Adios Antigua, Hola San Pedro de Laguna, Guatemala, el veinte de noviembre, 2016

After 3 weeks of studying in Antigua, it's time to move on.  I said goodbye to Odillia, mi madre and Olivia - my friend from Birmingham, England and caught a shuttle to San Pedro de Laguna-

The Pan Amercain Highway is 2 lanes each way and in good shape.  However, it's very curvy and up and down.  At times it seemed like we were driving along the top of the volcanoes because there were valleys on either side.  The fields are very lush - they grow tomatoes, corn, onions, cabbage, squash, beans, cucumbers and garlic-

Even though there hasn't been rain since I arrived, everything looks good.

Driving down to Laguna Atitlan was a long switch back road.  The lake is 130 square kilometers and has an average depth of 220 meters.  The town of Santa Cruz is at the bottom-

The road is not good- lots of potholes and gravel and for a couple kilometres, only one side is paved.  

I'm glad this happened before I got here-

This rock is huge and sitting on one lane of the road.  My teacher said they don't know what to do with it.  They can't push it down the hill because who knows what it would destroy.  They have to smash it to bits to remove it and that takes time and money-

My host Armando and his 8 year old daughter Brenda met me at the school and we walked up hill-

 to my new home for the next 3 weeks-

  I do not feel like a queen in my new bedroom-

But I can see Lake Atitlan from the balcony-

The kitchen sink-

The entry into the casa with bedrooms on either side-

as well as a workroom where Maria, mi Madre, sews-

San Pedro has a high population density-

And as the wind is howling tonight, the sheet metal is rattling and vibrating on the roof.  My windows are closed but leak, really leak.  A man just finished a 10 minute speech on a loudspeaker.  Babies are crying, tuk tuks are roaring by, dogs are barking, metal gates are squeaking and music is playing.  Am I going to get any sleep?  Inspite of all that, the family is wonderful.  We had coffee and cookies at 5 and I went to a basketball game with Brenda and Elenita who is 13 and wants to be a doctor-

They play outside and during time outs, the kids go wild, playing soccer, running around or shooting hoops on the court.  Feral dogs race across too.

The scoreboard is manual-

I think I am going to like it here.  The family is very friendly, inclusive and talkative.  In my last family, they were only in the house to cook meals and then sit with us while we ate.  I actually live with this family.  

There is one other student here, Sean-

from San Francisco.

I've already been warned that the town wakes up at 5:30 and starts making noise.  We'll see!