Hotel Real Virginia Quetzaltenango

... what we find there. The Canadian girl we are living with, worked in a hostel by the lake for a month and said it was a really good way to meet locals - so time depending that would be amaxing!

Anyway, this has been a muchos largo message, and I will definitely write more often or I have too much to say! I hope everything is whirring along nicely in England and its not starting to get too cold, missing you all, Lots of Love from Xela xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well I thought I would post something however I have not done much lately. I have been studying hard. It is not easy but nothing worth wild is easy. I am making a little progress

The key word here is little, my teacher tells me poco y poco (little by little I will learn Spanish).

There are a lot of small café's here because of the amount of people here studying Spanish mostly northern Europeans but there are a lot of Americans to ...

... cheek. I don't even hate that the streets turn to rivers when it rains and no one is ever on time or I get hollered at everywhere I walk and that the coffee sucks and everything has mayonnaise on it or that it is impossible to find carrots at 6:00 Sunday evening because all the markets are closed.

So, I wont jump to conclusions and say that I am in officially in love with Guatemala. But I am defiantly crushing.

... me to people as ´her daughter´. I even got to do a mini-fashion show wearing one of her special party outfits. The clothing here is very brightly colored, and rather fun to wear, but it´s also quite heavy!

From here, we´re heading to Lago de Atilan to continue our journey across Guatemala.

... significantly steeper and a bit more slippery. In Guatemala, it appears, they do not believe in switch-backs. If you want to go down a mountain, you go down a mountain. Straight down. As a result, the path is steep, and also gets a bit more washed-out during the rain. This results in several large drop-offs where, to continue along the path, you need to essentially jump down several feet. (For example, in the return hike, I found that several of these were ...

... pairs (8Q = 1 US dollar), I purchased two sweaters at a much more reasonable price. The first (a rather unattractive but highly functional white wool sweater) cost 3Q (roughly 37.5 cents in US dollars) and the second (a slightly more attractive but also slightly oversized item) cost 5Q (or about 62.5 cents). They also sell everything else you need -- DVDs, fruits, vegetables, scarfs, belts, hats, hammocks, soap, meat, and baby chickens, for ...

... for the next week or more. (More on that soon). After getting settled, we took off to explore a nearby attraction -- Las Fuentes Georginas. Las Fuentes are hot springs, set in the mountians above the city. Although the city itself has a cool, mountian feel, and the air around the hot springs is also cool, the setting is almost tropical, as you are in the middle of a high ...

... of way), but I figured I'd see what San Pedro was like. Honestly, I spent three days there I didn't really like it. Sure, there are tons of people to meet, lots to do, great bars and eating places, and the like, but there are better places on the lake, that's for sure. Unplanned, I went to spend a day and a half in San Marcos la Laguna, which I found far more low-key, far more relaxing and slow-paced, and less "let's party!". I made a day trip to ...

... spurted in every direction but down, but it was home.






We took it immediately and negotiated a weekly rate of 66 Quetzals ($13) a night. With every other place in town asking 150 Quetzals ($30) a night, we felt we were the luckiest people on earth.







< br> We spent four nights relaxing before starting classes, enrolling in a Spanish school and doing a reconnaissance ...

... ended at 2am with Nick and me getting lost and lighting firecrackers in the streets. That's ok here. Guatemaltecos have a keen appreciation for loud noises.

That brings us to today's hangover and subsequent decision not to spend Christmas Eve ill on a chicken bus. It's a good decision. There'll be a Gringo Christmas Feast of vegetarian curry at the hostel. And firecrackers for dessert.

Merry Christmas