In Guatemala, $150 is the lowest price you will see for taking 1 week of Spanish classes. Rates vary if you decide to stay with a host family. The highest we've seen for a week is $310. The teachers themselves are only paid 15Q an hour with a maximum work of 4 hours a day. That is $1.92 an hour.
When the season is low and schools are not busy, the licensed teachers are out of jobs.
Lost City Adventures has come up with a plan saving YOU, the student, several dollars & helping the local teachers work.
Our Spanish School program is unique because the teacher comes to us (you, if you're staying with us) and the best part- you pay the teacher directly. At 40Q an hour ($5.11), you get the same teachers who are contracted by the Spanish schools but you pay less and they get paid what they are worth. For 20hours a week the cost is $102.
We are currently in the process of creating a special Spanish School Package that includes Spanish lessons, accommodations, trips, & meals.
So if you're looking for Spanish lessons, contact us. Whether you stay with us or not, we can send you a private teacher who works around your schedule at 40Q an hour. The local teachers need the work.
Central America is filled with a variety of volcanoes scattered across the lands, bringing rich nutrients to each country as well as entices the physically active to hike them. In Guatemala, there is a unique volcano where families spend their weekend picnicking- inside the crater.
Volcán Ipala isastratovolcanolocated in Eastern Guatemala in the municipality of Ipala, Chiquimula, near the town of Agua Blanca, in the department of Jutiapa.It has a 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) wide summit craterwhich contains a crater lake (Lake Ipala), whose surface lies about 150 m (500 ft) below the crater rim.
Ipala Volcano has a beautiful lagoon in its crater whose waters are crystal clear and deep blue, measuring approximately 600 meters in diameter. Many families take boat rides on the lagoon & kids swim in the designated beach area. There is also a look-out point above the crater to see its entirety as well as the scenery of Agua Blanca & Chiquimula.
The volcano has the shape of a large cone. It is sparsely vegetated except in its summit and around the lake. There is a closed forest which consists of cypress trees, oaks and parasitic plants.
There is a small cave near the water called "La Cueva de Leona," which means 'The Lioness Cave' because a Lioness was found in it some years ago. You have to climb a wooden ladder to get a peek into the small cave.
Families enjoy their weekends inside the Ipala Volcano relaxing. There are picnic areas, a souvenir shop, and even a soccer field where families can play together. Avid hikers who wish to spend more than a day will be glad to know there are bungalows and camping areas. You can hike up to the lake along a scenic trail (about two hours) but if you’ve got a high-clearance vehicle you can drive to Ipala Lake as well. Make sure it's a 4x4 because you literally drive over rocks & dirt, no cement. The road up from the town of Agua Blanca is steep, rutted and rocky. Parking is usually 20Q. There is an entrance fee into the park which is usually 50Q.
Guatemala is one of the world's major cultural destinations, offering one of the most popular processional traditions which are original, authentic and unique in Latin America. From the pre-Hispanic indigenous cultural heritage and traditions followed by the colonial conquistadors to contemporary times, all of these traditions are fused in this marvelous land full of contrasts.
The most traditional cultural events in Guatemala are:
- Semana Santa or Holy Week, is celebrated each year between March and April and is a religious tradition that was started in 1543, when the Spanish moved the Holy Sacrament of Old City to Santiago de Guatemala, which was the capital of Guatemala, which today is known as Antigua Guatemala. The biggest attraction of Easter are handmade carpets with beautiful designs made of seeds, dust, flowers and colorful processions with marching bands.
- The Palo Volador is held every December 21 in different parts of Guatemala. In Joyabaj, Quiche it is held on August 15. The flying pole dance is a pre-hispanic tradition that remained intact during colonization. The stick is made of a tree, in which is placed at the top of a structure designed to be rotatable. Two ropes are wound which two of the "flying" are attached and begin to rotate so until they descend to the ground. After each of the dancers is dressed in overalls and funny movements of a dance to marimba gourds.
-La Carrera de Caballos Todos Santos Cuchumatán is a traditional horse race at an annual fair in Cuchumatán, which begins October 23 and ends on November 3. They organize various cultural activities in this municipality and is visited by domestic and foreign tourists.
