There happened to be a cheap shuttle from my hotel to Antigua so I cut my time in El Salvador short and headed north. I sat up front and got my first taste of Guatemalan culture talking to the driver. They speak amazingly clearly here (possibly my favorite thing about the country) but they are always kidding around, so much so that frequently I can't tell when people are serious and when they're just joking. I've even heard they'll actually promise to meet you somewhere, expecting you to know they're not coming.
Anyway, it turns out that this town is one of the best places in the world to study Spanish, so in a last ditch effort to get fully fluent I'm taking classes. I'm staying just a few blocks away from Iglesia La Merced (pictured right) in a pensión run by a sweet little lady named Yolanda. It's mostly full of high school aged girls going to a fancy preparatoria on government scholarship but there are a couple other gringo students as well. I can feel the wanderlust starting to burble up as I hang around one town not really doing much traveling but I think it's worth it to spend my last few days here doing something constructive, especially since this town is world renowned for language and isn't bankbreakingly expensive either.
4 comments:
i know someone here in US who grew up in Guatemala, she says Antigua Guatemala is the very best place in the country. And that it's a perect place to learn Spanish. And she says you have to "go to the beautiful park."
"renowned"
I'm so jealous of your Spanish-learning. Besides general enlightenment, it has the perk of making you more marketable. I plan to copy your method.
WAIT WAIT it looks like you already found the beautiful park. That fountain where the water is shooting out of the woman's breasts is hilarious! My friend says to go see the Mayan CIty in Tikal, Peten and andf th elake in Rio Dulce if you have time.
Hah, reNOUNed, you can tell I've got vocabulary on the brain. Yeah, I highly recomment Antigua if you want to learn the language.
Unfortunately I may not have enough time to do all that (it's like a 7 hour drive to Tikal) and I don't have much free time since I'm always studying, but at the very least I'm gonna check out Pacaya, the active volcano they have here, before I leave.
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