Destination Guatemala

Dates of Trek: March 1 - 8 2020 / March 19 - April 9 2022

This trip is not the usual “trek” featured on Four Brothers Gear in the sense it did not involve any camping nor significant hiking.   So why include it here?   Quite simply, it was an adventure —and that is what Four Brothers Gear is all about.   There is some common ground though.  To do this trip, one requires a spirit of adventure and desire to go to places that frankly, many Americans, perhaps the majority of Americans, never go....or would consider going.   

First of all, why Guatemala?   The idea for the trip was grounded in a desire to go to Spanish Immersion school to continue learning the language.  We looked at schools all over - Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Panama and Guatemala.  We chose Guatemala over the others for several reasons.  The five main factors included:

1. A desire to go to a school that would put us in an environment with very few locals who speak English and where the pace of speech is relatively slow - making it easier to understand.

2. Availability of one-on-one instruction - combined with full immersion with a host family in a home stay program.

3. We also wanted a school that was more about the classes vs. one that led with vacation activities like yoga or surfing on the beach!

4. Personal security:  Issues in Ecuador excluded that country for the moment, though we are keeping Quito on a short list for a future trip in hopes the political situation improves there.  

5. Cost:  We found a pretty wide range of cost as one would expect.  Guatemala, specifically Xela, to be the most economical.   All in cost for class instruction, 7 days at a home stay with three meals per day was just over $200 US per person.

Here’s what you need to know

Logistics / Stat 

• 1st Night stay:  Patricia’s Bed & Breakfast (if arriving late afternoon / evening).  Cost $36 US  for people - including airport pickup, single room, nice breakfast in the morning.

• Alamo Bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela):  $26 - $32 US per person.  Patricia’s B&B will take you there in the morning, no additional fee.

Travel recommendations:   Guatemala City - fly in and leave - as soon as possible.    A little research on the internet will provide perspective, though the basic point is...Guatemala City has some very rough areas and if you decide to stay for some cultural activities, it will require a heightened awareness of personal safety, more than typical based on the research I conducted.   If your flight arrives by mid afternoon, you can catch a bus or personal shuttle out of town.  Since we arrived around mid-night, we stayed at Patricia’s Bed & Breakfast per recommendations from our school. They picked us up at the airport and whisked us to their facility about 10 minutes away.  Courteous, safe, pleasant.  Basic accommodations with a nice breakfast provided before taking us to the bus station the next morning enter our driver walked us in and helped us buy our tickets for the next part of the journey. The pictures below show our room and the patio where they serve breakfast.

School options

Our research showed three primary cities that have many school options to choose from.    

Antigua:   This city is the closest to Guatemala City (around an hour). Schools here will be the most expensive of three city destinations, and from what we read, you will find great restaurants and lots of Gringos.  The city has a central square and within a pretty tight radius of blocks (8-10?), you will have covered and seen most of what the  city has offer.

San Pedro on Lake Atlitan:  Get there by a 3 - 3 1/2 hour private shuttle from Guatemala City.  Situated on a lake created by a volcano crater, this location is absolutely stunning.   The city provides lots of options for school during the day and lots of partying at night.  We stayed here the last two nights of our trip as we wanted to boat on the lake and get in a volcano hike.   Unfortunately we could not arrange the volcano hike, but were able to do a few things, each of which I highly recommend.

Quezaltenango (aka Xela):   This destination is a solid 3 1/2 to 4 hour bus ride from Guatemala City using Alamo Bus. Cost is only oinoijioj.  You can do it cheaper by Chicken  Bus, though it will take longer due to stops, will be less comfortable, and perhaps....a bit more dangerous as the drivers are reportedly more aggressive than the larger bus companies.  Of the three cities mentioned, this one is the most remote and accordingly, has the fewer Gringos and more opportunities to use Spanish outside of the school since most of the locals only speak Spanish or Mayan.   

Xela:  Our experience at Utlitan Spanish Immersion School

Once we dialed in on Xela as our destination, we selected this school after reviewing the multitude of options available.   The website provided a great deal of information on the school and local area and we really liked the relatively smaller size and location on the main square in the city.   We signed up for 5 hours of one-on-one instruction for 5 days.    It was a lot!   Class was from 8:00 to 1:00 and each day there was a 30 minute break at 10:30 for coffee and a snack, as well as an opportunity to take a walk out on the square and try to clear your head a bit before hitting the last two hours.   In retrospect, I think a 4 hour session would have been the right amount (as most of the other students we talked to about the challenge).

The school did a nice job matching instructors with the students based on their level of skill.  Being a relative beginner (recently completed Spanish I and II at a university night school) my instructor had basic English skills.   My wife’s instructor however didn’t speak any English at all since she (my wife) actually has a degree in Spanish and is much more advance than I am.

We both left with some nice improvement in our language skills - and a good deal of heightened appreciation for the culture, the language, and with a desire to keep on learning.  Being new to the language, I was particularly encouraged by the progress I made in speaking, something that pure academic classroom studies had not afforded me to date.  Interestingly, we seemed to be the only students who were attending school for one week.  Most were 4 or more weeks!   To make real progress, I’d recommend a minimum of two weeks as a baseline.

Xela:  Our experience outside of school

In three words, it was “Muy muy bueno” (really, really good)!  Activities we did outside of language school included 

Cemetery Tour:  Kristian, one of the employees from Utlitan took us here where we spent several hours learning more about the history of the cemetery and local rulers.   Fascinating and highly recommended.

Some “Do’s” and “Don’ts”

Eat street food from the many vendors available.

Ride a local shuttle van. 

Visit the museum on the Central Park: The museum includes an odd combination of stuffed animals, including some unusual specimens such as a four horned goat head and several animals with multiple heads.  The 2nd floor has some Mayan artifacts as well as historical photographs of the town and information about local history.