Guate?

This is the school very near my hostel that I passed every day.  I learned that ¨senor¨also means lord.  Hence the translation of Lord of the Rings is El Senor del Anillo, which took a while for me to understand which movie my teacher was trying to talk about.  The Man of the What?

Ahhh the chicken buses.  Actually converted US school buses from the seventies or earlier that spew out black smoke all over town and are the favorite haunts of pickpockets.  It was on one much like this that my passport was stolen. They are all decorated by the drivers with various religious images.  The one I took from San Pedro to Xela had the most fantastic Head of Christ decals in the back window.  Fully detailed with bleeding head and eyes rolling heavenward.  I tried not to think about how much the picture was like what would happen to all of us if our bus when over a cliff.  So far I have survived and Dios es con mi.  You would think all the psalms painted into the front of the bus, where in elementry school were the rules of the bus, would provide some protection.

And here is the central square of Xela.  Much prettier than I had actually imagined for the second largest city in Guate.  It is cool to be in such a cosmopolitan city after being in the Mayan hills for three weeks.  The women here actually wear pants and heels instead of the traditional dress and everyone has the required cell phone, much like Africa.

Picture someone else took of San Pedro Spanish School.  Everyday my teacher and I would set up in one of the little huts and chat for 2.5 hours, get a half hour break and return for one more hour.

By the end of my three weeks in San Pedro, the afternoons started to look like this just before the rain came in.  Quite dramatic and moody, but really inconvenient when the streets turned to rivers and the little dirt paths between the hostels into mud pits.  I did enjoy being inside during the rain, though, because most of the buildings had tin roofs, so when it was only sprinking it sounded like rain was pouring down.

Jarachik, my home sweet home of two weeks.  My room was the window just next to the smiling moon.

Catherine (Canada), me and Lock (Aussie) on top of La Nariz (the nose) proudly representing the former British colonies.

Picture of me hiking up La Nariz taken by Catherine and stolen from her blog at ballofdirt.com

On our way back down the mountain, yes, my picturesque back again.  Catherine and I made the time speed by, by singing songs from the Sound of Music and any other musical we could think of.  For some reason Lock did not join us.

So ten days later, actually fourteen days after getting everything stolen I am thinking of never leaving San Pedro.  I could run a tab at the hostel all winter, take spanish lessons and live the dream ex-pat life.  I am actually a little worried at visiting many peoples favorite place in Central America so early into my trip.  Will I be ruined for the rest of Guate?  Actually it is great to know there is such a nice place to come back to if things get too hectic on the rest of my trip. 

San Pedro is on Lago Atitlan, surrounded by beautiful volcanoes and extremely steep mountain sides.  The town is a mix between sleepy Mayan farmers and lazy hippie *artisans*, as we have taken to calling them.  Despite the places druggie reputation, I have found it nothing if not calm, relaxing and very safe.  My favorite locals are the bread women, or mujers de pan as we call them.  At all times of the day they are selling homemade banana, chocolate, pineapple and cinnamon breads for 5Q, or 70 cents.  They come into restaurants and bars, heft their heavy laundry baskets filled with bread from their heads and start making the rounds.  I have to admit to being a return customer of these hardworking women.  There seems to be a whole family of them.  A little girl sells the same bread during our morning break at school and two old women make the rounds all day and allnight.  When my spanish improves I am determined to get the story of this family.  Are they all related?  How long have they been selling bread?  How much market research did it take to learn to sell chocolate cake in the bars?  Unlike many of the venders, their constant, mild harassments never bothers me.  Even when I say *no gracias* they respond with a silver toothed smile, knowing that tomorrow I will give into their baking prowess. 

I think my lengthy description of the bread women should make it apparent that there really is not much going on here.  Mis amigas and I have decided that it is like being in college again.  We have classes in the morning, meet up for lunch at our favorite sandwich place, or go up to the market for homemade tamales.  Later in the afternoon, after a nap, email or a reading break, we meet up for homework that disolves more into making fun of our horrible spanish.  The homework session quickly turns into dinner and maybe later a movie at one of the many cafes offering free movies, or go for dessert at one of the many beautiful lounge-bars and enjoy the local band.Then we go back to our rooms and start another day… Sometimes we break up the monotony with a hike or kayak ride, but on too many day it gets dark before we even leave town.

I might be ready to leave by the time my credit card shows up…maybe.

Now don t all get upset, but on Sunday my passport, credit card and debit card were stolen from my backpack.  I left my bag alone for a minute in my hostel and when I got of the bus three hours away my little travel wallet was gone.  After a couple of days on the phone I did cancel my cards and the embassy should soon have cancelled my passport.  Getting a new debit card will take a coupld of weeks at least and Im working on the whole passport thing.  Overall, it has been quite a learning experience and Im doing okay with all of it.  I ll let you know more when I m not so carefully counting my queztales and can use more internet time.