Antigua and language school

Ola!

Excuse the long silence. I eally wanted to upload some pics with my next blog, but I haven't found a card reader yet, so all the pics are still on the camera. For the concerned family: I'm still alive.

In my last blog I was reporting about my arrival and the first impressions. By now Antigua is my new home. The firt few days I took it real easy, sleeping lots, reading and having one or the other drink at night. Antigua has a good night life with almost every bar having happy hours during which a cuba libre (rum, lime and coke) is usually around 10 quetzales (around one euro or 10 rand). That usually gets the night going.

So I took it quite easy until sunday. On sunday afternoon I went on a tour to hike up mount Pacay. That's an active volcanoe around Antigua at 2500 meters. We started at 2 in the afternoon. It took 1.5 hours to get to the volcanoes bottom. From there we started walking up for about 2 hours. It was not the way I like going up mountains. We were in a group of about 20 people and met about 6 other groups of the same size. Quite a tourist thing! The hike started very easy, walking on a small road through the bushes, but all of the sudden the landscape changed and we started walking on volcanic rock, with the path getting smaller and steeper. In the end we were just scrambling up volcanic rock. I went on the tour with a girl that I met in the backpackers, who turned out to be very unsporty, which ment that I strolled up the volcanoe, pulling her every step and she being close to crying... It's not like I could have enjoyed the hike , being in a que of people going up...

At the top of the volcanoe it was an majestic experience. Getting close to the top the air was slowly getting warmer and all of a sudden one could see the stones glowing in the cracks of the rocks one was walking on. Following the heat, one was lead to a place where there was a big stream of lava flowing out of the mountain, down the hill at an amazing pace. Just getting close to it, one felt like one was gonna burn. It was really amazing. I took some hotdog rolls up the mountain, put them on a stick and then braaied it in one of the cracks in the rocks. What a cool thing to do. Unfortunately most of the mountain was in clouds, while we were up there, so there was no view. That didn't change the fact that the tour a great experience and lots of fun.

We got back to the backpackers at 9.30 that evening. I was starving and had the best meal ever at one of the many restaurants in town. I'm not sure the food was actually good but I was soo hungry...

Since Monday morning I'm going to school again. I have four hours with a private teacher a day, from 8.00 to 12.00. It is common here to get private lessons. I have not heard of anyone who is actually going to a class. My teacher is fun and after the four hours I'm always very tired, showing that she makes most of the time. My spanish has improved considerably already and it hopefully will even more.

On Monday after class I moved in with a local family. It's a woman who accommodates four students in her house. The house is still in Antigua, about 10 minutes away from the school and the centre of town. The food she provides is always made with lots of care and I haven't had anything yet that I didn't enjoy. It's not huge amounts, but for the amount I'm paying for it, I cant expect too much. The other students are two girls from the states and one guy from Finnland. The are volunteering for an organisation called gvi here in Antigua. They are all 21. It's a nice crowd.

Yesterday night I cooked for the family. I made a beef curry. It was fun to prepare to go shopping (all those things in spanish...) and then to acctually go shopping with Maria Los. It was great to finally eat lots of meat again and to stand in a kitchen. For dessert I made banana pancakes. Hmmmm. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the food and it was a fun night.

Tonigh the american girls are cooking for everyone. They are not getting Mc Donalds, they say...

The weather so far has been real good. Some showers in the afternoon, but mostly warm and not too humid weather. Most of the travellers here are gringos (americans), which takes away the internationalness of the travelers a bit, but there are quite a few english and the odd german around as well.

Antigua is really busy and happening but relatively expensive for Guatemala. It's beautiful to see all the volcanoes around the city, but it would be nice to have some more tranquility. That's why I decided to move on on Monday to a place called San Pedro. It on the lago de Titilan. They offer spanish courses there aswell, so I'll continue my schooling there, being able to still check out a new place at the same time. On the weekend I will be doing another hiking tour, which I will report about next week.

Honduras semms to have calmed down a bit, which is great news, since my long term plan definitely includes it (no way around it going south).

I just came back from a massage that I treated myself to. The best massage ever! A really large fellow half squeezed me to death. Amazing.

Hasta Luego...