I´m tempted to read Harry Potter again, but in Spanish

One more funny update to the Chicken Bus experience.  All through the trip people would get on board to sell us things, usually fruit or ice cream bars.  So you have a nine year old boy with bags of watermelon and coconut and papaya hooked onto the spikes of a grappling hook pushing his way through the crowd to make sure everyone had an opportunity to buy his stuff.  After he´d make a round, he´d get off the bus a few miles down the road, presumably to get on another bus going the opposite direction.  One kid selling honey-roasted peanuts had the brilliant idea to give everyone on the bus one sample peanut.  Unfortunately I only had large bills at that point (which he couldn´t make change for) so I´ll have to wait for my next opportunity to get some more of those. 

As we got closer to Xela, a different kind of hawker emerged.  This one was older, in his late 30´s to 50´s, and they were selling what reminded me of those cure-all tonics that the travelling salesmen used to sell.  He would stand in the front of the bus and give a little speech about how his cream/pill/juice would make you healthier and happier.  I couldn´t actually understand most of it, but enough to get the gist.  Then he would walk around and give a bottle/bag/container to anyone who seemed interested to look at as he made his way to the back, and on his way back up people would either give it back or give him some money.  I was of course very curious about what kinds of things they were selling, some Guatemalan brand of Airborne I guess.

Friday morning we walked around the city looking for schools and a place to stay.  We talked to five different schools (they are everywhere down here), and really liked three of them.  It was hard to narrow it down, but we finally just went with the school that not only gave us a great vibe but also had a handful of other students that we would be able to get to know and practice with.  The woman who runs the school is awesome.  She doesn´t speak any English (Spanish and French), but with an immersion program that is sort of what you want anyway.  We will both have one-to-one instruction for five hours a day, five days a week.  I guess they also organize activities like hiking outings, or watching a spanish documentary, or volunteering in a village with various projects.  The language is primarily why I´m here, so I didn´t pay much attention to the rest, although if we stay here a few weeks I´m sure I will be more interested.

Several of the schools recommended a guest house for us to stay at, which was only two blocks away from the school that we chose.  When we arrived though, the front door had a huge padlock on it.  We stood there a minute, looking at our map to figure out another place to try, and a guy walking down the street stopped and asked if we were looking for a place to stay, pointing at the hostel.  I said yes, and he started talking a lot, most of which I couldn´t follow, but he motioned us to follow him.  Without a better idea, we did.  He walked us a few blocks away, and we figured he was going to take us to another hostel.  Instead he knocked on a garage door of a home, and a woman came out.  They talked, and then she ran back inside and came out with a set of keys.  She spoke at least a little English, and I could understand her spanish better than his.  Turns out she runs the hostel, and the guy is a friend of hers that didn´t want her to lose us as customers!  Such luck. 

She took us back to the house, which she opened up for us.  She usually rents the house out to groups, but didn´t have one scheduled until March.  There are four bedrooms to the place, and an Italian girl has been staying there all by herself for the past month.  The woman joked with us that the Italian girl would be very sad to now have to share her private house with us. (Her name is Erika and she has been lovely.)  Besides our room and a hot shower, we also have a kitchen so we can cook our own food which is nice.  For a week we are paying 500Q, which is about $62.  Not bad!

We are up in the mountains here, so it gets pretty chilly at night compared to what we´ve been used to in Mexico, down in the 50s.  Still we are wearing tshirts and sandals, while the locals are all bundled up in heavy woolen sweaters and look at us like we are crazy.  Almost no one speaks English here though, so practicing our Spanish will be very easy!  Friday night we went to a graduation party at our new school, where three girls who had been there a month were all leaving.  They cooked us an amazing dinner out on an open-flame grill, flat steak and grilled green onions and guacamole and potatoes, it was delicious.  ¡Estaba buenísimo!

We are just hanging out this weekend, getting ready for lots of homework.  We found a grocery store (David made us french toast this morning, we are really roughing it here), did some shopping, looked around the big market.  We will stay here at least a week, but probably more as long as we like our teachers.  From here there is an option to take a two or three day hike through the mountains to Lake Atitlán, the next place we want to go to.  There is also a volcano overlooking the city, and if you climb up it you can see down to the next volcano over, which is active and still spews hot lava, which of course we really want to see.  We started looking at flights, and getting down to South America is going to be pricey, but we really want to make it happen if we can.  So much ahead.