Hola para Guatemala City!!

I MADE IT! I´ve arrived at the guest house that we´re staying in tonight, and it´s absolutely beautiful. It has a courtyard full of lush flowers and plants, which is pretty much how the entire city is. Guatemala City is much nicer than I expected! I guess I had poor expectations, but it´s very much like any American city. The infrastructure is definitely the main difference, with roads being in poorer conditions and most housing a little dilapidated, but in general it´s really beautiful. It´s also not unusual to see men standing outside of certain buildings with rifles. We arrived right when it starts raining in the afternoon (as it does everyday during the rainy season) and I´ve never seen a storm like that! But it only lasts about an hour and a half and then clears up again. It definitely lends itself well to all of the vegetation, as everything is soooooo beautifully green. Flying in was gorgeous, as the area is so mountainous with rigid peaks. 


All of the natives have been very welcoming, and it´s interesting recognizing the major cultural differences. One of the first things I noticed is that Guatemala has an upcoming presidential election taking place on September 11th, and there are campaign materials EVERYWHERE, with the candidates face taking up the majority of the poster. I noticed probably 6 or 7 presidential candidates, which is already a large difference from American politics. Also, the public transportation is starkly different from any in the US. Most of the public buses are old school buses that have been painted in rich colors and designs, with each bus having it´s own feel. Something that the US should definitely adopt.

There are about 8 students here at the moment, three of whom were on my connecting flight from Houston. Everyone is already so friendly, and I can tell I´ll be making some great friendships. There are 4 boys and 7 or 8 girls, but not everyone will be arriving until later on tonight. Today is our only night in Guatemala City, and tomorrow we´ll spend the first half of the day touring, and then heading to the colonial town of Antigua for the night. Then on Wednesday we travel to Quetzeltenago (with the colloquial name of Shela), where we´ll be staying the rest of the time in Guatemala. We have orientation for the week, and then on Sunday we are introduced to our host families, where we´ll be living for 3 weeks. I´m already so excited for the experiences, because it seems we´ll be doing so much cool stuff! This Saturday we´re hiking a volcano that is one of the tallest peaks in Central America.

Hopefully I´ll be taking some pictures soon, and posting them up here!

Hast luego,

becca