Guatemala

Shawn went home on Tuesday to get back to work. He wasn't very happy about that - his first email from home said how much he missed the food here. Baylie and I spent yesterday afternoon by the pool at the Hotel Antigua. It is a beautiful resort filled with British families on holiday; we sat there for hours and just listened to the little kids all speaking in their perfectly proper accents. We have two more Spanish classes then all day Saturday to walk around and say good-bye to Antigua. This has been a perfect summer trip, but I can't believe I scheduled it right up to the very end of our time off. It seems like everything is going to start moving really fast all of a sudden. I'm feeling anxious about getting back to work and Baylie has mixed feelings about starting high school. Oh well, when we're in the middle of all that "real life" there's always another trip to start planning!

Baylie made friends with a girl from Germany at Spanish school last week and she mentioned that she was trying to figure out how to get to Lake Atitlan for the weekend. We were planning to rent a car and drive there on Saturday morning so we offered her a ride. Katya was a delightful companion for our road trip and a perfect example of what I can probably expect from Baylie in about 4 years when she takes off at 18 to travel on her own! We got our same little Nissan back again for the day and once again put our faith in the GPS of Shawn's tablet gadget. The lovely British lady's voice calmly directed us along the most ridiculous route - up and down steep rutted dirt roads (thank goodness we didn't get the daily downpour right then!) and through the tiniest little "towns" in the middle of cornfields. She would occasionally tell us "You are headed in the opposite direction" as we slid around major rock piles and wash-outs. I tried to tell Katya that when you get a free ride you get what you pay for, but truthfully she and Baylie were having a great time. At one stop to check out some un-spectacular little caves we met a kid selling baby chicks - why he thought some lost tourists on their way to the lake might want one is a bit of a mystery, but they were fun to hold.

We actually finally made it to the town of Panajachel and I suspect the British GPS lady was having quite a laugh inside that stupid gadget. We walked around town a little, had some lunch with a great view, said good-bye to Katya as she went off to find a boat to one of the other little lakeside towns, and then we went to the Reserva Natural and hiked some gorgeous trails through the jungle. A fabulous day - and we found the actual highway for the trip back!

Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan

I really didn't think a tropical beach was in the plans for this trip, but we heard about Monterrico Beach at our language school so I started checking it out. Everyone we asked seemed to have slightly different information about how far away it is...1 hour?...2?...2 1/2? The language school offers a shuttle for $30 per person ($90 for a bus ride?!) so we checked with some of the other tour companies but they were even more expensive. Shawn thought renting another scooter was a viable plan (ummm...no.) And Baylie was all for renting a car. The tour salesman in the park of course gave us dire warnings about trying to drive there ourselves. They painted a frightening picture of terrible roads and assured us we would get lost. So...we rented a a car for $47, pulled up a GPS map and drove there in 2 hours.

The beach was HUGE and almost completely empty. Palm trees swaying in the breeze, a pleasant mist from the powerful crashing waves, and black sand so hot it was like walking on coals! We found some shade right in front of a vacant house for sale and had a few great hours just soaking up the tropical vibe. The water was very warm, but the waves would suck you under and thrash you against the volcanic sand, so maybe not quite "perfect" - but pretty close!

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Yesterday we hung out at the Mercado de Artesanias. Shawn bought a mask to add to the small collection we have. I had to pull him away with just one. Baylie is in search of a cool bag to use for school this year, no ordinary backpack for her, so we will be going back I'm sure.

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Yesterday was a holiday (honoring St. James - I think). There was a parade in the park that lasted ALL day. Music groups playing, fire crackers going off randomly (and LOUD), just a spectacle everywhere you looked. Baylie and I went in the morning with our teachers. I'm sure they had very good intentions of explaining everything to us about the festivities, but it was so loud and crowded that really couldn't happen so we all just watched the parade. After class Baylie and I ate lunch at a little stall with some plastic tables outside that finally seemed to be the most local food we have eaten so far. No menu - just a couple of choices from what they were cooking at the outside kitchen. We had a dish called pepian and some very thick tortillas we watched the lady make. Very good! Like we have encountered in other places where tourists are found...you can get italian food, pizza, sandwiches, thai food, chinese, "continental" cuisine...but good luck finding a restaurant that serves a truly local menu.

We finally managed to all eat together for dinner. Shawn has been off exploring every day so we end up doing our own thing, but yesterday we all were home in the afternoon so we went back to the park and watched more of the festival. The greased pole climbing contest was especially entertaining! After some sandwiches and the one local thing that is easy to find - Guacamole (YUM!), we grabbed some desserts and sat in the park for a while. Some of the most amazing boysenberries grow on the hillsides around here and Shawn and Baylie made the best dessert choices, mine was ok but I should have gone for berries.

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So I sit for four hours a day across a small table from a very nice woman named Paulina and for the entire four hours I concentrate harder than I have ever concentrated before. Every bit of the very involved and complicated conversation is in Spanish. When she goes over rules of grammar or some new expression, the explanation is in Spanish. When I'm done for the day I discover that I can't think successfully in EITHER language. I really can't identify any one specific new thing that I have learned. I have definitely practiced every scrap of what I already knew, but I think this total immersion thing is for those people with some sort of natural knack for picking up languages. I need books, lists, organized lessons, Mrs. Charlesworth's verb conjugation worksheets from my high school Spanish class would be a welcome relief...this method of just magically absorbing knowledge simply because I am drowning in it is killing me!
On the other hand, Baylie sits on the beautiful rooftop with her nice young teacher and plays games...she's having a lovely time