Pictures here

Have you ever asked a stranger in the airport for a pair of socks? That would be a strange question, wouldn’t it? A poor guy at the Puerto Rico airport couldn’t get through the security gates without socks. I gave him a pair of mine, but not before I took a picture of him holding it up, looking very gangster. My socks smelled great!
While in school, I didn’t learn much about Central America other than that a lot of fruits, especially bananas come from there. The only things I vaguely recall about Central America are disaster stories from a few years ago.
Having pretty much a blank slate, I was ready to absorb Guatemala as is – raw. Guatemala has more indigenous Mayans than Ladinos, mix of European and natives. Mayans tend to live in smaller villages and in higher mountains where as Ladinos tend to live in cities. Many Mayan women wore traditional multi-color Mayan textiles even in the cities. Guatemalans are noticeably small in physique; most of them probably are no taller than five feet six. The sink in my hotel only came up to my lower thighs. I wonder if the fact that they carry heavy buckets on their heads over the years affected their growth. Most of the Mayan women are able to carry the large buckets on their heads without support from their hands and at the same time weave between foot traffic on the streets. I refrained from taking many pictures of the indigenous people so far because I think some do not like to have their pictures taken.



While walking around the market, I tried all kinds of fruits, many of which I have never seen before. I noticed that many young Guatemalans were working the food stands. Incredibly some who looked no older than seven years old were cooking fried chicken in sizzling oil. In front of the National Palace a young Guatemalan kid selling pineapples wielded a sharp machete quickly around a pineapple that he held with his other hand. These kids maybe should have been in school, but probably needed to help make money for the family. I remembered stories my dad told me of how when he was younger, after school he would herd the ducks out to the field and herd them back home before doing school work. If he lost a single duck, he would have to go back out to the field to find it. I had it easy. After school, I got to play basketball with friends.

After two days, I took a bus to Antigua, a small town of about 40,000 people surrounded by three volcanoes. Because of its language school scene and beautiful surroundings, many of foreigners make it their base in Guatemala before exploring other sites. I was going to pick one of the Spanish schools from my guidebook but as I got off the bus, one of the locals ushered me to see LatinoAmerica Spanish Academy. I met Jose Sanchez, the director there, felt pretty comfortable and decided to take my first week of classes there. I had the choice of staying with another local family or live upstairs in the school with him and his family. He and his wife Carla have one boy and two girls ranging from about five to fifteen. Strangely in Antigua, I saw mostly adults or young kids; there weren’t many people in their twenties. I was the only student there that week. My five hours of Spanish classes started at eight and ended at one in the afternoon. It’s kind of strange to have homework to do after a few years out of school. I also found a dance school here to take some on-1 salsa classes. After traveling and living in different places every other night, it’s kind of nice to stay in one place for a bit and get to know the people here.