A Guatemalan homestay and language school

My previous knowledge of Spanish consists of lessons I took over Zoom before heading to Latin America with @URonlineWorld. My teacher Ron and his lovely fiancé Anna were more than helpful, and prepared me for everything I needed to know before heading to Mexico. If anyone who reads this wants to learn a language (not just Spanish) I highly recommend giving @URonlineWorld a message, they will be more than happy to help.

My Spanish skills were more like Spanglish, and I needed to improve, knowing that I am spending so much time in Latin America it was crucial for me to communicate with the locals. Guatemala is full of language schools and homestays; I think it is the perfect place to practice as Guatemalans have a more neutral accent and talk slower than other countries I have visited. Most people do a language homestay in Lake Atitlan, but I wanted to visit there with my mum with a fresh perspective of the lake. Not only that, during my homestay I wanted the most authentic experience possible, slightly off the gringo route path and away from English-speaking possibilities.

I didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit worried about the kind of family I had and which food I would eat at the stay were my two main concerns. I did my homestay with Kamalbe Language school where meals, accommodation, and 25 hours of lessons for the week were provided for $185. The journey started the way I knew it would, Guatemalan style. I got off a shuttle bus in a petrol station and next thing I know a family and I are driving through the mountains with a baby on my lap. Only to find out they weren’t my homestay family, they just happened to plan to give me a lift without my knowledge. After driving past around 50 riot vans throughout local towns, due to conflict in near towns, I arrived in Xela. Confused but still in high spirits and still with a random child sat on my lap.

I arrived at my actual homestay when it was dark, my new mum Maria welcomed me and showed me around the family home. The family I stayed with were humble and kind, but it was very much a case of I was doing my own thing, there wasn’t much of a common area so it made it more difficult to be surrounded by the family environment. I love how simple they lived, everything in the home was full of thought. The father was a tailor and the mother worked as a cook, there were around 10 people living in the home, the entire family lived together. If I had checked the weather in Xela maybe I would have studied elsewhere, because it is so high in the mountains it really does get cold especially in the night. The next morning, I woke up, scuffled under my 7 blankets on my bed and headed out to look around the town because my family was nowhere to be seen. I roamed around, headed to some cafes, and prepared to start my studies the following Monday (I speak more about Xela in my previous post, this is more about the family and studies).

After walking around and being slightly underwhelmed by the city, Jazmin, my homestay sister told me about the city, and I understood with all of my Spanish knowledge I had. She showed me graffitied walls, the best places to relax and some history of the city. That evening the family took me to a beautiful church service in the mountains, just as the sun was setting. We sang Spanish hymns, prayed, and it was nice getting to know the family more and learning about life in Guatemala. That evening I realised I had no friends but a 17-year-old, so I ventured on a quest to find friends. I drank wine in a nearby hostel (top tip, if you have no friends, find a hostel that has a bar and it’s easy enough to get talking to people), and met a few people, but mostly I stayed with those who were also studying at the school.

The next day was Sunday, I hiked up Laguna Chicabal with my new friend Ania who was also studying. Chicabal is formed from the crater of Volcano Chicabal and is a sacred place for Mayan people, traditionalists place flowers and alters around the lake which we were able to see. The hike up was around an hour and a half, it was tranquil until I walked up to the mirador to see the luscious lake, my arm gets swallowed by a bear-sized dog. I cried a lot, but a man poured antiseptic over my wrist, and I tried to enjoy the view. After hiking back down, my homestay mum covered the cuts in lime, and I carried on my day. To be honest, this was kind of a terrible day, I trekked to an Apple Store an hour away because I thought my laptop charger had broken, £90 later I return home to realize it’s the laptop. And not the charger (I got very comfortable in that Apple store as I had to walk there 4 days in a row). I slept in my abnormally cold room and felt sorry for myself before my lessons began the following day.

Once I fell into a routine of going to the language school from 8 until 1, then studying and hiking in the week, I felt more comfortable in the city. The school was more than helpful with my Spanish as it is one to one lessons and I felt my espanol improved massively in a matter of days. My teacher Damaris in Kamalbe was so amazing, she didn’t feel like much of a teacher, rather a friend and we grew close over the week. I knew my Spanish must be improving significantly if I can easily converse with her and build a friendship. Damiris and I discovered we share the same birthday, so on my final day at the school she gifted me a traditional Guatemalan bracelet and chocolates (even though our birthday isn’t for another 5 months.) So if you go to Kamalbe language school, say hello to Damaris from me, she is lovely!

I ended my final day on such a high. Some of the teachers and students from the school went to salsa (which I am surprisingly quite alright at) and then ate in The Pasaje, where all of the bars are. After a few drinks of Quetzalteca we went out dancing until the bar closed, not only did I become a salsa pro but also joined a hip-pop dance troop in the club, break dancing for a solid two hours. The videos are as evidence but will not be disclosed… because well, I danced a lot better in my head. I think the Quetzalteca (traditional Guatemalan drink) gave me some drunk courage. I woke up the next morning with a not-so-fresh head and caught a chicken bus to Lake Atitlan!

Overall, the school was great, I learned a lot, drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of cake from the local Pandaria. My family was kind and I was deep out of my comfort zone which I like. As I said I knew the food would be a problem, I’m fussy and don’t enjoy foreign foods, (this side of backpacking, my tastebuds always let me down) I tried as much food as I could but only ate in the home probably once a day, I felt rude, but I just couldn’t stomach the traditional foods. I often roamed into the streets and ate some street food instead or bought snacks in the local tienda. Xela is a nice city with a lot to do with a range of hikes, markets, and parks to wonder around.