First Impressions

First off, ill try to get up some pictures the next time i write. Today is my first full day in Xela; its about 11:30am and i had some breakfast and walked around the neighborhood a bit. The city is divided into Zonas, i think about 12 of them. Casa Argentina, the hostel I stayed at last night and HQ for Quetzaltrekkers (henceforth QT), is in Zona 1.

Yesterday was a long day. After reaching "Guate", as its called, I had an hour or so before my bus left for Xela. I got some water at one of the indigenous local spots, Burger King, where a lady and her grand-daughter started chatting it up with me. To make a long story short, they wanted to walk me to the Bus station and we ended up going the wrong way. And carrying two backpacks and a duffel bag got to be pretty ridiculous in the 85-90 degree afternoon. Eventually I grabbed a taxi to take me all of 200 meters to the bus station, which was in the one direction that the lady didnt take me! Pretty much a zombie by the time the bus left, I missed out on much of the scenery along the 4.5 hour drive to Xela. The parts that I was awake for were pretty much breathtaking. At one point, closer to sunset, we were driving along a ridge and to the left was a lake shadowed by 2 enormous volcanoes between which the sun shone with an orange-red glow. My comatose prevented me from getting out my camera, but i wish i did.

It was dark by the time I reached Xela, and my goal was to just find the hostel and crash. It was a 10 minute taxi ride and once I reached I was shown to the "dormitory" style room with some 25 beds haphazardly arranged for careless backpackers and wanderers. Needless to say it was a new experience for me. Before bed, I meandered over to the back of the hostel where the QT office is. I met up with one of the guides who fed me a much needed meal and we talked a little about what the org. is all about. Sooner rather than later, I decided I needed to sleep.

This morning I decided to take a walk around Xela to find a good internet and phone spot. Its a sleepy town with not too much traffic and life is definitely slower here. With a higher population of indigenous people, Xela is still a well-kept secret in the sense that there arent many tourists here. Shops open at 10am or later, people walk about at a leisurely place...in fact the only people i saw up at 9am were tourists! The locals are all about a foot shorter than me, but super nice. And in just one day, I can see a marked improvement in my Spanish. Spanish is actually the main reason tourists come here; there are countless spanish schools and even a few Ki'che schools (the most well known and widely spoken of the 20 odd mayan languages still in existence). I think Im gonna take advantage of the spanish schools, and get myself a tutor. Itll be a good way to meet people as well.

Special note: The coffee IS bomb! If any of you want something but dont know what...then Ill bring you a bag of coffee!!

Keep it fresh...like guatemalan coffee.

- Neil