A free walking tour of Antigua, Guatemala.

I’ve been taking Spanish classes for a week now — four hours a day, five days a week, one-on-one — at a small Spanish school in Antigua, Guatemala. My Spanish is far from good, mind you, but, considering a week ago I could barely say, “hola,” I think this beginner is doing pretty well. On Tuesday my teacher and I just talked for a half hour at the end of our class. On Wednesday, whenever she asked a question based on my lesson we’d start conversing on some random tangent. Today I explained the concepts of Starbucks, cafe mochas, and the Easter bunny. Mind you, these are slow, painful, conversations, but conversations none the less. I’m getting there. Or, at least, I will get there. Maybe.

My Spanish school.

I’ve been trying to do as many of the free activities my school has to offer in the afternoons. To be social. To do things I might not do on my own. To practice my Spanish comprehension. To see different sides of the town. The other day I took a free walking tour of Antigua with some other students in my class. This Antigua walking tour was really just an excursion to a jade museum, a photography exhibit, and some church ruins. It hardly scratched the surface of Antigua and definitely didn’t take us to any of the most-known sites.

In all honesty, it wasn’t all that exciting.

Afterwards I spent an hour or so watching some friends play football (that’s soccer to us Americans) at the school as I studied my flashcards. Though, to be honest, that wasn’t very exciting either.

(We later took our own tour, based on the map in a copy of Lonely Planet, that took us to all of the famous sites of Antigua. That one was much more exciting.)

Photos from the free walking tour of Antigua, Guatemala:

This was one of many free excursions offered by my Spanish school in Antigua, Guatemala. Others included a trip to a nut farm, a bicycle tour, and a traditional Guatemalan clothing demonstration.