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The school is great. I know a lot more Spanish than I thought I did, but I still don’t understand anybody but my teacher. I’ve been reading the children’s book “The Little Prince” in Spanish. I made it through about five paragraphs in about three hours last night (with a dictionary), but I remember most of the vocab that way.

Mi familia de San Andrés es buena. The mother’s name is Francisca. She has had more estudiantes than she can remember in 13 years. She clearly loves to have us. My teacher’s name is Julia and she is great too. Yesterday was difficult because she didn’t have a clear idea of what I know and what I don’t know. There are a lot of basic things that I don’t know, and some complicated things that I do know, so it’s difficult for her to guess. Today was much better.

From talking to one of the other students, it sounds like every week you get a new teacher, and Mondays are always difficult. There are large differences in the teaching styles, and so far so good.

This weekend I will go to Tikal. I think I’ll get a guide so that I can also go to El Zotz which is still covered in Jungle. I’ve never gotten a guide before, but then again I’ve never really understood what I was looking at either. Next week I may stay at Eco-Escuela and just go to the beach on my last weekend.

I don’t really have any pictures yet, and probably won’t until next week. I may not be able to post again until next week. I hope you’re all having a great holiday, and I’ll talk to you soon.

I made it to Flores alright. The plane was a Cessna Caravan from Belize to here. I’m headed to the Spanish school early tomorrow so there won’t be any new posts for a few days. I will take some pictures.

Merry Christmas everybody. I’m headed out tomorrow to San Andrés, Guatemala. It’s near Flores on Lake Petén Itzá. It’s also close to Tikal which is one of the largest Mayan sites. I’ll be studying Spanish for a few hours each day at a school called Eco-Escuela where I’ll be staying with a local family. I won’t have Internet access in San Andrés, but I’ll try to check e-mail and update this blog every few days in nearby Flores. I plan to cram as much Spanish into my brain as I can in one week, but if it goes well and I can take interesting side trips, I might spend more time there.

There are some interesting statistics and charts on Google’s zeitgeist site. They look at what people were searching for and when. Here’s a graph of three different natural disaster terms, and when people were searching using them.

Things are going ahead for my trip to Belize and Guatemala. I’ll be heading out on Christmas and getting back on the 10th of January. Hopefully I’ll get some photos up during the trip so check in during that time. I’m not sure how often I’ll have Internet access, but I expect to have it every three or four days.

I don’t have much of an itinerary so far (you’re not surprised are you?). I expect to head toward Tikal in Guatemala the day after I arrive in Belize and then work my way back. I may try to trek to some of the more remote Mayan ruins if I can get hooked up with a good guide, but I don’t think I’ll make it all the way to El Mirador. I might be able to hit a beach toward the end of the trip. The diving and snorkeling on Belize’s islands is supposed to be great.

I’m working on getting an email link and getting comments working properly. I really enjoyed reading your comments during the trip last year. Unfortunately the spammers have made it more difficult, but I’ll have something in place soon.