Leaving home, Learning Spanish

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Trip Start Oct 11, 2006 Trip End Apr 25, 2007 Next
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  Antigua, Guatemala
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Alright- so 12 hours, three flights, very little sleep, and we are finally here. Here is Antigua, Guatemala, where we will be staying for 2-3 weeks. We have been taking it slow these first few days, allowing the heat to sink into our skin and the Spanish to take over our tongues.
Antigua is a very nice town, with cobblestoned streets and buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries. One thing that kind of surprised us is how nice the cars are here. Parked outside a very modest looking home may be a nice BMW M5, or a new Mercedes! And other than that almost every car is less than 3 years old, and most VERY clean. There is no in between though, either very nice cars, or the biggest piece of shit car ever, not even street legal in Canada.
We met a couple of cool people in the Guatemala city airport, and took a direct shuttle with them into Antigua, about an hour drive. The driver dropped us at "guest house los amigos", and we struggled for awhile to organize our sleeping arrangements for the night

01 Volcan Agua in Antigua

. We knew we would have to learn Spanish, but we had no idea it would be such a challenge to communicate. Luckily the owner, Lydia, was very nice, and took the time to explain things to us using body language and a few written numbers. After only half an hour of sitting in our room, Edy(Lydia's son) wandered in and explained to us(en ingles) that he could show us to a good Spanish school. Within 2 hours of arriving at our hostel we had signed up for 16 5-hour days of Spanish lessons at "Spanish School Antigua".
The next morning we went with a group from the school to the nearby town of San Antonio, where we watched a very interesting demonstration of local customs, including a mock Mayan wedding ceremony. We returned in the afternoon for our first day of classes. Classes are going well(now we have had 4 days of lessons) and we are slowly learning to speak a foreign tongue. We both agree that we can now speak more Spanish than french, so much for the 10 years of french class in school. The same night as our first class, we moved in with a Guatemalan family (arranged through the school). The Mother of the family is Margarita, an incredibly nice woman who cooks us three tremendous meals each day, excluding Sundays. We both agree that much of the Spanish we are picking up comes from talking with Margarita over meal times.
On our second day of classes(Saturday) Edy came by the school and told us about a guided tour of the Pacaya Volcano, the only active volcano in the region

02 Volcan Agua in Antigua

. We had the option of going that night at 5PM, or Sunday morning at 6AM. Anyone who knows me(Kyle) will know that the choice was a very obvious one, so that night we boarded a bus on our way to see some LAVA! On the bus were about 20 other gringos, and we brought with us 2 water bottles, 2 flashlights, and our good hiking shoes, upon Edy's instruction. The drive to the base of the volcano was about 2 hours, so it was pitch black by the time we arrived. When we disembarked from the bus, we were immediately surrounded by young kids trying to "sell" walking sticks yelling "Stick! Stick!" likely the only English word they knew. The hike was pretty steep and pretty tough, and after about an hour we caught the first glimpse of the top of the volcano. It was amazing! We could see a huge plume of smoke rising into the atmosphere illuminated in a bright orange glow. We were surprised by how incredibly fast the smoke rose, and every minute or two you could see several large chunks of bright orange burning hot lava being launched very high into the sky, maybe 50 feet high! Slowly the forest thinned out until there was only sharp lava rocks to walk on. The last 30 minutes of the hike was very treacherous, because it was extremely steep, but mostly because the black lava sand was constantly slipping from beneath our feet. Finally we reached a level summit and we could see a vast field of glowing lava, and immediately felt the immense heat produced by this natural wonder. We have lots of cool pics and a few minutes of video footage of the lava flowing from a never ending supply of underground magma. And yes, of course we heard a few Austin Power's "molten hot MAGMA" jokes. We hung out up there for awhile, then began the hike down, exhausted by this point. We finally got back to Margarita's at 1AM after sleeping the whole bus ride home.
The next morning we got out of bed at 10:50, walked all of two blocks, and made it on time for the 11:00 football game

03 The Arch in Antigua

. Antigua was playing their local rivals Chimaltenango, and the experience of the game was one we will never forget. Everyone left the game in a happy mood (except for 11 from Chimal)- Antigua won by a score of 2-0. After the Soccer game we went for lunch in the first little restaurant we saw, and had a very good meal(Kyle-tacos, Fran-enchiladas). The waiter was very nice, and obviously the owner of the place. He made an effort to make conversation, and was a pretty funny guy. When we told him we were from British Columbia he walked to the threshold of the restaurant, looked left and right outside, and returned to our table holding a big fresh bud that he took from his pocket! He then said "Its not like BC, you guys have the numero uno!", we got a good laugh from this, but denied when he offered to sell us some.
Well, since then not much has happened of interest, but we are still hard at our studies and, as we say, learning muy rapido. We study 6 days a week from 8AM to 1PM. Thats about it from Antigua for now. We love and miss you all, and you will hear from us again soon.
GO Canucks GO
Kyle and Fran. O en espanol, Kilo y Francisca

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

04 Parque Central in Antigua	05 Kyle Studying with Mimi	06 Fran Studying with Aura	07 Us on the rooftop courtyard at Margarita's
08 Kyle Washing a Shirt in Suicide Shower	09 Kyle Has a Long Beard!	10 Margarita's House	11 Fran with Margarita (our homestay mom)
12 Lava on Volcano Pacaya	13 Kyle with the Hot Magma	14 Kyle and Fran on Pacaya	15 Local Antiguan Football Match
16 Energetic Football Fans

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