San Pedro de la Laguna, Guatemala

Aesthetically San Pedros de la Laguna is not a pretty town. It's cramped alleyways, breezeblock "houses" and mess of telephone wires are what you might call "rustic charm" but to be honest it just reeks of a "this'll do" attitude. That attitude is fair enough given how people live, there is no room for the nice-to-haves in life. The town is right on the lake but you wouldn't really notice it unless you went looking.

The main tourist street is essentially an alley, barely big enough for the tuktuks and motorbikes that like to zoom down them. It houses many many bars and cafes, nearly all of them owned by ex-pats looking for a more sedate life. Little did they realise that the competition between all the bars has reduced the price of a litre of beer (to share of course...) to about e1.80. The bars are pretty cool though.

The Buddha bar is a great spot for live music. I went to the open mic night and listened to some aged and some not so aged hippies jamming on their guitars and bongo drums. I guess when you're a dirty hippy you have plenty of time to practice guitar as they were all pretty awesome. Three or four of the bars show movies every night which is great for just chilling out and taking a night off.

I've been placed with a Guatemalan family about five minutes walk from the main alley. They are so nice and very, very authentic! In fact this is the one part of my trip in central america so far where people genuinely dress like they do in the guide books. I have my own room (with padlock) and get fed three times a day. Food is traditional maya stuff with shedloads of tortillas made on the cooker, I try to help but I think my strength is always going to be pasta and goo.

The kitchen is located across an alley from the house, under an avocado tree with a lovely view of the lake. The main cooker is like a steel table encased in fireproof tiles with a wood fire burning under it to provide heat. Everything is cooked on this steel, water is boiled, eggs are fried and of course the tortillas are cooked directly on it.

I'm planning on being here until next sunday at least as the spanish lessons are going well. Mi Maestra Estella halba mucho espanol y yo quiero habler espanol tambien. Lessons are from 1-5 every afternoon under a reed canopy down by the lake. I kept on getting distracted by hummingbirds buzzing by my head yesterday and by the occasional horse wandering by. It's a really beautiful setting for skool. The Kielys are heading off towards Belize this Sunday via a Mayan theme park and some other Guat sights. I'm going to stay here until fluent(!) and then head south through el salvador, honduras etc.

I've been doing a lot of thinking while on the road and I reckon that I should focus on getting as many stamps in the passport as possible before settling back into the real world sometime in 2009. So the plan is now to head south as far as Argentina and then head west towards Australia or NZ to maybe work for a while and then make my way back to Ireland somehow. I love the freedom of this plan as I can just as easily cut it short and head back to home at any time. This plan is just what I'm thinking right now and will probably change along the way!