San Pedro is one of several small towns that dot the shores of Lake Atitlan.  The lake itself, the deepest in Central America, is actually the caldera of an ancient volcano that erupted 84,000 years ago.  It is also flanked by 3 other volcanoes, one of which I climbed during my stay in San Pedro, and additional mountainscapes.  Not a single day passed that I was not astonished by the natural beauty of this part of Guatemala.  While the scenery was unquestionably gorgeous, it was merely a garnish to the main course of my visit; to learn spanish.

It is safe to say that I haven’t applied myself to learning, probably anything, since early in college…..or possibly high school.  Whatever it was, I don’t remember it.  The main reason probably being that I didn’t much care about the subject matter or think that it was applicable to real life.  In hindsight, I was probably right.  Learning Spanish, on the other hand, was completely different.  It’s a subject I very deeply want to learn and I know will help me on a daily basis from here on out.  Eager as I was, I was not mentally prepared for this.  Every weekday for three weeks started with a four hour 1:1 lesson from 8 to noon with Esther, a local Mayan woman.  Concentrating this hard and trying to absorb every moment is extremely mentally taxing, and for the first week necessitated a sizable nap after class before studying independently in the afternoon.  As exhausted as I was, I was always eager for the following morning to build upon what I had learned the day before.

Before too long, not only was I learning Spanish, but I was also learning a lot about the local culture and the surrounding area from Esther….in Spanish.  Which, it is worth noting, is not the native language of the people of San Pedro.  They actually speak a derivation of Mayan called Tz’utujil.  Spanish only started to be taught in the past few generations, and nearly all the locals still speak Tz’utujil among one another.  Furthermore, since infrastructure around the lake is a relatively new development, all of the local Myan languages developed independently of one another, so unless they speak spanish, they cannot communicate with their neighboring towns.  I found this fascinating, especially considering that we were able to walk to the next nearest village in about 20 minutes.

In addition to Spanish classes, the school also offered nightly activities ranging from movies or lectures about the local history (these were almost always very violent in nature, as they touched on the local civil war), field trips to local artisans, outdoor activities, and my personal favorite, Salsa classes.  I think it goes without saying that my natural dance ability made me the belle of the ball for the latter.  It was at these activities that I met a group of rag tag travelers who I would end up spending most of my days and nights with.  Afternoon study sessions almost always led to other activities such as swimming in the lake, visits to the central market, hiking, trips to neighboring villages, countless games of pool, and kayaking.

Kayaking in Lake Atitlan is a very interesting experience.  Since the lake has virtually no outlet, it has been steadily rising, especially recently.  Apparently it has risen 6 meters in the past several years, so many houses and hotels have been swallowed by the lake.  In time, unfortunately, the entire town will likely meet this same fate.  Kayaking in and out of these houses is a very eerie experience, as they all seemed so nice and new, but doomed to be forever vacant.  I suppose the rising tides of time will eventually consume us all.

Oh, and my Swedish friend Simon got his nipple pierced.