JOURNALS: Learning Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala
It was already dark when I landed in Guatemala.
The sun sets pretty early around 530pm, and all the flights from LA arrived either at ungodly hours in the morning or past 8pm. I had arranged for a transfer to send me to Antigua from the airport, it took slightly less than an hour at night with no traffic - you can feel it when you reach Antigua, as the car crosses over onto the bumpy cobblestone roads. Antigua was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 due to its colonial architecture, and so the cobblestones remain as one of its features.
It was a Friday night when I arrived, and I had a weekend free and unplanned. I wandered out the next morning towards Parque Central, heading for a free walking tour (note min tip asked for: 100 Quetzals). You can see Volcan de Agua in the backdrop behind the buildings, another famous image depicted in postcards of Antigua. Skies are generally clear in the mornings lending to great views of the volcano as you walk along the streets. Our guide Victor first started with a brief introduction to Guatemala - the Spanish arrived in 1524, and the name Guatemala comes from the Spanish adaptation of the word Quauhtemallan, which means “land of the green” or “land of many trees”.
One of the highlights of the walking tour was seeing a girl and her family reach San Jose Cathedral for her quinceanera, to celebrate her coming of age. The dresses were indeed a sight to behold. Our guide shared that these events can cost as much as USD20,000. These days, girls are given the option of having the party or taking the money instead (e.g. to use for travel).
I didn’t really meet anyone on the walking tour - the other travellers came in pairs, and the only other person alone was travelling with a partner who skipped the tour. The group scattered right after it ended. I remember feeling a stark sense of worry and loneliness on that first day, wondering if spending two weeks in Antigua would be too long, given that it was a fairly small town. I had a lunch of pepian de pollo, a traditional chicken stew, and headed back to my hostel bunk to watch the Rookie and sleep off my jetlag / loneliness.
How quickly that changed the following day! At 6am on Sunday, I found myself outside the hostel waiting for my pickup for a half day Pacaya hike. There was one other girl in the van when it pulled up, and we started chatting almost immediately. In the end, the tour group consisted of several solo travellers, and I had plenty of buddies to spend the rest of the day with. There was a French guy who had been working remotely from LATAM for years, a girl from Bristol who was very cool and used to van life, a Philipino now living in the US, an Ecuadorian now also living in the US, two Taiwanese studying at Columbia University and many more. We had tacos for lunch when we returned, and I even joined 3 of the group for a free Bachata class as Las Palmas at 5pm.
We had some time to kill after the class before socials began at 930pm, so we tried to visit the lookout point Cerro de la Cruz. When we reached the start of the path, one local walked by telling us it was closed. We still tried running up the steps after he had gone, only to hear a loud whistle blown causing us all to jump. A police officer stationed just above had spotted us. He was laughing so hard, we couldn’t tell whether we were in trouble. I think we just provided a bit of comic relief to his day. TLDR: apparently it is closed and the police are stationed there to prevent any robberies at night, so yes go in the day time. The sun rises at 530am so you can go early.
So instead, we grabbed some food before heading back to Las Palmas for live music and dancing. I absolutely loved the place - while I didn’t end up dancing too much, I did meet a couple of people there who I would subsequently bump into over the course of the 2 weeks, and the locals beside us were also extremely friendly, with one of the ladies pulling me up to dance. I was comfortable enough that I ended up staying past 11pm - in spite of my typical go-back-before-dark practice and my early start the next day. I felt safe walking back and would later do so on other nights during my stay as well.
How quickly it switched - from feeling completely alone to having the absolute best time - the first weekend in Antigua served to remind me that meeting people while solo travelling is really based on luck and chance, and even if things don’t seem great at one point you never know when the next exciting thing is going to happen!
2 weeks of lessons and life in Antigua, Guatemala
The feeling of joy and progress when learning - both salsa and spanish. The best Spanish teacher who got me speaking Spanish in a week. Realisation that a longer time is needed to build on these skills, but enjoying nonetheless.
