific ocean and Mexico off in the distance.  We each found our own spot in the grass at the summit and fell asleep to the sounds of chanting and smell of smoke.  I was a little disappointed that there wasn´t an animal sacrifice (yes, they happen!), but I guess you can´t have it all...

Oh yeah I also did some other random stuff.  Some pictures are here.

Napping...

Chichicastenango - Largest market in Central America