I’ve been in San Pedro, Guatemala since Clay left. Last Monday I started Spanish classes ($105 for 20 hours) and have been mostly hanging out and relaxing since.

On New Year’s, I danced at the party at my hostel until 3am, got to sleep at 4, and was up by 10 to move to a new hostel.

Since then it’s been pretty quiet, studying Spanish and exploring town. There are a TON of hippies in town as an after-effect of Cosmic Convergence, but the Guatemalans from Guate City that were here for New Year’s have mostly left.

I have one more week of classes (now for $65 for 20 hours with a private teacher), and then I’ll head northeast to the islands of Honduras or Belize.

Below are some photos from the last week or so. Most are captioned, and if you click on one you can navigate through a slideshow.

A view of the lake, from the lake, when Clay and I went kayaking.

One of the many volcanoes in the local area.

Life on the lake.

And life from the lake.

I never got a backstory for this photo, but they all came out together from the house behind them on New Year’s day.

San Pedro is very religious, and signs like this are all over town (and the cars, and buses, and tuktuks).

This is the main road from “Gringolandia,” where most of the hostels and tourist-centric shops/restaurants are, up to the market.

Another view of the main road. In the distance is a local crew repaving the road – by hand-chiseling every single paving stone.

Taken on January 2nd. The New Year’s benders were still going strong.

This is the unadulterated version of the photo I posted on New Year’s day. Also taken by the market in San Pedro.

San Pedro has a market almost every day. It’s huge on Sundays, but I captured this image on a random morning while in town for breakfast sandwiches.

Around the market are numerous stalls selling licuados – basically fruit blended with either water or milk, and sugar if you want it. I’ve been getting (too) many banano y fresa licuados con agua y un poco de azucar.

A close up of the detailing on one of the chicken buses in town.

My school for the last week was slightly uphill from my hostel. This is the view from the road alongside the school.

And this was our campus. I’m now taking private lessons (for half the price) at a local hostel.

This is Yo Mama’s Casa, the hostel where I’ve been staying since the 1st. A private room is Q30/night, or about $4.

Yo Mama’s painting.

Yo Mama’s mural.

Yo Mama’s Chiquita, the hostel dog. She is also a roving bottle opener.

On Sunday, my day off from classes, I did a 6am hike up Volcan San Pedro. There are lots of rules for park.

This is Lorenzo, my guide. We climbed 4,700ft in 3 hrs to the top.

The start of the hike was through a small coffee plantation.

A view from about 40% up. Ultimately this was the only view because of cloud cover at the top.

This is along the road we walked UP to get to the volcano. They don’t mess around in Guatemala.

And on the way back down, Lorenzo stopped me at this sign and pointed to the chubby gringo hugging the giant tree. “That’s the tree you peed on,” he told me in Spanish.