What trip out of the country would be complete without at least one night on the town?  No surprise, Tim, David, Patrick and I found what I hope weren’t the hippest bars in Quetzaltenango on Wednesday night.

To start, we checked out the hostel/bar/restaraunt across the street from our hotel, The Black Cat.  There, after struggling to remember my Spanish and order our drinks, we met Eystes, a D.C. native studying adoption in Guatemala.  We had excellent conversation, even touching on the topic of “What is a Christian?” (Eystes is Jewish, by the way).  All-in-all a great place to sit and have some Gallo, Guatemala’s national beer.

After The Black Cat, we followed the sound of thumping music to a club called Frissa, or Rissa, or something to that effect.  After ordering 4 beers and being seated by our gracious host, we realized that their “2 for Q50″ (2 for 50 quetzales, equivelent to roughly $US 9.00) was the price for liters.  The host at least understood that we didn’t want a liter of Gallo for each of us, and brought out an appropriate amount.

On to Ich Bin Student, a tiny student bar.  We were the only patrons at Ich Bin Student, so I decided to try my hand at requesting a song.  After attempting to ask our waiter, Cedric, if they had Styx or AC/DC, I realized that my Spanish maybe isn’t as good as I had hoped.  Cedric led me to the DJ booth and showed me how to search for songs on his computer.  No Styx, sadly, but we were able to find “Hey Jude” and “Lay Lady Lay.”  Who would have guessed we’d be listening to Bob Dylan in Guatemala?

Before going back to our hotel, Tim and I were even able to squeeze in some dancing.  Overall, this was a great experience.  All of the people we met were wonderfully gracious and patient with my broken Spanglish.

If you ever get to Quetzaltenango, however, don’t attempt to request Styx.  It’s a lost cause.

- Kelsey