July 25 - Busy day, confidence growing
July 25 - My second day at Spanish school I showed up five minutes late and was publicly shamed by my teacher who looked at his watch and greeted me with "Buenas Noches! Hahaha!" Perhaps because of this we were assigned the garden classroom which was a tiny bit less amazing than the rooftop classroom we had on day one.
My brain was quickly overloaded so when noontime rolled around I was happy to pack up my notebooks and walk home for lunch. My "mom" prepared fish for me - a whole fish, about the size of my hand. Picking out the bits of meat kept me busy for quite a while. There was also salad and tortillas.
I had already decided to venture over to San Marcos this afternoon to check it out. The boat was easy to find and only took about ten minutes. The view out the window was worth the price of admission, which was only 10Q (about $1.25) anyway.
San Marcos marched the descriptions quite well. The majority of people in the "lower" part of town, near the lake, were hippies and groups of foreign tourists. I wandered around until I found the hostel I was considering, a place that has cheap beds, a restaurant and cafe, and a yoga deck on the lake with classes twice a day. The staff was - all Americans, all in their 20's or 30's, generally with shaggy beards and long dreadlocks. They basically ignored me for about five minutes while I poked around, reading the signs and standing at the service counter. I was able to look in at the dorm rooms and the common areas. I am glad I checked it out because it is clearly not for me. May be some time in the past, but I realize now that I will be much happier with a hot shower and clean bed. The lower part of town was cool, lots of restaurants with vegan food and "tchochke" shops. But, almost no Mayans, the people selling the Crystals and handmade pipes were mostly Americans and Israelis. A few Mayans, to be sure, but they seemed to be in the minority.
This was also the first place where I saw drunk Mayan men hanging around. One guy was passed out like a street "wino" in an American city. Other Mayans seemed concerned, they stopped and checked on him, then moved along. I found that rather sad, and wondered if the foreigner "party" scene had anything to do with this.
Two cool things about San Marcos were the murals and the "eco-brick" walls.
After about an hour walking around, I hopped a boat back to San Pedro and went to a cafe I had scoped out earlier, called Sababa. It was very relaxed, I got a cup of coffee for 5Q (about 75 cents) and sat upstairs at a table overlooking the lake, a beautiful spot. The WiFi was pretty good and they had no problem with me camping out for over an hour. I left a nice tip with the Israeli barrista who took her eyes off her screen for two seconds to say thank you.
This evening's activity at school started at 6pm, a showing of the film "daughter of the Puma," a story about a young Mayan girl caught up in the civil war during the late 1970's. It was incredibly sad and depressing, but also enlightening about the history of this country and especially this area and the Indigenous people who still make up most of the local population.
After that I found my way back home very efficiently without getting lost even once, YAY!
Tomorrow will be a major event for me because Aleeza is coming to visit on her day off. I am super excited to see her. Absence really does "make the heart grow fonder," I miss my friends and family very much.
(Mosquito bites on my feet are driving me crazy! I guess wearing flip flops all evening was a bad idea.)
My brain was quickly overloaded so when noontime rolled around I was happy to pack up my notebooks and walk home for lunch. My "mom" prepared fish for me - a whole fish, about the size of my hand. Picking out the bits of meat kept me busy for quite a while. There was also salad and tortillas.
I had already decided to venture over to San Marcos this afternoon to check it out. The boat was easy to find and only took about ten minutes. The view out the window was worth the price of admission, which was only 10Q (about $1.25) anyway.
San Marcos marched the descriptions quite well. The majority of people in the "lower" part of town, near the lake, were hippies and groups of foreign tourists. I wandered around until I found the hostel I was considering, a place that has cheap beds, a restaurant and cafe, and a yoga deck on the lake with classes twice a day. The staff was - all Americans, all in their 20's or 30's, generally with shaggy beards and long dreadlocks. They basically ignored me for about five minutes while I poked around, reading the signs and standing at the service counter. I was able to look in at the dorm rooms and the common areas. I am glad I checked it out because it is clearly not for me. May be some time in the past, but I realize now that I will be much happier with a hot shower and clean bed. The lower part of town was cool, lots of restaurants with vegan food and "tchochke" shops. But, almost no Mayans, the people selling the Crystals and handmade pipes were mostly Americans and Israelis. A few Mayans, to be sure, but they seemed to be in the minority.
This was also the first place where I saw drunk Mayan men hanging around. One guy was passed out like a street "wino" in an American city. Other Mayans seemed concerned, they stopped and checked on him, then moved along. I found that rather sad, and wondered if the foreigner "party" scene had anything to do with this.
Two cool things about San Marcos were the murals and the "eco-brick" walls.
After about an hour walking around, I hopped a boat back to San Pedro and went to a cafe I had scoped out earlier, called Sababa. It was very relaxed, I got a cup of coffee for 5Q (about 75 cents) and sat upstairs at a table overlooking the lake, a beautiful spot. The WiFi was pretty good and they had no problem with me camping out for over an hour. I left a nice tip with the Israeli barrista who took her eyes off her screen for two seconds to say thank you.
This evening's activity at school started at 6pm, a showing of the film "daughter of the Puma," a story about a young Mayan girl caught up in the civil war during the late 1970's. It was incredibly sad and depressing, but also enlightening about the history of this country and especially this area and the Indigenous people who still make up most of the local population.
After that I found my way back home very efficiently without getting lost even once, YAY!
Tomorrow will be a major event for me because Aleeza is coming to visit on her day off. I am super excited to see her. Absence really does "make the heart grow fonder," I miss my friends and family very much.
(Mosquito bites on my feet are driving me crazy! I guess wearing flip flops all evening was a bad idea.)
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