Xela-Shocked

So, Antigua kind of sucked. Our hostel was nice, but it was expensive, and the presence of so many English-speaking tourists pissed us off, so we decided to head to the highlands, specifically El Lago de Atitlan.

Despite the torrential rain and hellish bus ride (ok, so it wasn´t that bad), it was obviously a beautiful place. We arrived at Panajachel, and decided that it would be a good idea to head to San Pedro La Laguna, with the promise of cheap rooms.

It was true, rooms were pretty cheap. We discovered this after a 25 minute boat ride across the lake in torrential downpour, but it was a lot of fun. We hung out for the day, walking around, taking things in. We decided to catch the happy hour at the local bar, which was also showing The Bucket List. It was funny. We then had another drink, and went back to our small room for the night.

We woke up the next morning, freezing, and went to another hotel with even cheaper rates. It was a really cool looking place. I felt kind of nasty so I slept for a few more hours. I woke up to meet an Italian backpacker and a local Guatemalan man. We hung out with them for a while, then planned our next move (to Xela- pronounced SHE-la). We were then joined by a second Guatemalan man, and I wound up talking almost solely in Spanish for the rest of the day. It was actually realy good practice. I had a conversation with the one guy about Megadeth (IN SPANISH!) and tried to explain the use of the word ¨groove¨. It was really funny.

Today we took an early shuttle from San Pedro to Xela. When we got here, we decided it would be a good idea to stick around for a little while and take a few Spanish lessons. We got a really good rate on 20 hours of lessons and a home-stay, and even have opportunities to do some volunteer work. Plus, Xela seems to have a really good live music scene, so I´m really looking forward to spending some time here. The weather is a lot nicer- there´s not nearly as much rain, and I even saw blue skies today.

We even ran into our Irish friends from the Copan Ruinas- I think Xela may turn out to be a lot of fun.

Until Next Time,

¡Adios!