What my eyes have seen

Colors, colors... a painter´s pallet of colors await the eyes in Guatemala. A photograph beckoned me at every corner in Antigua. Whether it be displayed on the walls of layered, ornately peeling paint, the brightness of multiple varieties of fresh mangos at the market, or the intricate weaving of Mayan dress, your eyes will not grow weary of looking out and about while walking the city streets. But beyond beauty, Guatemala offers another culture and way of life that is new to Travis and me, and unique to the other Latin American countries as well. After being here just over a week, I feel we´ve only touched the surface of what this culture is all about. With over 24 different indigenous Mayan groups, all with their own specific languages, traditions and culture, you could spend years here and still have more culture to absorb.

Back in Nicaragua, I raised the question inquiring if people in Guatemala could be as nice and hospitable as those in Nica. Well, to answer, it is indeed true. Travis noticed on the first day already that if you flash a smile to a Guatemalteco when passing, they will warmly smile back at you within an instant. The presence of the indigenous Mayans on the street has been a surprise to me. Of course I read about these groups, but blindly assumed they solely resided in the small villages. I was wrong. The Mayan culture resounds everywhere in Guatemala, with men, women and children in traditional dress displaying their artisan's handiwork or just going about their daily lives. It´s interesting to see a group of Guatemaltecan friends hanging out together, some in native dress, some in Western-wear, all interacting and accepting each other equally. I´ve learned that depending on what indigenous group you hail from, the clothing is specific to that group. This might be in the style of dress (skirt vs. pants), type of embroidery (weaving vs. hand-sewn), or the extra ornamentations they wear (belts, jewelry, bags). I find the colors and patterns of the clothing so interesting to look at, it's hard to keep myself from staring to take it all in.

As Travis explained, our first week in Guatemala was spent in Antigua taking Spanish classes in an excellent academy and living with a local family. This home stay was a little different for us being that this small family lived alone in their house, without any additional relatives (as is so typical in Latin American families). The couple was young, late 20's, and they had two adorable sons. In contrast to our first two home stays, we especially enjoyed the interaction with both a husband and wife during dinner time, since up until this point we've only dined with the "mom" of the household. Travis enjoyed talking about "guy subjects" like soccer with Juan Carlos, and I enjoyed hearing about cooking and kids from Johanna. All in all, home stays have been a VERY unique and interesting experience for us in Central America. For my next blog, I plan to write about some of the oddities of our stays due to cultural differences, and some of the creature comforts we've had to do without during these weeks. Being that we're currently enduring a rather difficult home stay situation this week in Quetzaltenango, I can't it's always been easy to adapt to!

So, to bring you up to date with our trekking through Guatemala, after our week of classes in Antigua, Travis was energized having experienced a light bulb effect (or a puzzle coming together) with several of the concepts and grammar we're working on, and I was confused and frustrated, feeling like I missed a beat. Oh, the curves of learning... up and down, up and down. I'm of course glad that things are connecting in Travis's mind, but I'm losing my confidence to speak as the more grammar I know, the more aware I am of the mistakes I make. ¡Estoy frustrada!

We headed to the charming town of Panajachel by Lake Atitilan for the weekend. Although overrun by tourists and hap-hazard development, it was still a welcoming place, especially with a clean room in a hostel all to ourselves for two days. We had fun exploring and being tourists for the weekend before we got back in a shuttle bus and this time headed towards Quetzaltanango for another week of Spanish classes. A quick note about traveling in Guatemala with Travis- his ¨travel/transportation worries¨ have not lessened too much in this year of traveling and the poor guy still suffers from an enormous amount of stress on travel days.... the funny thing is that I thought his stress level in Spain was high! Central American traveling has brought on a whole new degree of travel worry for Trav. Ah well, it gives me good opportunities to be the supportive, encouraging wife, right?!

So, now it`s Thursday and we´re about to finish up our week in Quetzaltanango, or Xela (pronounced Che-la) as they call it. This city is much larger than Antigua as it`s the 2nd largest in the country. It definitely has a different feel here, and unfortunately I can`t say it´s been our favorite place to reside (even for just 6 days). We just feel a weird vibe here. It hasn`t helped that the home stay situation has been difficult, the weather is freezing, the Spanish school has not met our expectations, and the city is not as interesting to explore. However, it´s been a very good ¨tough it up¨ experience for Travis and I among this year of travel, and we know the challenge is helping us grow.

Therefore, on Friday afternoon we are ¨getting the heck out of here¨ and heading back to Antigua for a final week of language study at the school we so enjoyed. The flexibility in this country is a bonus for little alterations in travel planning such as this. We look forward to finishing up this week and seeing what adventures yet await us during our final week in Guatemala.