By: Artis H. – Guestblogger from Antigua
At the close of classes on Friday, our group of five donned our backpacks and headed to the bus station alongside Antigua's central market. Two of us stopped to buy sandwiches for lunch, and as the wait turned from five minutes into twenty (this is Guatemala, after all), we received a frantic call from the advance party that our bus was pulling out of the station. We pleaded for our sandwiches and finally received two foil-wrapped packages, warm and smelling of ham and melted cheese. We ran through the market, sandals slapping against concrete, and made it to the bus just in time.
Called “chicken buses” by the locals, this mode of transportation is definitely the real-deal. The buses are imported from the United States and date back to the mid-1980s. My Norwegian and Dutch friends struggled to maneuver the tricky push-pull for opening the windows, something American public school students master on their first bus ride home.
As the bus wound through villages and down out of the mountains, we began to shed layers of clothes. First scarves, then outerwear and finally overshirts, until we sat in our tank tops and watched Antigua's trio of surrounding volcanoes fade into the distance.
At a pause in the route, food vendors climbed onto the bus to sell their wares: fresh pineapple juice and sugar-roasted peanuts, husk-wrapped tamalitos and handfuls of sweet milk candies. We bought one of each and munched on the treats throughout the long trek.
The climate grew steadily warmer as we neared the coast, passing through fields of sugarcane and palm trees, until we could smell the salt in the air. We descended at Sinpicate, where we boarded a flat-bottomed skiff that trolled the waters of a mangrove estuary before dropping us at our destination. There, the black sand beach stretched in every direction, unmarred by the hotels and restaurants that have consumed much of the world's beachfront real estate. The Paredon camp itself included only a handful of palm-thatched cabanas fronting the pounding Pacific.
The camp's owner, Rafael, gave us the grand tour – our bunked sleeping quarters, the outdoor shower stall, the open-air eating area – before suggesting we slip into our bathing suits and head into the water. The sun dipped towards the horizon as we plowed into the waves, thankful to have reached Guatemala's beautiful coastline.

By: Artis H. – Guestblogger from Antigua
In Antigua, mornings are brisk this time of year. For my first day of Spanish classes at the language school, I bundled against the cold and hurried down the narrow, cobbled streets. The smell of Guatemalan coffee drifted from an open shop window and blended with the aroma of baking banana bread from the panderia next door. My stomach growled, even after the breakfast of sliced bananas and papayas with my host family that morning.
I climbed a flight of stairs to the office and lounge area of the school, then another flight to the open-air classroom above. Work stations were spread across the patio, with tables, chairs, and blackboards at each mini-classroom. Though the air still held a hint of morning chill, I was thrilled to start learning Spanish. My class schedule began at 8:00 a.m. and ran until noon, with a 20 minute break in between. I shared a professor with one other student.
Every day of this first week has been packed with activities. After four hours of classes in the morning, the students headed back to our homestays for lunch. In the afternoons, we sampled the excursions in and around Antigua offered by the school. On Tuesday, we visited the former church and convent of the Capuchinian nuns in Antigua and on Wednesday, we learned how to make tomalitos at the school. Everyone had a chance to dip their hands into the sticky maize mixture and roll out their own tomalito before wrapping the ball in a corn husk to be boiled. Mildly flavored with a hint of the spinach-like chipilin leaves we rolled into the flour, the results were delicious. On Thursday, we visited a local village known for their hand-woven fabrics. After we watched the women weave, we had another cooking lesson: tortillas. We learned how to pat the dough between our hands and toss the thin disks onto the griddle. We then sat down to a traditional Guatemalan feast of pepilon with our own hand-crafted tortillas.
The perfect end to such a full first week? A weekend at the beach. A group of students from the school decided to search out the surf camp at Paredon, three hours from Antigua along Guatemala's Pacific coastline. And so my first week in Guatemala ended with the beginning of another adventure.

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-first-days-in-smara.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/zipping-around-repost-with-pictures.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/into-woods.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/life-is-what-you-make-of-it.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/afternoon-in-san-jos.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/first-day-of-school.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/sun-oh-so-rises.html

By Tony L. – Guestblogger from Costa Rica.
The following is a link to Tony's official blog spot where you can view his post in full:
http://tony-costarica2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/settling-in.html