Homestay in San Pedro, Guatemala

For those thinking of studying Spanish and doing a homestay with a local family, San Pedro offers a lot of opportunities to do both. Arriving in San Pedro feels a lot like walking into a beach town in Thailand, or pretty much anywhere in S.E Asia. Tuk Tuks are everywhere and backpackers in various states of inebriation are everywhere you look. Touts crowd the street leading up from the pier where our boat dropped us off after a 20 minute ride across Lake Atitlan from Panajachel. They ask us the usual questions of whether we want a room, a ride or a tour. It’s almost always a combination of those three. It doesn’t matter if you said no to the guy standing next to him, the next guy will still ask you if you need the same things. Maybe you changed your mind in 10 seconds.

We had a destination in mind upon getting off the bus though, so we didn’t need to waste our time bartering or figuring out where to go. We were heading to Orbita Spanish School  http://orbitaspanishschool.com/ to enrol in lessons for the week. The school has various packages available, including doing a homestay with a local family. That was the option that most appealed to us. We wanted a fully immersive lingual and cultural experience.

We arrived in San Pedro on a Saturday and classes start on Mondays, so after paying for the course and arranging to move in with our host family on Sunday, we took a look around for a place to lay our heads for one night. San Pedro has a lot of options for places to stay, but you won’t find too many on Hostelworld or Booking.com. Your best bet is to walk around and find a place that appeals. There are guest houses and hostels everywhere.

We ended up not far from the pier at a well known hostel known as Mr.Mullets  https://www.mrmullets.com/ Of course, as you’d expect with a name like that, the hostel logo is a picture of some dude with a mullet and sunglasses. The price for a night is reasonable, it has a decent vibe, and best of all the showers are hot with good water pressure. I’ve come to realize that a good hot shower is a bit of a rare commodity in this part of Guatemala.

We decided to get cleaned up a bit and go out for a night of food, drinks and music since we didn’t have to go to school the next day. There’s a wonderful little Japanese food stand just down the road from Mr. Mullets and operated by an older Japanese man. It’s definitely not something I expected to see here.

Later in the evening we ended up at a bar called Sublime The place was packed with expats and wayward travellers from different parts of the globe, and everyone was wasted. I struck up a conversation with a greasy looking Australian who said he arrived here for 2 days and is still here 17 months later. It turns out that this is typical of the travellers that come to San Pedro. I’ve come to realize that there are two types of travellers on the “gringo trail”: those looking to party and those who are more interested in getting to know the culture and local people.

To be fair, I’ve fallen into both categories over various trips I’ve taken in the past so I’m not passing judgement, just that nowadays I’m not as keen on partying all the time. However, once in awhile is good and this night was one of those nights. The DJ was decent and everyone was dancing and having a good time. The music stops at 11 pm in San Pedro because of a lame by-law so it didn’t end up being too late of a night out. It’s just as well because we’d be starting our homestay the next day and I didn’t want to be dribbling on myself.

We were welcomed with open arms by our host family the next day. They are family of 3, Francella, Felix and Felix Jr. I was pleasantly surprised by our accommodations as well. We were given a nice room on the top floor of their house and with a view of the lake in the distance. The room had lots of windows and its height meant there was always a nice breeze and plenty of light. The homestay accommodation was nicer than a lot of the places we’ve stayed at so far on this trip.

Over the course the of the week that we stayed there, they were helpful, friendly and accommodating of whatever we needed. We were fed 3 meals a day and the food was more than satisfactory. One evening Monica got the chance to help Francella make tortillas over a wood fire. This is something all Mayan girls learn how to do at an early age.

Tortillas are very much a staple in the diet here, along with avocados and beans. I love all three, so that isn’t a problem for me. Certainly making them is harder than it looks. Monica taught Francella how to cook a Chinese dish the next evening which her and her family absolutely loved.

The Spanish lessons were very helpful. After about a month of floundering around Mexico not able to communicate well and not really making a strong effort to learn, I’d decided to turn a new leaf in Guatemala. I picked up a phrase book, downloaded some apps and started studying. However, nothing can substitute good one-to-one language instruction. Enrolling in classes and doing a homestay is a great way to meet locals and incentivize yourself to study the language. The instructor I was paired with did an excellent job and tailored the lessons to fit my learning pace.

Spanish Schools in San Pedro, Guatemala

There are a lot of Spanish language schools operating around Lake Atitlan, many of which offer a home stay option and all have very competitive prices. Here are just a few options available to those travelling here for language learning:  

www.studyspanishinguatemala.com

https://www.facebook.com/cooperativa.escuela

http://corazonmaya.com

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