Canadian Nomad

Two hours a day of private Spanish lessons, an hour of homework and total immersion.  I wish I could say it was easy learning a third language, but it’s not.  With new words, false cognates and conjugation that removes the need for pronouns I find myself making many many silly mistakes.  A common example is “¿Cómo estás?”(How are you?) to which I should reply “Estoy bien, gracias.”(I’m well, thank you) but instead I find myself saying “Estás bien, gracias.”(You’re fine, thanks.)

One story that my teacher told me about was a girl who was learning Spanish in a home-stay and said something that the family didn’t understand to which she tried to reply that she was embarrassed by telling the family “Estoy embarazada”(I’m pregnant) and the family got all excited and asked “¿Quién es el padre?”(Who is the father?) to which she got confused and pointed at the father of the home-stay.  Note to women who stay at home-stays to learn Spanish: don’t go around telling people that you are embarazada.

True to it’s reputation, alcohol is a great little addition to the language learning mix.  With drinks costing about $9 for a half liter bottle of rum or vodka at the bar, plus a dollar for enough mixer to serve an entire table it is easy to engage some strangers in broken conversation.  I’m not sure the extent to which it helps, but I do find I am able to follow better and quicker the more times I try this and saying things that are foolish is certainly not a problem.  That said, I rarely seem to be able to remember new words from these nights out.

If you have any good language learning tips for me, please do share, I want to make the most of my time here.

Tags: Alcohol, Guatemala, Language Learning, Lost In Translation, Quetzaltenango, Spanish Learning, Trouble Learning, Xela
Posted in Personal Development, Travel | 4 Comments »

On Mayan sacred ground, only a few miles from Xela city is some great rock climbing opportunities ranging from 5.8 to 5.13 climbs in an area called La Muela up passed the Almolonga Valley.  At the peek is a strange but beautiful landscape of cooled lava with amazing views of the city.

I went with a group called Quetzaltrekkers which is a non-profit volunteer organization that is designed to be a self-sustaining fund-raising program for Escuela de la Calle, a school for street children in Quetzaltenango(Xela), Guatemala.  They are also now supporting the clinic Primeros Pasos, a medical clinic located in the outskirts of Xela which provides vital health care and educational programs to the local community as well as schools and organizations in Xela.

Being a beginner climber and not having climbed in a while really showed as I worked on the accent.  My hands were shaking as I reached the peak, and was unable to do a second climb.  The view was magnificent and we all had a great time.

When we had all had some good attempts at the cliff face and enjoyed lunch we headed down to the natural steam saunas of Los Vahos where we enjoyed a couple hours alternating between relaxing natural saunas and cool afternoon air.  I’ll be working on my strength so I can do better next time.

Tags: Almolonga Valley, Escuela de la Casa, Guatemala, La Muela, Lava Field, Los Vahos, Mayan Sacred Ground, Primeros Pasos, Quetzaltenango, Quetzaltrekkers, Rock Climbing, Steam Saunas, Xela
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This part of my journey has been purely about slowing down in this speed obsessed world.  No pressure mon!

Once all my papers were in order and bank accounts restored I headed down to Tulum, Mexico via Valladolid.

Tulum has beautiful white sand beaches and crystal clear waters that are just made to look that much more exquisite by the  ancient Mayan temples in the background.  Here I spent a few days soaking up sun and piña coladas.  It’s a hard life, luckily no sun burn 🙂

From there me and a few travel companions headed south to Belize with the goal of going straight to Caye Caulker.  Instead the bus arrived late to pick us up, and had many long stops along the way and arrived half an hour later then the last water taxi to the islands.  With our late arrival in Belize City and having heard nothing but horror stories about the city we quickly got ourselves to a hostel.  Now given the state of Belize City tourism and the general apprehension even the most experienced travelers had about even going in the first place to Belize City you would think that the prices for the hostel would be less then American prices, but such was not the case and we shelled out more then our fair share for the beds.  The city itself was pretty nice, though the poverty was quite apparent.  We went out for a traditional Belizian dinner and enjoyed a bit of their nightlife.  Country karaoke anyone?

First thing in the morning we had breakfast and took an early water taxi to Caye Caulker.  The moment I saw it, I loved it.  The first thing I noticed was that there were no paved roads, only white sand roads.  The only cars were those of the police and if you really felt the need to motor around you could take golf cart style taxis to get from one side of the island to the other.  Prices were back to normal and the people were friendly.  As soon as I checked into the hostel I found my way to Raggamuffin Tours where I got the last spot on a snorkeling sailboat out to the barrier reef.   I wish I had an underwater camera with me.  I saw fish of all sorts of amazing variety, pet a nurse shark and a sting ray, free dove to see in underwater caves, and witnessed endangered turtles in a marine reserve swimming around.  Breathtaking and beautiful.

Slightly tipsy from the rum-punch they served on our way back I went out for dinner.  Later me and a few friends went to a bar/restaurant called Herbal Tribe where we had a few drinks and talked with some amazing local characters.  I had a long philosophical discussion with a gentleman called ManDingo, a self proclaimed prophet and generally interesting person.  I look forward to seeing him again.

I spent the next day just lounging and exploring the island and left the next day for Flores, Guatemala.

Flores is a small town on an island in a lake surrounded by Santa Elena a town of slightly larger population.  It is about an hour from the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal.  I explored the island, had some down time and visited the ruins.

What set these ruins apart was the jungle backdrop.  With howler and spider monkeys around as well as birds of all types, crocodiles and other fun wildlife chasing after me.

Also just the sheer area that the multiple ruins covered.  It was certainly an impressive site.

So now I am in Quetzaltenango(aka Xela), Guatemala for the next month to focus on language learning and business.  So probably less excitement and relaxing and more self development stuff for the next little while.

Later!

Tags: Barrier Reef, Beaches, Belize, Belize City, Caye Caulker, Country Karaoke, Crocodiles, Flores, Free Diving, Go Slow, Guatemala, Herbal Tribe, Jungle, ManDingo, Mayan Pyramids, Mayan Ruins, Mexico, No Paved Roads, Nurse Shark, Philosophical Discussion, Piña Coladas, Quetzaltenango, Raggamuffin Tours, Santa Elena, Snorkeling, Spider Monkeys, Sting Ray, Tikal, Travel, Tulum, Turtles, Underwater Camera, Underwater Caves, Valladolid, Wildlife, Xela
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