...in brief
So I've been in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (usually referred to as Xela in reference to the historical Mayan name for the town, Xelaju) for the past five weeks. Most of that time has been spent studying Spanish, while living with a local family. Xela's the second city of Guatemala, though by population it's a very distant second. About 200,000 or so to Guate's 5.5 million. Culturally though, it is a major city, home to the largest (by far) Independence day celebration for Guatemala (and Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) and the capital of a historically very independent part of the country. One of the chants at the home futbol games refers to the sexto estado, when Xela was the capital of an independent country (for all of a few days apparently) following the breakup of the Central American Union. Sexto Estado, by the way, is my favorite song at the games, for some reason (can't imagine why), its just fun to yell at the top of your lungs. Yes, I am 13 years old.
The city itself is nice but not exactly pretty. Lots of bars, the best cafe scene I've found in C.A., plenty of discotheques, and a nice feel to the old part of town. It is definitely a working city though. It's the surroundings that have made the city memorable for me. Much like Antigua, the city is set in a beautiful mountain valley with volcan Santa Maria, rising up above the town to dominate the skyline. Another of the seemingly abundant perfectly conical volcanoes with the perfectly pointed summits in Guatemala. Other hills and mountains nearly surround the city on all sides. Beautiful, bit rainy, but beautiful. And it is the rainy season afterall.
I've spent my weeks cramming verb conjugations and weekends either climbing nearby volcanos or going to futbol games. Last weekend I climbed Tajamulco and for a brief moment was the highest, non-flying, human in Central America. The weekend before I got to watch Xelaju, Xela's futbol team, beat Guatemala City 2-0 only to come in second for the season, behind them anyway. It's been great, but I'm about ready to move on.
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