Xela

After a night spent at Alej's mom's house in the suburbs of Guatemala City (think gated, planned suburban community), Alej and I set out on the bus for Quetzaltenango, or Xela (pronounce Shay-la) for short. It is a good thing the city has a nickname, cause this gringa has yet to figure out how to pronounce the formal name. Xela is about 200 km (125 miles) west of Guatemala city, and the ride on the slow-going bus took us about 4 hours of frequent stops where food peddlers got on and off the bus trying to sell us their wares.

Queztzaltenango is a sprawling town with a tourist area centered around the town square. Alej's grandparents, whom we are staying with until I leave for La Antigua (another town in Guatemala) and Alej leaves to go back to college. Their house is about a 15 to 20 minute walk from the center square; a walk, according to Alej, which should not be attempted after dark when one is by oneself. This area of town is really nice; Alej took me to a cafe where she does to read sometimes, and we enjoyed inexpensive cups of cafe con leche (coffe with milk) for several hours while people watching the Americans and Australians, who were practicing their Spanish, and reading our books.

After a couple of days of taking it easy, seeing the sites close to Alej's house (the church, the graveyard, the Guatemalan equivalent of the DMV [Alej needed to renew her license]) we decided to head to La Antigua with her aunt for a night.

La Antigua is a tourist haven. Hostels all over the place, Spanish language schools galore, expensive (compared to other Guatemalan prices) trinkets for gringos to buy for other gringos back home, clubs, etc. We stayed in a hostel where we got a room with a private bath and breakfast ordered off the menu, all for less than 70 Quetzales (about 8.90 USD).

Then back to Xela, for a few days exploring the town square park at night, eating pupusas (tortilla like bread stuffed with cheese and/or meat covered with lettuce and salsa; traditionally Salvadorian) from street vendors, trying carnitas (small tortillas loaded with meat, fried in oil; traditionally Mexican), and discovering the best warm drink ever, ever, ever called ponche de leche (a sweet warm milk covered with cinnamon; Alej's friend Rodrigo said that I probably couldn't ask the vendors what was actually in it cause they wouldn't want me to sell it myself).

We also climbed up (or strolled along - depending on your fitness level; for me it was a climb, yet several locals were running up the road) on the of the seven mountains surrounding the city so that I could behold the entire city. They also have these huge cement slides at the top of the mountains that kids slide down sitting on squashed liter soda bottles and pieces of cardboard. I went down once, but I admit that I found the monkey bars and the see-saw (subibaja in Spanish; up and down) much more diverting.

Then on Sunday, we headed for the beach.