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"si, hoy es un buen dia para pasear. cuando uno se muere, no va a pasear."

that´s a little saying i like, which i´ve heard from 3 or 4 people in the last two days while i´m out walking. it means "yes, today is a good day for walking. when you die, you won´t be able to do much walking."

well, i did get on the plane and indeed i made it to guatemala. when we got there i found a shuttle dude to take me straight to antigua so i could skip the perilous melee of guatemala city. in antigua i found a hostel, costing a couple bucks more than i expected, but went for it anyway. i think now, knowing what i know i could find one just as good for cheaper. but you know how it is...first night, first town... i was just hoping to find a safe clean place.
i bopped around antigua for a night and a morning, and then had to start heading for todos santos for my language course. that was a two day affair, with a night in a small city called huehuetenango, which was mellow and interesting and i was starting to feel more comfortable...not afraid that someone was going to machete me at every turn. next morning on to the bus and up the mountain to todos santos.

todos santos is a really cool little village. one main street lined with tiny shops and street vendors...a couple of hostels, a church...and alot of houses packed in to the middle and spreading out over the surrounding hillsides. i strolled over to the spanish school, met the folks, told em what i wanted, and the hooked me up with a family to stay with. and there i´ve been for the last 5 days or so. the family is really great. grandpa, grandma and 7 little ones. the parents are in the states working. but the little ones are adorable and they´re all friendly. i eat my meals with them and we sit around their wood fire where they cook, and i chat with grandpa in spanish while they all banter back and forth in mam, their mayan dialect. we eat pretty basic stuff like soups with potatos, cauliflower, tomato...or just potatos, or beans and rice...and always with tons of tortillas. very yummy tortillas. grandma passes me a basket of like 20 tortillas just for me. (i don´t usually eat all 20...but it´s nice to know i could if i wanted to). so the food´s not exactly delicious, but it´s pretty good. and i´m getting more used to it. and i´m starting to not be so afraid that everything is going to make me sick. but you should see the kitchen. it´s also the bedroom, and the floor is dirt, and they store water in old antifreeze bottles. that makes a bit nervous, but so far so good.

my classes haven´t been that spectacular so far. i mean, they´re great. but i wouldn´t say my skill level in spanish increased too hugely after one day of class. big surprise, eh? the teachers are local folks who teach school to the kids during the morning. tuesday i didn´t have class cuz my teacher left town to go to a soccer tournament. so i went for a big hike instead, which was great. it´s an awesome valley for hiking, because at the top of the mountains it´s beautiful wilderness, and in the bottom it´s sprinkled with little family farms. so i can go stroll in the forest, and then on the way home you pass through the neighborhoods, walking on paths through the corn fields and saying hi to all the people. you can just choose any path...it´s sure to go past a few houses, through some fields...people are happy to see me pass by and usually want to chat. women are always on the porch weaving or washing clothes, and the men are usually in the field chopping corn or gathering corn stalks. the kids are either helping mom or dad, or playing in the dirty yard. there´s garbage everywhere. they seem to relate to garbage like dirt. i don´t know if they even see it. in the house, in the courtyard, on the street, in the cornfield...wherever.

there are only a few tourists in this village, and i´m really digging the friendliness and calmness of the town. maybe i´ll come back here after i go explore some of the other parts. but i´ll be here for a few more days...still no plan as to where to go next...but plenty of good options.