- Los Barriletes de Santiago Sacatepéquez is a fun tradition, held every November 1 in Santiago and in Zacatepequez Sumpango. This is a festival that involves giant kites that soar to the sky with messages to ancestors, and thus commemorating the Day of the Dead. These giant and decorative kites are designed by locals with great care and artistry.
-La Qema del Diablo, or The Burning of the Devil, is an exciting tradition held every December 7th throughout the country. Market stalls begin selling papier–mâché devils a week before. The tradition of burning the devil began in colonial times. In anticipation of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patron of Guatemala City, those who could afford it adorned the fronts of their houses with lanterns. Eventually, the poor who could not afford such lanterns began gathering their garbage and would burn all of the year's rubbish in front of their houses. Over time it was formalized and in addition to individual piles of garbage, communities started to burn The Devil to clear the way for Mary's feast.
The idea is to burn all of the bad from the previous year and to start anew from the ashes. In cities throughout the country The Devil is burned at the stroke of six. InCiudad Vieja, the first capital of the country, a devil three stories tall is constructed and burned in the city square.
http://youtu.be/ZBH4OqLSBw8
This is by no means an exhaustive list of Guatemala's traditions as there are so many throughout the country, but it does illustrate just how culturally rich and exciting Guatemala is. Every tradition is meaningful whether it is pre-hispanic, established by the Indigenous or a tradition that came from the Spanish Conquistadors. Either way, we are left with lots of excitement.
As you walk through the mercado after living here for some time, you start to notice that new fruits that are now in season are being sold and others you were used to are not. For example, I used to see red bananas called "Majunches" all over the place and then all of a sudden there are Papayas everywhere!
Red Banana (Majunche) and Yellow Banana
Now it's the season for Jocotes. This is a Latin American fruit and I remember in my youth, since I grew up in Southern California and made frequent trips to Mexico, we would bring back with us frozen Jocotes which became my favorite fruit in the entire world! So naturally, I got excited when I would go to Guatemala and eat some Jocotes. They are small and round that are red, green, or yellow in color. The redder they are, the juicier and sweeter it tastes. If you eat a green one, it will be drier leaving you with a cotton-mouth feeling which may not make a good first impression on you. So before you try one, make sure it's red or at least on the orange side. The flesh looks exactly like a mango and there's a big seed in the middle. In fact to me, they are a mix between tiny mangoes and plums. Because the fruit is so small, you don't get much flesh when eating it. So you end up eating a handful. If you eat red ones be careful, they're really juicy! In fact that's what inspired this entry. I was eating juicy red Jocotes that I bought in El Progresso, Jutiapa a few days ago where they were selling them in buckets full and decided a little education on this delicious fruit was necessary.
Jocotes of all different colors
A Jocote not eaten next to a half eaten Jocote
According to several different sources, including Wikipedia, the Jocote is related to the cashew fruit. Now, prior to me moving to Guatemala I was unaware that cashews, the nuts, were part of a fruit.
Cashew Fruit & Nuts
Spondias purpurea , the scientific name of the fruit, is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to tropical regions of the Americas. It is most commonly known as Jocote, which derives from the Nahuatl word xocotl, meaning "fruit." Other common names include Red Mombin, Purple Mombin, Hog Plum, Sineguela, and Siriguela. The fruits are often eaten ripe, with or without the skin. It is sometimes eaten unripe with salt and vinegar or lime juice. The single large seed, which takes up most of the fruit, is not eaten.
High in potassium, iron, and other essential minerals
Next time you are in Guatemala, make it a point to try some Jocotes if you see some, especially since the dry season (October - May) is the season for Jocotes. And now with all this typing about the fruit I think I'll go eat some more.
One of the best ways to get to know Guatemala when walking around small towns, is by dining on Guatemala's street food. Though most street food vendors do not operate with a permit, it is traditionally known that just about anyone can set up a food stand right outside their small home or down a busy street, and sell home made food- from tortillas, tostadas, grilled chicken, steak, sausages, sandwiches, to atoles.
Unlike the states where you can walk into most restaurants and will be able to order a breakfast item for dinner, Guatemala's menus change 3 times a day to offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now let me explain the 3 different types of dining that exist in Guatemala.