Building a routine and thinking about how people create new lives overseas. But also recognising that this is quite a touristy area, and that locals have differing views on this.
For the next 2 weeks, I was based in Antigua taking lessons from Monday - Friday.
On the first day, I was given instructions to head to the school office with payment ready (for lessons and the homestay), and to reach at 8am. In the office, I confirmed the number of hours I was doing that week, made payment, and was paired up with one of the teachers lined up outside the office. (On Monday mornings - there are a line of teachers lining up at the office to try to get students. I later found out that at the time - there were about 90 teachers with the school, but only 30 students.) My maestra’s name was Aurora, a slightly older lady who spoke good English. She held my arm and we navigated the streets and traffic to the school grounds - a large garden about 15 minutes away. Along the way, we stopped by a bookstore where I procured a notebook, pen and flashcards.
We spent 2h every day going through the theory (grammer and vocabulary), and 1.5h after break just speaking to practice. Although we spoke English on the first day, our communication was mainly in Spanish for all subsequent sessions. My teacher Aurora was excellent - she would speak slowly and use the vocabulary that she had already taught me. I would do my best to speak and ask questions in Spanish, or immediately ask her how do you say xxx directly (como se dice)? She would correct my phrasing and tell me the right translation, and in this way I was able to quickly pick up common phrases and questions.
My Spanish lessons in the garden felt like something out of an Instagram post. The weather was cool enough to be comfortable, if sometimes a little bit chilly. My teacher would feed the animals, so we would get visits from birds (paranhas), squirrels and frogs. In the middle of the session at 10am, everyone would go for a break. There was a little shop in the school which sold cheap snacks and tacos, I would buy one and proceed to join the other students sitting on the grass under the sun in a circle - like every international student brochure you’ve ever seen haha. There was a mix of different nationalities and backgrounds and we would chat on what brought people to the school and what their next plans were.
It felt very nice to be in a new place, to gradually make friends, expand my areas of exploration and build a routine. I visited the library to study Spanish and do my homework. I found a cafe where I loved their coffee and tiramisu, and would study there as well as it was quiet and bright. I would pop by Mcdonalds for ice cream because they had Mcflurry with churros, and they even had mini sized sundaes which I don’t see in other parts of the world. And meals - which I find to be a pain when solo travelling - were always settled by the homestay I was in and was in fact delicious. This whole process helped me think about how it would be like to build a life in a new place overseas - I do think it could be quite exciting, and peaceful and I can see why people would go overseas to pursue work or build on their craft.
Thoughts and tips on travelling in Guatemala
I think Guatemala is a great place to rock up and travel impromptu! It receives enough tourists that the tourist infrastructure is there (shuttle and hostels), but you can book on the go as its not overly crowded. Plus theres quite a standard backpackers route which makes it easy to meet other travellers. Nothing about my first weekend was planned - I booked my Saturday walking tour on Friday night and my Sunday volcano hike on Saturday morning.
Pacaya hike: The Pacaya hike was relaxed and nothing too spectacular if you’ve visited other volcanoes before, but very well worth the effort in terms of the effort-to-view ratio. I booked via Viator for this, but if you have the time, you can book in person in Antigua or via local travel agencies. It’ll be cheaper for the same trip - for instance one of the girls on the hike with me booked via CA Travelers.
Acatenango: Acatenango is a stratovolcano in Guatemala, and is famous because of views of the erupting Fuego just opposite. NGL it was a tough hike and it was cold and foggy while we were climbing to base camp. My group was above average in timing, we finished our first segment in 1h15min even with me as the slowest, while the average is 1h30min - 2h. Thankfully there was always a guide at the back with me who was friendly - he even picked berries and offered it to us - so I never felt concerned re safety. In future I would just take a 4WD - it cuts the 5-6h hike down to 1h and the last 1h is easier in terms of terrain. But I will say the views at the base camp were worth it! It was foggy when we first reached but started to clear up from evening through the night. No regrets booking with the tour agency Lava Trail - definitely try to find a provider that has cabins with windows facing Fuego rather than tents - it is very much worth the difference. I spent my night lying in the comfort of my sleeping bag but still shooting images of Fuego as the eruptions went on. There are 2 other hikes you can do after reaching base camp. There is one that climbs to Fuego itself and another for sunrise in the morning up Acatenango. Most people did the sunrise hike - that was said to be very worth it. Mixed reviews on the Fuego one so if you have to choose definitely do the sunrise one. I did neither actually as I was already tired and my priority was the Fuego eruptions which could be seen well from base camp already - no regrets!
