El Fin de Semana
The end of the week, into the weekend was action packed! The school arranges a full schedule of trips, allowing the students to get out and see more of Guatemala. Thursday´s trip sounded fun but I unfortunately decided to take a few extra hours of sleep after a night of heavy consumption. An unproductive morning led me to my daily Spanish lesson at 2PM. My teacher, Rosario is great she was a social worker in the 70´s in Guatemala City and a teacher at the school here for over 19 years. She had been knitting a scarf all week so much of our conversations were centered around this ´bufanda´and how and when she was going to get it done. Thursday´s class was cut a little short due to the scheduled soccer game that night.
Every Thursday Oscar, a fantastic human being, piles us into his mini van and we head over to what we assumed would be a soccer field. When we pulled up to the basketball court already packed with the first group of students, we knew things were going to be a little messier than anticipated. Split into 4 seperate teams of 5 we started a fast paced, sloppy game of soccer. Immediately feeling like I was about to pass out I had to take a breather while I struggled for air 8,000 feet above sea level. The games were fun and we played for about 2 hours, rotating every 20 minutes or so. Taking it, obviously, much more seriously than the others I played as hard as possible, dependent on how much oxygen I could take in.
After the game a few of us went out to dinner and then called it a night. Friday morning was an early morning trip to the San Francisco market. The biggest open air market in Central America.
An hour or so trip, on another American school bus dropped us off in mayhem. Our guide took the 12 of us through claustrophobically small areas of vendors until we reached the animal market. The animal market is a large open space at the tail end (pun intended) of the massive expanse of stalls and booths. Some of the highlights of this particular section was the sale of: roosters, puppies, huskies (enjoying their guatemalan lifestyle), cats, cows, goats, pigs, and pretty much anything else you can think of. My favorite moment was when a woman bartered her way through a pig purchase abruptly ending with the salesman opening a large sack, tossing the pig in, and the woman tossing the sack over her shoulder and heading home. We saw it kicking and heard its gut wrenching squeals until she was out of sight.
The rest of the market consisted of a lot of the same things, those things being primarily junk. Im assuming this market is considered the largest only because of the acreage in which it covers and not the quality of the products sold. But if you´re in the market for used shoes, nintendo game controllers, or a new pair of Levi´s San Francisco has jsut what you´re looking for. I purchased a delicious piece of fruit called a zapote which is somewhere in between a papaya and an avocado. I bought it just to break the large bill I had brought and couldnt use to pay my ´chicken bus´fare back but the fruit was delicious and the other vagabondish travelers of the group were excited to try it.
We returned to the school in time for lunch at our respective homes and then we were off to class again. After class was the graduation dinner for those students completing their studies. Alcohol and beverages provided by the students and food by the school contributed to a fun evening that carried on quite late. My host family wasn´t particulary thrilled to open the door for me at the obnoxiously late hour in which I returned.
A couple hours of sleep and we were on our way to the beach for another school excursion! Tulate is a small town 3 hours from Xela. We parked the bus by a small intercoastal type thing that we had to take a 7 second bus ride across. Leaving the boat we walked to a beach side restaurant and put all of our things down. We had been warned about the strength of the current and waves but dove right in hoping the very large Guatemalan lifeguards in extremely small swim wear would be able to notice if one of us were in trouble.
The day was great. Some quality fun in the sun with good company. In high spirits we all headed back into the van. The trip to the town was around 3 hours but the ride back took quite a bit longer as our bus overheated 2 or 3 times during the journey. A five minute wait seemed sufficient enough for him and we all piled back in. Everyone was exhauted by the time we rolled into town but we forced a dinner and a trip to the bar just to say we tried.
Sunday was a free day for us but I tried to fill it with as many activities that would keep me out of my house and away from the forced conversation with my host mom that has been a steady theme for the past week. This included a morning hike up Baul, a moutain overlooking Xela with a park at the top. Quite a few failed attempts to find our desired path and we were eventually on our way. We made it to the top and walked around passing a Guatemalan wedding and what looked to be some sort of mass going on. We sat at the lookout point for awhile and conveniently were still sitting there when the religious festivities concluded. We were brought tamales and tea by the group and were very grateful for the offering. Thinking very little about the source of the tea water or any reason why I shouldnt drink I gulped it right down. Once these thoughts crossed my mind, any bacteria that may have been living in it had already made a happy home somewhere in my system. (No sign of them yet!) We took in the view and enjoyed the fresher air atop the city until we decided to head back down.
Coffee, a Walmart size superstore, aimless walking around, dinner, and a beverage filled the rest of the day and I finally made it home just in time to say “Buenas Noches” and hit the sack!
Another week starts today. I´ll have a new teacher and new students have arrived. I´m hoping for the same sort of busi-ness that ensued last week and am excited to repeat some of the same activites. I´ll be keeping you updated on all that is going on!
