Celas Maya Spanish School, First Session

I arrived in Quetzeltenango, Guatemala on Jan 7, 2018, after a long trip beginning at our condo in Punta Mita on Nov 8, 2018, to Mexico City, Veracruz, the Yucatán, and Flores.  For a description of this trip, click here.

Jan 8 - Feb 2, 2018.  Home of Erick & Nicolasa Coti, Quetzeltenango, Guatemala

First day pretty darn good - the school is very professional, my teacher great, my new Guatemalan family wonderful.  And my Spanish already seems to have improved, if that is possible.  I think traveling two months in Mexico and taking Coffee Break Spanish lessons regularly have really helped.  Dinner time!

Jan 12, 2018.  

• One week of classes completed.  I can’t believe how fast I seem to be picking up Spanish.  The program is very professional, my teacher Claudia is terrific, and my family also.  I couldn’t ask for a better setup.

• Typical day: up at 7, shower, desayuno at 7:40 with Nico (eggs / frijoles / pan / café), 5 minute walk to school.  One-on-one Spanish lessons for five hours with Claudia.  Almuerzo at 1, often with Erick and the youngest son.  Some sort of activity every afternoon (película / visit to a weaving center / tour of the city / tortilla making).  Cena at 7:39 (fish / frijoles/ rice / salad / jugo de carambola), study until 10.  Cold mornings and evenings, full days.  The school is the best in Guatemala, the cost (including room and board) is about $50 / day.

• I have my own room, and there are no other students in the house.  It is three stories, with the second and third stories occupied by two of the four sons and their wives and children (I think one each family).  Erick and Nico are on the ground floor, where Erick has his workshop: he makes gorgeous dress shoes for men by hand.  Too bad I don’t wear such shoes anymore.

• Got to watch the Warriors play a game - and win - with Erick on their TV.  But Steph was out with a sore ankle.  Still, they won, thanks mostly to KD.

Jan 13, 2018

• Saturday activity: walk > collectivo > bus > hike to the laguna inside Volcano Chicabal, with four other beginning language students and a teacher.  Not too bad - My lungs could handle it (we climbed to over 9,000 feet), but my legs got pretty tired.  Lake was nothing special, except for locals singing and making offerings of flowers to various Mayan shrines around the lake.  

• Upon returning to Xela (what the locals call Quetzeltenango), I stopped at my favorite coffee place for a nice big strong café con leche 1/3rd the price of Starbucks), and an attempt at reading the local paper.  Learned that 92% of the overseas Guatemalans (of which there are over 2 million) are in the US; that 35% of these are in California; that they send home an average of about $350 a month; and they often return to a great big house built with their remittances.  Sounds like a win-win to me, Mr. Trump!

• Speaking of our dear President: the paper was full of the worldwide backlash to his remarks (which he later denied) that he didn’t want immigrants from “shithole” countries.  Each time he goes overboard I think he’s had it, but somehow nothing seems to change.  I assume this latest Trumpism will also be forgotten.

• Dinner at Aj de Lunas: jocóm and veggie soup.  Good old Xela home cooking.

Jan 14, 2018

• Visited Chichicastenango with about five other students.  Even though we went to and fro in a hired microbus, the route was curvy and I wasn’t feeling very well, which spoiled my day somewhat.  Ate nothing all day, in fact.  

• The Mercado was busy and fun, but no standout compared with others I’ve seen in Mexico and South America.  Two churches had flowers, incense, and candles.  Cemetery full of brightly colored graves.  Hiked to Pascual Abaj (Sacrifice Stone) on a hill overlooking the town.  People come to offer food, flowers, cigarettes, liquor to a very ancient stone-faced idol to hope for the earth’s continuing fertility.

Jan 15, 2018

Visit to nearby village of Chiquilaja, for the annual Fiesta del Christo Negro de Esquipulas.  Loads of fun.  Loud music from two competing bands, hordes of dolled-up people, masked dancers, long line to see the Black Christ (a copy: the original is in Esquipulas, sculpted by a Portuguese artist in 1594, blackened over the ages by soot from candles).

Jan 17, 2018

• Afternoon soak at Fuentes Georginas with about 10 others.  Beautiful drive past the town of Zunil and its imposing volcano. Then a two hour soak in warm, clean, odor-free mineral water.  It’s named after a former Guatemalan president’s wife - it used to be his private spa.

• Still very cold, forced to wear t-shirt, shirt, and Marmot jacket.  Grenada is sounding better every day.

• Spanish coming along.  Frustrated by difficulty of memorizing vocabulary.  But my teacher Claudia is sweet and patient with me.  Best is when we have open discussions on whatever.

• Meals continue to have little variety and small portions, but I suspect the diet is doing me some good - I suspect I have lost a few pounds of late.

Jan 18, 2018. 

Made chocolate today: shelled and toasted the cocoa seeds, then took them to the mill in town to grind them (combining them first with iron-fortified sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon).  Will give my family some tonight.