antigua, guatemala

Antigua was a great little spot for hiking volcanoes, eating delicious expat food (which is refreshing after 3 months of eating only local cuisine) and learning Spanish. We committed to a homestay for 2 weeks where we stayed with a local family and attended a Spanish school for 4 hours a day. It felt weird studying on our holiday, but we were determined to sound just a little less gringo as we ventured further south. We climbed Pacaya, where we didn't see flowing red lava, but we roasted marshmallows in hot volcano rocks... pretty cool.

Our thoughts on learning Spanish for those interested....
Being very "green" on the whole travelling thing at the start of our trip, we had booked our Spanish lessons for Antigua while we were in Mexico City... two entire months ahead of our arrival. We had heard that Antigua was "the place" to learn Spanish, so we booked a homestay ahead of time. As much as we enjoyed Antigua, there are hundreds of other great places to learn Spanish (eg. Lake Atitlan... but seriously anywhere). Looking back, two weeks was a lot of time to plan to spend in a place that we knew nothing about. Also, don't be fooled by the whole "immersion" thing. The homestay family only speaks Spanish, your teacher only speaks Spanish... everyone around you only speaks Spanish! Yes you will be immersed in a lot of Spanish speaking... this does not mean you will learn faster. It does mean there is a lot of talking in a language that you don't understand. If you can already speak a little Spanish, immersion would help. If you can only get as far as asking for the bathroom, make sure you have an English speaking teacher.