First, we have restaurants. Some are American such as IHop, McDonald's, Wendy's, Las Cebollines, etc, which consist of either fast food with an indoor restaurant to luxurious steak houses with excellent service. But these restaurants are only found in highly populated towns like Guatemala City, Antigua, Villa Nueva, San Lucas, Panajachel, Quetzaltenango, & Chimaltenango. Once you're out of those areas then your other options for dining are comedores and street food.
Comedor. A comedor is like a mom and pop diner where the owners actually own or rent a building with a kitchen, a counter to order food, and have tables and chairs for customers. As you drive you can see their signs above their doors saying, "Comedor" or a Fanta, Gallo (the beer), or Coke-a-cola signs will be displayed usually gesturing that there is a comedor at that location. When you stop in, usually there are no menus. The food they offer may be written on a wall somewhere or a board and in some places like Zacapa, you just order whatever it is they are making like pupusa also known as empanadas in Guatemala (a tortilla stuffed with melted cheese, beans, chicharron, or loroco).
Then you have street food, which consists of families standing outside their homes or on street corners grilling away.
Dobladas
Empanadas/Pupusas
On the left are Rellenitos, the middle Panes or sandwiches
For breakfast you can find Atoles to drink of several different flavors like manjar, arroz con leche (rice pudding except hot & liquidy), and corn. In Antigua one early morning, a lady had a huge trash bag filled with already cooked scrambled eggs. On the grill was some vegetables and big loafs of french bread that she used to make a delicious breakfast sandwich. Wish I had taken a photo of that!
Atole de Manjar, a morning beverage with cinnamon
Throughout the day you will notice that breakfast items are no longer sold on the streets. You start to see colorful stands selling sliced up fruit in bags or ladies standing under umbrellas selling tostadas with a guacamole or refried bean spread. All this food is very cheap and surprisingly fills you up quickly. As a tourist, one can walk through a mercado and try some new fruits.
Tourist couple trying out street food in Antigua's Mercado
Fruit stand in Guatemala City
Tourists being silly with some new exotic fruit they purchased to try
Drink some fresh coconut juice & then eat the flesh, she chops it up for you
One of my favorite things to do with my husband, is walk around the town of Ciudad Vieja, where we live, and grab some street food for dinner. Since my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, we learned that street vendors generally don't begin to grill meat until 7pm- or when it starts to get dark. One time we walked around Ciudad Vieja around 4pm asking each vendor and comedor if they had Carne Asada and they all told us that the time to find it is later on at night. The hot dog stands also known as Cheveres, taco stands (known as Gringas instead of tacos), & women grilling corn on the cob all come out earlier than 'cena' (dinner time).
Street Food at Lake Atitlan
Longonizas, Chorizos, Carne Asada, Chicken, & Tortillas all street food
This woman doesn't have walls in her 'comedor' but she serves a decent plate for street food
Street Food at Panajachel- at a Salvadorean Comedor
But the one thing that I really appreciate about Guatemalan street food, is the families. Young parents trying to make a living by selling what they know they can make. Some ladies only sell tortillas and that's it. Other families were able to earn enough to buy an actual cart.
I can understand someone hesitant to eat street food because there are no sanitary regulations, but that choice is yours. You can see them grilling and cooking. When I've ordered a 'licuado' (a fruit smoothie made of the fruit & milk or water), many vendors use purified water as you can see them take water from the big blue jugs. Others, just have soda to offer.
One night as my husband and I were walking around Ciudad Vieja, we stopped at a hot dog stand. While we waited for our food, out popped these two precious girls who didn't say a word to us but just kept staring at us.
They youngest one would get a little restless because since both their parents were busy working, they had to stay behind the small hot dog cart and behave. Their parents work daily on the same corner selling hot dogs & 'gaseosas' (sodas).
So when I buy street food I am mindful that with the few Quetzales I have, I make a decision to help poor families provide for their children such as the two girls above, who will end up working for their parents as soon as they are tall enough or able enough to help. So I encourage our readers to not be afraid of home made food being sold on the streets but do exercise discernment, because Guatemala street food helps provide an income for poor families.
"Much more than a fun hobby, cycling is our passion. In that way, we decided to specialize in handmade bamboo bicycles, made one by one and designed to enjoy leisurely rides through urban parks, boulevards and gardens. Something different, for those who are different. Something like ... the music of the earth on two wheels. Yes, and it is that bamboo which envelops us in its natural environment while riding, because its soft texture, high strength and its flexibility provide unparalleled pleasure.
