Quetzaltenango

Arrived in Xela (pronounced "Shayla") which is what everyone calls Guatemala´s second city of Quetzaltenango , named after an abbreviation of the Mayan name for the city Xelaju. The journey here from Antigua was a total nightmare , taking nearly 11 hours to do a journey which should take 4 hours , due to totally pathetic tour operators shuttle "service" , bad bus timings. Probably my worst travel day on the whole trip so far and by the time I got to Xela I was pretty frazzled , just got to the hostel , ate some food and hit the sack.  I then spent most of the day on Saturday wandering around looking at Spanish schools and talking to their staff - there are many here so its difficult to choose but I have signed up with "Celas Maya" school and I start on Monday morning , which is pretty exciting. I have to go to classes 8am-1pm every weekday and I will be doing a "homestay" where I will live in a room with a Guatemalan family , for what they call "total immersion" in Spanish language. They also organise plenty of trips & extra curricular activities as well which should be good. If all goes well and I´m happy with the school then I´ll be staying for awhile here in Xela so I´ll have plenty of time to explore the city. Now that I'm organised for next week I decided to go to Lake Atitlan - I´ll be catching a chicken bus  to San Pedro La Laguna where I plan to stay until Sunday when I come back to Xela to move into my homestay house.  Pictures coming soon......