Xela

I have been in Xela for the past week or so. Lily left last week, so I am on my own. from 8 to 1 I am studying at the Madre Tierra spanish school. I am staying at a homestay that isnt really a family. Its an older, divorced woman and three young Guatamaltecos who are studying or doing internships here. I passed through all of their home towns at various points, but never stayed in them (two are from Lago Atitlan).
I am the only student at the school, which has both good and bad aspects. For one thing, I have spoken barely any English the whole time I have been here! Luckily most of the afternoon activities are still able to happen. I have spent most of the afternoons going to various places with Vairon, the schools gardener, handyman, and tour guide. Two girls that are interning at the school usually accompany us, Irma and Dominga (Irma also lives in the same house as me). They are really friendly and fun to hang out with.
My teacher, Pedro, is funny and friendly. We mostly just talk, hes not a very organized teacher. Thats fine though, as my classes in San Pedro and San Marcos were mostly just verb conjugating activities and got really boring. Plus, I have studied all the tenses now and I just need to practice them. He is also a musician, and he is teaching me some guitar chords. He taught me all of the chords for the intro to Hotel California, not that I can actually play yet of course.
For the first two afternoon activities we went to musems. The first was a natural history museum, full of mayan artifacts, plants and animals. Lots of random tidbits of information. Included human fetuses in jars, computers from the 80's, and an 8 legged sheep. The next day we tried to go to a museum of traditional outfits of Guatemala, but it was closed so we went to the museum of the ferrocarril de los altos. In the 30's they spent 10 years building a railroad through the highlands from the coast, through Xela, to the capital. 3 years later, due to the rails and bridges constantly being destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic rumblings, it was abandoned. Now it is a museum.
Then we went to a hill called Baul. We meant to go before but its always raining in the afternoons. It still rained this time, but we went anyway. On the way we took a bunch of little pine trees to plant, as Madre Tierra runs its own reforestation project, which I expressed interest in. I should also mention here that Vairon is kind of crazy. We went straight up the hill, as it started to rain, and Vairon made holes with a pickaxe and we planted the arbolitos. We got to the top, where there is a cross and a great view of the city. There is also a big, steep cement slide. There is a sign that clearly says not to slide when it rains, as it is dangerous. Vairon got a piece of plastic and flew down the thing, hitting the wall at the end with alarming speed, but he was fine. Then we went down via some cables. The cables are to hold as you go down, as it is very steep. It was really hard not to fall since it was slippery, and required alot of holding and firm stepping. After a long time we made it down almost to the city, and Vairon hacked a hole through some trees into a farm, which we walked through and made it to the city streets, dirty, wet and tired. This activity was pretty tiring, and my legs were kind of strained from coming down, but I had already decided to hike a volcano, Santa Maria, the next day.
The volcano hike started nice and early at 5 am. It was just me and Vairon. I didn't get very far before I felt sick and started throwing up. Vairon suggested another route, which would have been better regardless since the Volcano would soon become cloudy and it wouldn't be possible to see anything. The other route was too a viewpoint of a smaller volcano, Santiaguito. In my weakened state it was still a hard walk, but well worth it. Within five minutes of getting to the viewpoint, Santiaguito erupted! A small cloud of smoke formed on its peak, and there was some distant rumbling. The cloud slowly expaned into a big mushroom cloud and drifted into the distance. Now, this wasn't unexpected since Santiaguito erupts about once an hour, but it was amazing to see.
For some reason on Monday, I let Vairon talk me into riding bikes to a place called Los Bahos. Los Bahos is a natural sauna created by volcanic vapor. He said it was a bit hard, but doable. Definately not for me! I walked most of the steep way up. The sauna was really hot, I could only stay in for maybe 10 minutes, but it felt really good. The way down was of course easier but still crazy as it was so steep, and the unpaved road was full of holes and rocks. I felt like I was going to fall more than once. We made it alive though, thankfully.
Yesterday I went with Vairon to another town, Salcaja, famous for its church. The church is the oldest in Centroamerica. The fist conquistador guy to come through Guatemala, I think Pedro Alvarrez, decided to build it there. Its maintained by the community and is somewhat independant from the vatican, as it raises its own funds and stuff. You can see alot of indigenous symbolism in its construction, including its wide base that tapers to the top, like the pyramids (also for stability for earthquakes). Salcaja is also famous for its ''caldo de fruta'', an alchoholic drink that is made of aguardiente fermented with many various fruits for 6 months.
Today I had a merengue lesson. These latin american dances are so hard, we north american men do not learn how to move our hips at all!

So I have had pretty full, active days. I'm also watching alot of TV in spanish or movies in english with subtitles.