"Xela, Xela, Xelaaa!"

Yelled the conductor from the door of the connecting chicken bus to Xela. Xela ("shayla") is the name used by everyone for Quetzaltenango, the town we were headed to.

Guatemalan chicken buses are something else! Souped up to the max with bright colours and flashing lights, and the customary "Jesus loves you" or "God blesses this bus" written on the front. The journey is also somewhat hair-raising as they bomb it along, but I felt pretty safe on them, contrary to what we'd read in the LP about robberies being frequent.

Now we are in Xela, which is a typical Guatemalan city and completely non-touristy. You might therefore wonder what we're doing here, well, I'm learning/revising my Spanish and Xela is one of the cheapest places to do it in Central America.
For the princely sum of £113, I'm getting 25 hours of one-to-one lessons and 6 nights in a home stay. That's right, we're living with a Guatemalan family!! Another one of those moments, where you think, 'wow, I'm living with a Guatemalan family, this could not be more random!' The whole point is to have "complete immersion" in Spanish, so it seemed to be the best way to do it. You definitely get that in this town - no one speaks English, it is brilliant.

The lessons are actually quite tiring, as 5 hours of speaking Spanish with my teacher Carolina is pretty intense - when travelling you don't normally have to do this much intense thinking! So, at la casa Ciaran, or Thomas, as he is now known, because hispanophones don't really get "Ciaran", has been doing most of the talking, given that he is much better than me and not as tired! He did do a 5 hour lesson but he doesn't really need more than that.

En la casa, we have Monica, Walter, Elian, Luna and Karin. Monica's the madre of Walter, Elian and Karin. Walter, Elian and Karin are Monica's children. Luna's the cutest little 3 year old girl and Karin's daughter, though I haven't met Karin yet as she's been in hospital having another baby. Oh, there's also Bambina, a tiny chihuahua! They all live in a one storey house, that has a kitchen, small living room and three bedrooms, although maybe they use the bedroom we're living in too, when there are no students or lodgers staying.

We have breakfast at 7:30 on schooldays, and it's usually a bowl of fruit or pancakes. Lunch is actually the most important meal of the day in Guatemala, and most Guatemaltecos head home for it. It's usually a bit of meat with some rice and tacos. Then, dinner could be a fried egg with pureed refried beans, or tacos with chicken, or tacos with refried bean sauce and a tamale. I can't help but notice that sometimes the family seem to have more to eat than we are given... But oh well, I could do with losing a bit of weight!!

Although only 5 people actually live at the house, there are always other people round! Monica's other son Elvin and his wife regularly come round for meals, and his wife's Mum, Flora has been helping Monica out with cooking and cleaning while Karin is having the baby. For the last two nights a friend of Monica and her daughter have also been round for dinner, so it can be a bit hectic to say the least. I was kind of hoping I would get to speak more of the old espanol at home but there's so many of them that at meal times they all sit around, jabbering away at 100 miles an hour!

For the first time Ciaran and I are apart! He spent the first two nights here at the casa with me, but as he doesn't need/want more Spanish lessons, he would have been sat around in Xela with not too much to do. So, he's currently off on a 3 day hike from Xela back to San Pedro La Laguna! I miss him, it's strange not being with him, especially when we haven't been apart at all really!

Being here and learning Spanish is great, and I haven't missed being eaten alive by the mozzies, but I'm looking forward to getting back on the road to adventure! Semuc Champey and Tikal are calling!