Xela Week 1

Day 323.

Although there had been some initial doubt we made it to Xela via Chicken bus alive and in one piece! We had just one rule, try to keep our bags on the bus, it became quickly apparent as we watched our very unwaterproof luggage launched onto the roof that we in fact did not make the rules here, good start. The ride itself was great fun, as long as you weren’t Ellie who was holding onto the bars in front of her for dear life as we flew around the mountainous countryside, overtaking literally everything in our way. But if the lady juggling one hand full of fried chicken and another with change can do so whilst walking up and down the bus then we can’t complain...

It’s lucky we slimmed our bags down as upon arriving in Xela our bus handily decided to terminate early due to the independence celebrations, which left us with a tasty 5km walk in the midday heat, it was one way to see the city at least. We didn’t hold back in diving into our first street market, tucking into some Pusperias and sipping on tequila (of course).

Xela is a million miles away from Antigua. This is a working city and one with a lot of charm. It didn’t take long to sign ourselves up with the Miguel Cervantes school of Spanish, now the real work would begin with 4 hours of private lessons per day...! We were quickly introduced to Connie and Danny, the Guatemalan family we would be living with across town for the next month, in their super cosy house. Granted there was a slight language barrier at first, me incorrectly assuming we would be hosted by a 3 year old dog just one of many misunderstandings to come I fear..

It's now 3 meals a day in Spanish with our family and although tough we are certainly improving (with Danny at least). Home comforts are more than we expected here and Connie makes incredible fresh food, we’re continually amazed by the number of uses found for frijoles, avocados and most importantly tortillas, 7 days and counting - Top it, fry it, stuff it, chop it, blend it, wrap it.
Being Rainy season we’ve also seen our share of storms this week, the particular highlight being dinner by candlelight when the storm knocked out power for half the town, every cloud. (It's a veggie meal as long as there’s just a little chicken in it right.. ) 

Determined not to let Spanish take over our lives, and out of concern that we still won’t have anything to show for it in one months time we have dived into local activities available. The highlight this week being Salsa with Sassy rosa. Teaming up and swirling limbster around on the dance floor it turns out is incredibly fun, and I don’t think we’re all that bad either even if a little sweaty (me), the fact locals can watch in from the street just adds to the fun.

I’ll try to avoid touching on how the Spanish lessons have gone for limbster, I think breakdown, sob story and a replacement teacher says it all. Aim for next week is for the update to be in Spanish, so some serious progress is required.

Adios.Lue lisää