Two Weeks in Antigua, Guatemala

Those of you that know me know that I work short term contracts as a travel nurse in the United States and then skip out of the country for a few months at a time to travel the world before returning to the US for work again. Well I just finished a work contract in Yakima, Washington a few weeks ago and subsequently flew out of the country to set out on some new adventures. On this trip I will be visiting Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. I settled on these countries because they have a huge variety of natural beauty including opportunities to climb high altitude peaks, scuba dive, learn Spanish, and dance salsa and bachata.

My first stop has been Antigua, Guatemala. I have been hanging out here the last few weeks. The above picture is of a church in downtown Antigua and the below picture is a picture of the mountains that surround Antigua from the roof of my Spanish school.

This is my third trip to Guatemala. I keep on coming back because the country is full of rich culture, natural beauty, friendly people, and has a cheap cost of living. I have been speaking Spanish of some sort or another for more than ten years now but never progressed into anything resembling fluency. A few months ago I decided I wanted to gain fluency. I also wanted to learn to dance salsa and bachata better. Antigua had cheap, high quality options for both so I made Antigua my first stop.

Upon arriving in Guatemala City I took a shared van to Antigua and checked into the Spanish school where I would spend the next two weeks. I booked a room at the Spanish school too which also came with board. I would be living, eating, and learning here for the next two weeks. Below is a picture of the arch in Antigua near my Spanish school.

It was the weekend though and classes did not start until Monday so I explored Antigua a bit and got to know some of the other students living at the school. A few of us decided to go for a hike up one of the hills that sits just above Antigua....

One of the great parts of traveling are the people you meet along the way. In the picture above is Lungi an accountant from South Africa, Sophie a social worker from New Zealand that lives in Australia, Debbie a nursing student from the US and myself. We all lived and studied at the Spanish school together.

After the weekend I jumped into Spanish class with my local teacher Ingrid. The lessons were great. We delved into the past and future tenses, expanded my vocabulary, learned to better utilize pronouns, and in general improved my Spanish language grammar. Ingrid pointed out that I had very smooth Spanish speaking skills but that my grammar left something to be desired. I guess that is what happens when you travel and live in Spanish speaking countries for extended periods of time without actually getting formal education in the language. You learn how to converse enough to get by but rarely get corrected enough to learn proper grammar if you can get your point across to the person you are talking to. We worked on my grammar weaknesses though and my Spanish has improved a lot because of these one on one lessons. I don't consider myself fluent by any means but I am a lot farther down the path of fluency now thanks to Ingrid and Ixchel Spanish school!

In addition to Spanish lessons from 0800 to 1200 in the mornings I took private salsa and bachata lessons from Salsa Con Gloria dance studios. They are a mother/ daughter dance instructor team. I worked on my salsa and bachata dance skills with both of them in the afternoons when I was done with Spanish class. They were both great instructors and I learned a lot! I am not sure how to directly upload video to steamit but below is a public access link to my facebook page with a video of me dancing with Gloria in dance class.

https://www.facebook.com/10234271/videos/10106414596553983/

In addition to Spanish language and Salsa/Bachata dance classes I explored Antigua a bit dancing in the salsa clubs at night, eating in some of the restaurants, running in its streets and even visiting a farm with some of the other students at the Spanish school. Below are a couple pictures from our visit of the farm just outside Antigua!

This was a fresh fruit and vegetable smoothie I drank at the farm's restaurant!

Pictured below are myself and some of the other students from my school hanging out at the farm. In addition to myself Lungi, Sophie, and Debbie that I spoke about above, also pictured here are Angelica and Tim. Angelica is in school to be a crisis counselor back in the US and Tim is a retired guy that decided to learn Spanish and travel the world. There were a lot of cool people at my Spanish school!

It has been a fun two weeks in Antigua! Yesterday I finished up my classes and made my way up to Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan highlands. Lake Atitlan is the biggest lake in Guatemala and is surrounded by high volcanoes and small Mayan villages. I will be hanging out here the next few days exploring this area of Guatemala!