Geography & Bird Watching 101

I love blogs. I love blogs because they allow me to share the wonderful, hilarious chat conversations I have with my brother. I promise he's way smarter than he appears here and this is totally, unfairly, at his expense.

Steven: HEY! You should get in some good ties while you're down there, so I have a place to stay in 2014
me: why do you need a place to stay in 2014?
in Guatemala?
Steven: world cup baby!!!!
close enough to Brazil
at least if it's for free
me: Geography fail. You'd be better off making friends with a Brazillian who's stateside.
Steven: GAH!! dammit
me: Guatemala borders Mexico to the South - it's the 2nd country in central america. A good 1000-1500 miles from Brazil
Steven: I just scanned the map
yaya
dont rub it in
me: and probably 1500-2000 from Rio, where I assume the world cup will be held
Steven: Guyana.
Guatemala.
same diff.

Note: it's approximately (very rough approximation thanks to google maps and some finger spans) 2000 miles from Guatemala's border to Brazil's, as the crow flies. Brazil, it turns out, is HUGE. You go nearly another 2000 miles to get to Rio de Janeiro on the coast, again, as the crow flies.


I'm not defending either of our world geography skills here, although our combined prowess with U.S. states and capitols is not to be underestimated. Just sayin'.

In any case, my dear brother isn't the only person I know who has tilted their head sideways at me and said, "Where are you going?" with a very puzzled look. So here is a basic guide.

The Country
Guatemala. Look, I found you a picture :)

The City
Quetzaltenango, which, to my current understanding, translates to "the place of the Quetzal." Quetzals are a type of bird and the Resplendent Quetzal is the national symbol of Guatemala (the currency is also called quetzals). They are gorgeous.

Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno See more here.

Quetzaltenango is also referred to as Xela (pronounced Shay-la). As I understand, Quetzaltenango is the "official" place name, and Xela, derived from the indigenous name for the same location, is what everyone actually calls it. They refer to the exact same place and I have a tendency to use them interchangeably. You can see on the map above where Quetzaltenango is marked, in the southwestern portion of the country. What you can't tell from that map is that the area, known as the western highlands, is on top of a bunch of mountains approximately 7,600 feet above sea level. So, while many folks have been envisioning me traipsing through hot and humid rain forests, a more accurate comparison would be Denver, CO in the middle of the summer.

The atmosphere is fairly dry once you're up over a mile above sea level. While it gets warm during the day, things cool off pretty quick at night and I have been instructed to pack layers. Lots of them. The good news: because of the high elevation and more arid climate, mosquitos are practically nonexistent. Hooray!

The School
I am signed up for immersion spanish classes at Proyecto Linguistica Quetzalteco de Espanol, abbreviated as PLQ. I found these guys through the internet and retroactively discovered that I have friends who have also studied there (and highly recommend it!). The program consists of 5 hours of one-on-one Spanish language instruction 5 days a week (that's 25hrs/wk for those keeping track) along with a homestay with a local family. One of the reasons I chose Xela is that, although it's Guatemala's 2nd largest city, it's off the beaten path as far as tourists go. Most folks choose to study in Antigua, which has much higher tourist traffic, and I have heard that, comparatively, Xela offers a more authentic "immersion" experience. I hope to get the chance to travel to Antigua and check it out, so I'll let you know what I find and how the immersion experience compares, if I can.

But anyhow, that's pretty much where I'm going. Next up: what I'm bringing with me!