yes it´s true. they all call me kevin costner. when ANYONE here hears my first name it¨s the first thing they say.
day three was great. i met my spanish teacher for the week. we switch weekly to mix it up and get different accents under our belts. norma, my teacher is of mayan decent. she wears the typical dress of the mayan women. again, this whole image download thing isn´t working out for me yet. i´ll have some for you all to review tomorrow hopefully. after our 5 our seccion of spanish and a quick lunch with the family we went on an ¨activity¨. we rode the chicken buses to santa antonio, xelcu. it´ a town outside of Xela with an impressive church or two. the church is at the top of a steep hill and you reach it by walking through the town/village. all of the residents are of mayan decent so walking through was a treat for the eyes. at the top of the hill the church is painted bright yellow. next to the church is a burn area with smoke coming from it. there´s a cross there as well. this is the mayan temple. the mayan decendants have taken a little back and reclaimed what the ¨christians¨took away. after the church we took another chicken bus or THREE back to Xela in a more than round about way. it´s crazy. people climbing in and out of the back of the bus, people climbing on top of the bus and the buses are driven by mad men who seem to think reving the engine is neccessary at ALL stops. exhaust is pooring out of every vihical in thick BLACK clouds and your lungs get coated but you look around at the beautiful country side and the dormant volcanoes in the distance and somehow the two worlds just don´t belong together. from what i´ve seen the exhaust is the major problem. there´s also the weird existance of recognizable western brands everywhere. the people are living life as it has been lived here forever but now there is this layer of commercialism slapped on it. what will happen? how long before the exhaust and other pollutents cause this place to emplode? it´s a shame to see such RICH culture and beautiful surroundings being brought down by the rest of the world. these people may be bringing it on themselves but i´m not sure they get it. do we GET IT?
okay, so enough of me being on a soap box about something i´m only begining to understand and explore. NEXT
day four was great as well. breakfast was eggless. i had arroz con leche y canela (rice with milk and cinnamon…duh). i´m a quick learner….what can i say. anyway, then i had another 5 hour session with Norma. for the afternoons activity we climbed to the TOP of Las Murales. this is a dormant volcano near Xela and it´s so high and steep i almost gave up. i was at the back of the pack for the most part but whatever. it was FREAKIN georgeos at the top. san francisco has nothing on this place when it comes to fog rolling it. the volcanoes, though dormant also create clouds around them from condensation. in all the hike took about 4 or 5 hours. not to bad for a good excersize break.
back to the food. so the first few days were rough with all the eggs and beans but luch for the past few days has been great. yesterday was tomato soup and a saled with lots of chicken and ham and cheese.  today¨s lunch was spinich soup(with real spinich in it) and basically meatballs eaten with tortillas. i thought i would tire of the tortillas but i´ve had the choice between these and other breads and i always choose the tortillas. much of the food is very pure and simple. perfect. there is a lot of junk around to be had as well but it´s mostly food i wouldn´t normally eat anyway. doritos are very popular. :O)
that´s all for now. back to la case for dinner and then study, study, study.
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