ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Many participants travel to Copán Ruinas in the mountains of western Honduras for 1 or more weeks to study at the Ixbalanque School, live with host families, and enjoy a wide range of cultural activities including visits to the beautiful Maya ruins of Copán.

This is independent travel study so you pick the dates; classes typically begin on Mondays. You'll study for 3 or 4 hours per day either morning or afternoon and can register for 1 to 4 weeks and receive 60 Clock Hours/PDUs or 6 quarter credits (equivalent of 4 semester credits) per week.


PLEASE NOTE: The Heritage Institute courses receive Continuing Education Quarter Credits awarded by Antioch University Seattle at the 400 and 500 levels. Call 800.445.1305 or log onto The Heritage Institute’s website policies page for more information.

www.hol.edu


If you're interested in studying in a coastal city or on one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, check out the link for the Central American Spanish School with bases in La Ceiba and on Utila and Roatán. The 2 schools work together so you can combine weeks at each if you wish. If you prefer a different location or Spanish school, arrangements can be made; please contact the instructor.

For information about similar programs in other Latin American countries as well as credit for volunteer and cultural learning projects, click here or on the bottom link, below. For contact info click the REGISTRATION or SYLLABUS links.

To view the 2008 Live and Learn group trip blog, scroll to the Blog Archive (lower right) and click the 1st post you want to see (they're listed bottom to top chronologically, you may need to click the arrow by July to see the earliest ones). Click "Newer Post" at the bottom of each post to view the next one.

About Me

My photo
I was a teacher for more than 34 years and retired 10 years ago from directing Structured Learning Centers for kids with autism and multiple disabilities. Gaining conversational ease in Spanish has been an important goal for me and I find attending Spanish schools in Latin America and volunteering with local organizations both productive and addictive. In the course of my immersion studies in Latin America, I fell in love with the people of San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala and for the last 15 years have managed a nonprofit that matches scholarship sponsors with promising students in San Pedro who would otherwise be limited to 6 years of school: BecaProject.org My frequent visits to Guatemala, surrounded by their gorgeous textiles, reignited my interest in fiber arts which I’ve added to my list of passions along with family, Beca Project, camping, travel, and photography.

Ixbalanque Spanish School

Sunday, August 3, 2008

SUNDAY - chilling by the pool





I had a wonderful morning - several hours talking with Lilian, exchanging recipes and wanting our families to know each other. The boys, Josue and Eduardo, were still asleep but I took a photo with Edgardo, Maria, and Lilian before they left for church and we said our last goodbyes. (PHOTO 1). PHOTO 2 is my goodbye photo in my room.

Most of the day we'll just be chilling by a pool - for 50 Lempira ($2.50) we can hang out for the day at the pool of a local hotel (PHOTOS 3, 4, and 5).

Thanks for following our trip and for your support. This will be the last post before we head our separate ways. HAPPY TRAILS!
Posted by at 13 comments:

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday - horses and some time to rest






Hi, all - After 2 busy weeks this felt like the first day I had 2 seconds to rub together for just resting and people watching. This morning those of us still in town (The Dalles group plus Kay Cee from Burbank) went on a 3 hour horseback ride into the mountains. Our horses were typical of horses here - scrawny and wiry and patient (pretty much the same as the street dogs only bigger). We headed along the highway leading to Guatemala for awhile, then up through the mountains and through villages (PHOTOS 1 and 2). We passed through a rock quarry where we discovered the laborious process required to provide all the beautiful paving stones we see in town (PHOTO 3) and we generally made a spectacle of ourselves - 10 gringas on horseback way off the beaten path. PHOTO 5 shows my family's dogs, Lulu and her son Cafe (coffee).

Tonight is our last night with our host families and I am having a difficult time processing that. I'm feeling really frail emotionally already since I'm missing my beloved niece Ashley's wedding tonight. :o(
I may post again tomorrow if the internet is up. On Monday the rest of the group flies home and Mike flies in. I'll switch to holemansinhonduras.blogspot.com , though more often than not Mike and I will be in places where the internet isn't available. Happy trails to all!!!
Posted by at No comments:

Friday!






Hello again! Friday some of us headed back to the ruins for an opportunity to explore without rain and we had an amazing time. In addition to the more obvious and famous structures, we enjoyed the enormous trees (PHOTO 1) and the sometimes fierce and sometimes hilarious stone images (PHOTO 2 - jaguar). We specially loved the area called 'el cementerio' with it's tranquility and surrounding jungle (PHOTO 3).
Friday afternoon was our last day of class. A few of us took our teachers out for a treat (PHOTO 4) and many of us had a difficult time saying goodbye.
Friday night there was a Guatemalan circus in town. There was also a evangelist rally which provided us with a spectacular fireworks show while we waited. We paid 30 lempira for our tickets and later learned that an extra 10 lemps (50 cents) would have bought us plastic lawn chairs instead of precarious 2 x 6 boards to sit on. The show included a macho knife thrower in tights with matching do-rag and his assistant who moved out of the way very well, female impersonators, 2 trained poodles in bad need of grooming, and a very overweight contortionist (she was really amazing). She showed up later in the show with 2 friends for a dance that you had to see to believe. We enjoyed some high ring and spinning ladder routines (PHOTO 5) and loved the handsome young man lipsyncing to a romantic song but having to race around the tent, climbing into the bleachers and up poles to stay in the beam of the spotlight. The final act was a snake with the girth of a basketball that crawled slowly across the ground before all the lights went out - SCREAMS FROM THE CROWD! When the lights went back on the snake was safely on the shoulders of the trainer. Happy trails!
Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)