Lake Atitlan: The other mini trip I did was to see Lake Atitlan. I gave up my only rest day in 2 weeks for this, since some other people I met said they absolutely loved it. To get to Lake Atitlan from Antigua is about a 3-4h shuttle ride. I took a 2pm shuttle on Friday to San Juan, and I took a shuttle back from Panajachel around 4pm to get back to Antigua on Saturday. This meant that I had very little time there actually, but I did get to take a boat around the lake when travelling from San Juan to Panajachel. The shuttle ride is winding (bring your motion sickness pills), but it was interesting to go through the cloud forests before the view opens up to the lake. San Juan is near the party area of San Pedro, but is meant to be quieter. Overall, I would think that I still prefer Antigua to the Lake Atitlan area as it felt more touristy, but perhaps I just haven’t had the time to fall in love with it yet. It is also possible to do an organised day trip to Lake Atitlan from Antigua, but it would be a long day given the travel time.
Salsa: Another key reason I chose to head to Antigua was for Salsa classes. Learning Salsa in LATAM had always been a big hope for this sabbatical, and I had been following New Sensation Salsa on Instagram for a while. This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. Salsa on 1 seems to be more common but the studio does both. The studio is run by the director Nancy together with her daughter Fatima and son Jose. I did lessons mainly with Nancy’s son and daughter. They provided specific feedback on my form and movements. If you are looking to try out salsa, there are also plenty of free trial classes in Antigua, you can find one pretty much any day of the week. Salsa isn’t exactly a key dance for locals in Guatemala though, although some locals do it as well. You’ll probably meet many expats at classes, and it is a great way to mix and make friends if you are based there for a while.
Also for anyone planning trips to Guatemala, please note ATM fees are not cheap here, which did end up costing some money since my classes and accommodation all needed to be paid for in cash. Something to keep in mind! It may be cheaper if you can bring USD to change at a money changer instead, but I didn’t do this as I was travelling for a longer period and wanted to save my spare USD.
One question I had for my homestay host on my last night was how she viewed tourists, and it wasn’t a huge surprise to learn that she felt like Antigua was getting too crowded. She said that she would actually not recommend for tourists to visit Antigua anymore but would suggest they go to other parts of Guatemala to visit. Not a huge surprise I suppose, and raises the question and issues similar to other places where foreigners start moving in to live there long term. Antigua is definitely expensive, with food prices in cafes and restaurants actually pretty similar to the prices in Singapore. At the same time, many locals do depend for tourism for income, including the teachers who come over from the neighbouring town of Jocotenango.
And that is all for my stay in Guatemala! I loved it and may have extended if I didn’t have a fixed tour in Peru to catch. There was so much more I could have visited with additional time including the beaches. Some of the people I met were in Guatemala for three weeks to cover the whole country! Guatemala was such a fantastic first stop, and starting the trip with Spanish school was also fantastic as it really equipped me with the basics for my onward travels. As my teacher kept telling me, it will be difficult to speak but the first step is to be able to understand. So at least I can understand when the shuttle bus driver tells us we are taking a fifteen minute break, or if a shopkeeper is asks me what I want to eat I know enough to order, or to ask for the check or how much something costs. Or even now just to have the most basic conversation with someone about where I am from, whether I have brothers and sisters, what food I like to eat, or what Singapore is like (mas pequnio pero limpio y seguro), and what I like about their country. Definitely recommend!