Finally Traveling Again!

Baylie will be taking Spanish this year and has had no introduction at all and I have always wanted to take some language classes in a foreign country, so I started looking at programs for studying Spanish for a few weeks. Antigua, Guatemala has become quite a hub of Spanish language schools and we hadn't been here yet so I just picked it sort of at random. I guess it's not a typical summer vacation destination - more than one person has asked what there is to do here - but I wasn't looking for a week on a beach this time.

I booked us three weeks in a one bedroom apartment four blocks south of the main town square. The pictures looked great, but you really never know. When I arranged the rental through email I also paid for pick-up at the airport. Well, we walked out of the airport in Guatemala City...no nice pre-arranged ride to be seen...hmmm. Kind of a letdown to search the crowd for your name on a little sign and not find it. I wondered if the apartment might not exist after all. We waited about 30 minutes then just hired a cab to Antigua. There was another moment of slight concern when the cab driver said the address didn't exist - but I figured out the address was meant to be 4th Ave. NOT 4th Street (a big mistake since there is one of each in town). When we finally found the little apartment complex they knew my name and were expecting us, hooray - homlessness averted! The apartment is outstanding, I can most definitely live here for three weeks.

Tomorrow we report to class at the Ixchel Language school a couple blocks away (Not Shawn, of course. He will be off in search of a bicycle and a volcano to summit.) Now we just need to sleep off the effects of the overnight flight and then find a market. More soon (with pictures!).