I’ve had an incredibly eventful first week here in Antigua, Guatemala. I arrived in Guatemala City midday on Sunday, rode with a driver from my study abroad program to Antigua, and spent the rest of the day exploring the house and settling into my home for the next six weeks.
Antigua is a beautiful city that was founded by Spaniards in the 1500s and was the capital for a long time. The whole city is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and there are many examples of Spanish baroque architecture. The city is surrounded by several volcanoes, some active. Volcán de Agua is especially close, as shown in the picture below.
The weather here in the highland region of Guatemala is comfortable year round, with average daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s. As a result, many buildings and houses have open air terraces and a channel for air to flow throughout the house. In my home stay there are four Guatemalans who actually live in the house and a frequently changing group of students and visitors. At the moment there is a family of five from North Carolina who are here to study Spanish and six people my age who are here to either learn Spanish or volunteer.
I was surprised at how well I was able to communicate in Spanish. I have class for six hours a day every week day, and I found that I could understand almost everything my teachers said and communicate everything I wanted to say (with a bit of help). Outside of the classroom, I’m always thrilled when I can communicate with a local, whether it be to order food or ask a question about the city. Antigua is very touristy and sometimes I am given English menus or talked to in English, but I am trying my best to use Spanish whenever I can.
I was very sick on Thursday. I don’t know if it was something I ate or just a bug, because nothing I’d eaten the day before was risky, but I had to miss my classes to recover. In the evening, our host mother made me té de manzanilla (chamomile tea, I later discovered) to soothe my stomach. I’m not a huge tea drinker, but it was really nice and helped my stomach and my chills. The next day, I was able to eat most of my breakfast and go to class.
I spent all of Saturday resting and recovering from my stomach bug, but Sunday was a much more eventful day. At nine in the morning, I went with one of the boys in the house, Liam, to where he volunteers five days a week. He works at Antigua Exotic, an animal rehabilitation center in San Felipe, a twenty five minute walk from our house. They have two birds and a kinkajou, but they specialize in reptiles. Many of their animals are rescued from illegal trade and cannot be released into the wild for different reasons. However, like many companies in Guatemala, there isn’t enough money, and they can’t buy the solar heat lamps that the reptiles need to be healthy. When I went with Liam, we took several lizards and other reptiles out of their terrariums and put them in open bins on an open patio area. We also took out some friendly snakes and held them while they soaked up the vitamin D. It was a very wholesome experience and a lot of fun, and I got to practice some Spanish with the owner who spoke no English.
Sunday morning we’d seen smoke coming out of Volcán de Fuego. It is the most consistently active volcano in the world and there are often small eruptions that cause no damage to anyone, so we weren’t concerned. It was very cool to see, but I thought nothing of it until later. I and several other students from my house were leaving a taco restaurant when we realized that the normal afternoon rain wasn’t normal: it was black with ash. I asked a waiter (in Spanish!) and he said it was from the volcanic eruption. The cars in the streets weren’t moving because their windshields were covered in dark, muddy water. Even the air smelled faintly of sulfur. We thought this was very cool, but still didn’t realize that it was anything out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until later back at the house that we realized this was the biggest eruption of that volcano since 1974, and several communities closer to the volcano were completely wiped out. The ash rain reached all the way past Antigua to Guatemala City and even today, Monday, the air was filled with a fine sand and everything looked gray.
It is surreal to think that I am here in Guatemala in the wake of a natural disaster and I didn’t even realize it at first. The city of Antigua is very fortunate to be a safe distance from Fuego, but I can’t imagine what would have happened if we were closer. It has been very interesting to see the Guatemalan people come together to clean up the streets and rooftops here, and I wonder what will happen in the following weeks as the air clears and the volcano becomes safe again.
In summary, I am definitely out of my comfort zone here, but it has been a thoroughly thrilling and eye-opening experience so far. I can’t wait to get even more comfortable speaking Spanish and experiencing more of the sights of Guatemala.