Language school was quite the positive experience. We spent four weeks in home stays (3 meals a day!) and had class with one on one teachers for a price 145 USD a week. The classes were 4.5 hours a day and I must say my Spanish definitely improved at an exponential rate. It still isn't good, but much better. En serio.
Quetzaltenango ,aka xela for short, is a pretty maze of central American, one way, winding streets that all resemble each other. The pubs, coffee shops, and clubs are all college style around the language schools because it's right next to a Guatemalan college. When you wander around town you see a decent amount of language school students mixed in with college age Guatemalans. It's a city full of good, young energy.... At least around the college. Of course, that's a fraction of the whole city.
Gotta mention the markets too! Tons of classic central American bargaining, getting overcharged for being a gringo, and more street vendors than anybody needs! Very awesome. El terminal is the biggest and baddest!
Chicken busses you might ask? Awesome. Just be up for the adventure of cramming on the steps of a school bus with at least five people hanging out the door while going 20mph on cobblestone streets.... With rhianna blasting in your ear. ...And on a good chicken bus. Neon lights! Legendary. The daily means of transport in Guatemala.
Now. It's been a kick start getting back on the road. We ended up motoring through Guatemala to el Salvador only to find we couldn't stay. Apparently there's a complicated regulation that.... Blah blah blah.... The point is we had 24 hours to cross el Salvador or they would stick us with a 1350 USD fine. 3.....2......1... go! Yikes! We made it with flying colors. But! the next place we wanted to go was Nicaragua so we crossed el Salvador, through the little tip of Honduras, and down into Nicaragua in one day. Three countries = Too much time in the car.
First stop was some unimportant town with no waves. Just an angry security guard who woke us up and an evangelical Christian night guard who said we could camp there. Hmmm. Next! We stopped at the legendary break in Nicaragua called The Boom. We got pounded in shallow, heavy beach break and watched Grady surf for his first time in it (whoops), shouted politics with a giant American (he says and points at Skyler, "YOU KNOW WHAT, F**** YOU!" in a friendly way of course. just a passionate dude.) who doesn't want his name on the internet for evading taxes and who knows what else (good guy though) Despues, we raced south to las Peñitas, and here we are. The surf is small. That's the reason I have time to write all this down. I'm a little ashamed that I just summed up five weeks into five paragraphs but short is sweet and means I can get back to the beach! Etc. Chow.
P.s. We also went to lago atitlan and a different weekend rock climbing at la Muela in xela. That's the lake photos and the rock climbing photos. No lake in xela! And yes. Those are dyed baby chickens. Wow.
No comments:
Post a Comment