more spanglish fun

I arrived back into San Pedro on Saturday night and, after a long day just flopped into bed. I was excited that this week would be different at the lake as it was semana santa, or holy week which is their huge easter celebrations.

As i´ve already had one san pedro entry, i´ll just add my highlights here foir this week.

- spanish lesson fun with my teacher Esther who never seemed to mind that i was permanently hungover or tired! we had a very entertaining discussion in which i tried to tell her that our queen wasn`t like a guatemalanb beauty queen and that she reigned til she died, not til some new little miss Britain took over fro her the following year! another amusing discussion was when she aksed me if my ex drank and I repplied

"god no, he was boring!" before realising that this would make him the perfect mayan husband as the women don`t drink and wish their men didn`t either!

seeing all the processions in town in san pedro. the locals went all out with big floats with "el Senor" JC on them and paraded through town with much gusto, singing and music.

The Jesus vs Maximon parade in Santigao on Easter Friday- the locals fill the streets with colored woodchip art which makes it look like one giant elaborately coloured carpet and then, having spent all day creating it, parade through it reducing it to dust! Jesus is kept in the cathederal and has a big entourage whereas maximon holds his own in a house nearby and comes out with a big fat cigar in his mouth! sadly we didn`t get to see much of the procession as they took so long getting it started that we had to catch the last bus hime, but i`ll never foeget the colours in the street nor the party atmosphere that prevailed.

Being kept up ALL night by guatemala city ites descendign on our hotel to party. my god they have stamina- 4pm until 6am without stopping! i certainly learnt to swear and curse at them in spanish that night! they all got thrown out the following day when we normal residents complained! (i let an italian girl do the spanish talking and added "me too" every so now and then!)

meeting lovely locals and snogging the cute little Rafa who then followed me around all week like a lost puppy dog! not surpising when i found out he is only 22!! (he lied and said 25!)

partying at freedom bar and alegra pub, expecially the night where we started off at an israeli restaurant which had been recommended to us. we waited 2 long hours for our food and, having waited 45 mins for a drink we decided to take matters into our own hands and brought a bottle of tequilla with an orange mixer into the restaurant and had lots of fun! I later had to walk 6 ft 8 Tom home as he couldn`t stand up!

Being cooked Shuk Shuka, a really nice egg dish by my Israeli friends whilst chatting and drinking wine prior to another wild night out.

Finally finishing Spanish lessons on the wednesday and feeling like i had some mastery of the language!

So, after so many memories and good times, i felt pretty ready to leave the lake and move on to El Salvador with Alexis, a girel from my spanish classes who, at the time seemed quite normal! More on that in the next chapter!!