Antigua

It wasn't long into our trip before we realised that we were 'screwed' without any understanding of Spanish in this part of the world. Antigua seemed to be the perfect place to study, with more language schools than anywhere else in Central America.

The town is beautiful - colonial Spanish architecture, cobblestone streets and plenty of parks, good food and Guatemalan hospitality. It is a little daunting being completely surrounded by volcanoes, but this is what also gives the town such a unique look. It became completely normal to watch Volcan Fuego smoking early each morning!

We stayed in a student house run by Ana and her family for 6 weeks (around 5 mins walk from our school). It didn't take long before Antigua started to feel like our home away from home. Within a couple of weeks the locals began to know our food orders, names etc. It was a place where we could actually feel like we were 'living' rather than traveling and our days were spent studying, taking salsa classes, visiting the local gym, markets & cafes and hanging out with our friends at the house & school.

With the cold weather and adopted family, Christmas didn't exactly feel like Christmas but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. We spent Christmas Eve in a mountain 'hippy' lodge with some students at our school where we saw one of the volcanoes spitting lava in the night (very cool!). Christmas day was with our Guatemalan family in their home. It was here that we experienced our first pinata and some local traditions including posadas where each family hosts a gathering (sometimes up to 200 people!) before Chistmas Eve. Everyone walks to their home as they sing and carry candles whilst blocking all traffic by walking in the middle of the road!

Soon we will upload a funny video of our pinata experience where Ben completely scared the hell out of all the Guatemalans as he swung his baton towards the crowd!

Leading up to Christmas we also had the chance to help out one of the local poorer communities in San Pedro by assisting the school in organising activities and presents for the children of the town. Ben got his behind whooped by the local kids in soccer and ended up spraining his ankle : )

 

After some crazy pyrotechnics during Christmas we opted for what we thought would be a more peaceful place at Lake Atitlan. Instead, the town we stayed in turned out to be party central with Shakira and Pitbull blaring well past 5am in the morning + non-stop fireworks set off by drunk locals and tourists.

Once NYE was over, we moved to a different town and were able to enjoy some peace, good food & lazy days in Panajachel and Santa Cruz.

One of our more adventurous excusions with the school was to one of the nearby active (but safe) volcanoes - Volcan Pacaya. Although the climb up was torturous, the views at the top were amazing and we were able to roast marshmallows with the heat coming from the ground!

After 6 hard weeks of 5 hours a day, we both graduated from Spanish School - Hooray!!
(Bottom left pic is an example of the many objects Ben bumped his head on whilst in Guatemala - not a country built for tall people!)

... and had the sad task of saying goodbye to our teachers Alejandra & Elvia, our family, salsa teacher Juan Carlos and Pinky!

Ben especially misses the daily newspaper (if you can call it that). Highly informative and educational!