Bici-Bambú are bicycles made by hand in Guatemala from various pieces of bamboo created by José Luis Elgueta from El Tumbador, San Marcos. The design and construction of bamboo bikes has been a lot of work but innovative with techniques developed over time. It took several prototypes to finally have the perfect design that was both strong & functional since the previous prototypes did not exceed 200km without experiencing a malfunction.
The vision for Bici-Bambú is to teach Guatemalan artisans how to re-create this bicycle in hopes of it becoming popular and part of the community, which could bring economic benefits to the local economy.
According to Mundo Chapin, Bici-Bambú is in talks with universities and colleges for training to develop and manufacture these bikes in different areas of the country.
Mr. Elgueta hopes that there may someday be national association of Bamboo artwork in Guatemala so that all artisans who work with bamboo can work together for other innovative inventions. As such, he participates in annual events such as this year's expo "Industria Del Bambú En Guatemala" which was held May 4, 2012 at hotel Grand Tikal Futura.
Bamboo is a great business opportunity. Asia wants more bamboo. As a result, the Embassy of Taiwan in Guatemala held a seminar on July 4, 2012 with the premise expressed by Adolfo Sun, ambassador, who said "Asian countries have a bamboo demand and Guatemala has a great climate to plant it." Due to phenomena like deforestation and consequent awareness on environmental protection, it has been concluded that bamboo is one of the most important natural resources of the 21st century. According to various reports, the exploitation of bamboo forests can help conserve water and soil, to maintain and protect groundwater riverbeds. In addition, these holdings require minimal care and report big profits.
The price of bamboo is lower than many other materials used in construction, so their use may promote the cost reduction and promote environmental protection.
Ambassador Sun believes the weather conditions, water, and soil of Guatemala are much better than those of other Central American countries to produce bamboo, not to mention the existing development of the bamboo industry already in Guatemala.
Guatemala is a fantastic country with extremely creative artisans such as José Luis Elgueta, who created the wonderful bamboo bicycles. But Guatemala is also an underestimated country with lots of natural resources and temperatures that make it ideal to grow many things, such as bamboo. How fascinating it is that other countries see the richness of Guatemala more so than the inhabitants.
Guatemala celebrated 191 years of freedom from Spanish rule. The ways they celebrate are loud, meaningful, and much fun. As an American, I imagined celebrating Independence Day as a 1 day event. But not in Guatemala. It is a 3 day celebration! As we were driving from Escuintla back to Antigua, there were so many groups of kids jogging while blowing whistles. One or two people would be holding a torch and chicken buses with blue and white balloons were honking their horns. Although it slowed traffic down because the kids were jogging on main streets, it was really fun to watch and I wondered what the meaning of the torch was. On the night of September 14, 1821, Maria Dolores Bedoya became a national hero by participating in the independence movement. She ran around Guatemala City carrying a torch urging Guatemalans to support the independence of their country. The next day, September 15, she was among the people waiting outside the National Palace of Guatemala for the decision, which culminated in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
In memory of this historic performance, children celebrate the patriotic actions of this hero on the eve of September 14 by forming groups who run carrying torches in a victory celebration of independence. But in Guatemala, as the kids would run with chicken buses following behind, there was an unusual sight of hundreds of people standing on the side streets from their villages, throwing what looked like water balloons at buses. If they didn't have water balloons, they would hurl water from buckets onto trucks or use a garden hose to spray vehicles who would honk and join in the celebration. Throughout our drive from Sipacate Beach to Antigua, everyone was throwing water balloons along the way.
On the 15th of September, all the school's marching bands would parade around towns. Families would relax together on the grass. Street food looked prettier. In Antigua, Central Park was flooded with people and marching bands. There were speeches and an amazing moment of a country united singing their national anthem. This year, Guatemala has an extra reason to feel patriotic as well. Guatemalteco Erick Barrondo was the first Guatemalan to ever win an olympic medal! He won the Silver Medal in the 20-km race walk.
It was very special to be a witness to the patriotic celebrations, that at times did get quite annoying because of all the noise from fireworks, whistles, and car honks. But that is the beauty of it. Happy Independence Day Guatemala!
