Learnin´ again

We arrived in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on Sunday, in time to celebrate her birthday at a hotel with real, made-in-a-hot-water-heater hot water. Most Guatemalan warm water involves an electric heater coil in the shower head -- which is nearly as risky as it sounds. So real hot water was a bit of a treat.

The hotel we stayed in overlooking the city plaza. Quetzaltenango, better known as Xela, is Guatemala´s second largest city at about 130,000 residents. The plaza our hotel was near serves as the city center. Classical columns rise in the center of the park, a relic from a previous Guatemalan president´s fascination with the Minerva, the Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom.
When we arrived, the roads ringing the plaza were full of vendors and festival goers celebrating a better-loved icon -- the Virgin Mary. She´s pretty huge here, it turns out. The fair was a blast, and proof that fair food the world around are deliciously unhealthy.

We started Spanish school Monday. Thus far, it´s a reminder why I didn´t take third year of the language in high school. But more on that later.