the blue truck: Quetzaltenango or much easier Xela

After almost two weeks in Xela, the indio way is much easier to say and spell than Quetzaltenango, I will be leaving tomorrow. I have attended school at SolLatino, which was good and intensive. With the guys from school I also went to see "un jugo de futbol: Xela vs. Guate City" and the locals won! This was a lot of fun, eventhough the school's salsa teacher was so hot that I hardly got to pay attention to the game... started eating pop-corn because she offered it to me, (believe me you would have too!), eventhough pop-corn is one of the few things I don't like and on top of all a guy was sitting next to me who wanted to give me his son. Yes you read correctly, GIVE me his son. Getting a son without all the fun of making him - No way! "You are swiss - great, take my son with you, he is a very bright boy and he can work on a bank in Switzerland and make lots of money..."- "say something in english, son!" - I have changed from my broken Spanish to English and started chatting with the boy, halfway into the conversation he says, with a low and mellow voice "good afternoon" that was about the max of his english, a start anyway. "Take him with you..." that's the conversation in short. However, as the night closed I went home without a new son and all the pop-corn eating wasn't leading to success either, therefore also without the salsa teacher.

Xela was also the base to climb Santa Maria and I have eaten great food in a lovely Indian restaurant, Toni & Felix have invited me to the "Panorama" an authentic Swiss restaurant, where we had fantastic Fondue to celebrate my birthday. Thank you again, Toni & Felix!

I stayed at Hotel Kitchem-Ja, which I found very clean, reasonably priced at Q135/night and negotiable for longer commitments. The blue truck could sleep safely in the narrow courtyard and got even plenty of sun for it's solar power during the day. And I had a nice big room with a wonderful powerful hot shower and an excellent nice and firm bed. The folks are nice and friendly and it is right in the center of town. Laundry around the corner, a fantastic breakfast restaurant up the street on the 13th and in general a safe and quiet atmosphere. After sunset the big door of the colonial building is getting closed and locked and you have to ring a bell to get in, which I found a nice touch to feel safe and sound.

The Toyota got serviced at an official Toyota dealership, which was as nice and clean and well organized, that even some of the shops in Switzerland could take lessons here. The prices, especially for parts were steep at almost swiss-level as well, but I feel comfortable with the TLC the blue truck got. And after that treatment it is as clean as it hasn't been for months and months.

A couple of pictures for you to get a taste of this great, second largest City of Guatemala. Enjoy.