Guatemala - 2010

Intro and Index of Days

Day 1 - Tues., July 20 – Travel and Mexico City
Day 2 - Wed., July 21 - Antigua - First Day
Days 3+4 - Thurs., July 22+Fri, July 23- Stevie - Phone home!
Day 5 - Sat., July 24 - Monterrico
Day 6 - Sun., July 25 - Fiesta
Day 7 - Mon., July 26 - New Teacher
Day 8 - Tues., July 27 - Guatemala City
Day 9 - Wed., July 28 - San Antonio
Day 10 - Thurs., July 29 - San Felipe
Day 11 - Fri., July 30 - Hugotenango
Day 12 - Sat., July 31 - Tikal 1
Day 13 - Sun., Aug 1 - Tikal 2
Day 14 - Mon., Aug 2 - Goodbyes (working on it)
Day 15 - Tues., Aug 3 - Mexico City and the Zocalo (working on it)

 

Back to friends and family here.

I have been studying Spanish now for over a decade. Computer programs, books in Spanish, even a Spanish Harry Potter book on CD – they are not enough. A few years ago I went to Antigua , Guatemala to immerse myself in Spanish. That did help a lot. In two weeks I made marked progress. So I needed to return. Antigua is an hour's drive from the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City and is the old capital of Guatemala.

My first trip to Antigua was spent with local teachers (Maestros) in a Spanish immersion school, called La Union . It was very good, but still only sitting at a desk, with my morning teacher, or walking around the same city over and over again, with my afternoon teacher. This time I wanted to travel around Guatemala and learn along the way. I contacted some friends I had met in Antigua , but unfortunately, everyone has work or school (no surprise). So, I am returning to Guatemala to learn, but will stay mostly in Antigua , again. My teacher will be Maria in the morning and I will study at the school in the afternoon. If possible, I may or may not travel on the weekends. The school sponsors all inclusive weekend trips, but they are expensive (compared to Guatemalan prices), though easy.

OK - HUGE NOTE: I have been struggling to get good Internet and time to work on the Internet. I seem to be finding time to record events in a Word Document, but not choose pictures. It also seems that uploading pictures will be very hard. In Europe the Internet was on the ship, but here I have to go to it. And finding good Internet is becoming a major quest of this trip, anyway. So, this trip blog may be more text than pictorial. Sorry.