A week in Spanish school in San Pedro la Laguna

After a lovely relaxing Christmas and New Year, we decided to stay at the lake a bit longer and sign up for a week in a Spanish school. I had some Spanish lessons before we left the UK (and done a bit of Duolingo!), and Ash and I have both picked up quite a bit  on our travels so far, but we felt it would be good to learn more. 

Each morning we had three hours of individual 1:1 lessons, and each afternoon we had activities and homework to complete. Our teachers, Katy and Alex, we’re both kind and patient, and our lessons were held in the garden of the school overlooking the lake. We had a break time at 11am every day, and each day we had a different Guatemalan snack to try. 

The afternoon activities were good fun, and also a chance to learn more about Guatemalan culture (and for more Spanish practice as they were all held in Spanish!). We visited a local artesian chocolate maker, and a weaver to see how they traditionally make and dye cotton thread, and then weave cloth. We also had a salsa lesson which was really fun - we would both like to do more salsa dancing! We visited a Mayan bee farm and learnt about the Mayan bee, which is much smaller than the English bee, and we got to try the honey which is also different. I went to a yoga class overlooking the lake, and the teacher had a cute puppy! On the Saturday we had a break from lessons, and we went on a group hike around the lake. 

We decided to opt for the ‘full immersion’ experience, and stay with a local Guatemalan family - the familia Garcia. We stayed in a private room in their home for the week, eating all our meals with the family and practicing lots of Spanish! Their house is well known in the town for the mural outside!



The mum, Maida, dad, Maurico, and daughter Aweex (plus the baby!) we’re incredibly kind and helpful - they worked hard to help us practice speaking Spanish, and to teach us about life in Guatemala. Their nephew Mario-Pablo was frequently at the house and was fun and curious! The family showed us how to weave cloth and make traditional tamales, and even took us to their basketball games in the evening (Maurico is a coach and plays on the mens team, and Aweex plays for the girls team). 


At the end of the week, we asked the family if we could take a group picture, and they all wanted to wear their best clothes for the photo (even the baby dressed up!). Maida also dressed me and Rebecca (another student at the homestay) in traditional Mayan dress for a photo. 


On our last day at the school Ash and I both ‘graduated’ and we had to give a small speech in Spanish about our experience over the week. We both got certificates and pictures with our teachers! 

Overall, we had a really great week at the school. It was a really busy week, and it felt hard to fit everything in each day! But I think we both enjoyed having a bit of routine and structure for the week, since we’ve had none for the past 3 months! The lessons were tough and it felt overwhelming at times trying to remember and learn each day, but we both come away having learnt a lot, and feeling more confident in speaking Spanish. 
Ash learnt how to order in restaurants and now does all the speaking when we eat out! Ash found it tiring to learn Spanish in school during the day and then try to speak in Spanish at home, but he enjoyed living with a local family and learning about their way of life. I really enjoyed learning more Spanish - I’ve learnt about the past, present and future tenses, but need to work hard to practice more and try to remember the different verbs and tenses! We are hoping to do another week in a Spanish school in Nicaragua in a month or so. 

We went for a well-earned few beers at the end of the week!