For team Two Travel Turtles, the month of August was spent sucking from the firehose of Spanish language content, not only in classes but in day-to-day life too! And a big part of that was our 4-week homestay at la Casa de Rosa. Rosa was our surrogate mother for those 4 weeks, and our time with her was truly special.
I wasn’t planning on releasing a detailed blog of our homestay experiences out of respect for the privacy of her family. But she enthusiastically encouraged us to!
And honestly, we have nothing but great things to say about homestay at la Casa de Rosa!
Just What is a Homestay Anyway?
As the name implies, a homestay is when you live under the same roof as a local family. Homestays are commonly offered through language schools (like the Community Spanish School) because of the potential for immersion to further improve one’s language skills through extended interactions with the host family. And since meal preparation is almost completely done by the host family (except for Sundays), that allows more time for classes, homework, and language application in the field.
Just like attending university in a dorm, in a way.
And homestay families usually provide unique opportunities to do things in the local community, as you will see.
Homestay experiences are not all the same, as they depend on the family structure and the layout of the home they live in. But all homestays are extremely helpful in the process of language learning as host families are vetted by the language schools they assist.
Rosa’s Family
Rosa’s household is made up of herself, her adult sons Alex and Ivan, and a relative of the family Elena, who helps out with cooking and housework. Her husband sadly passed a couple of years ago.
Introducing Rosa! She bought me flowers for my birthday!
Elena, Rosa, and our newly adopted German son, Gregor.
Rosa’s sons are both in law school at the moment, which means that they were almost always at school or at their various jobs. Seeing how busy Alex and Ivan were reminded us of ourselves not long ago! We hope their hard work pays off.
A frequent visitor to the household was Diego, Rosa’s adorable father-in-law. He spoke Spanish, but favored the local Mayan dialect. We loved chatting with him and marveled at his ability to munch down hot peppers like they were candy!
Our Homestay at la Casa de Rosa
In a past post, we described being picked up by Rosa when we first arrived in San Pedro La Laguna. But we never described the actual residence you stay in during a homestay at la Casa de Rosa.
So let’s go on a tour!
You approach her home on the “quieter” side of San Pedro by walking up an insanely steep hill.
In the distance, Rosa’s home is on the left with the yellow storefront. Notice the open areas at the top of that building. They ended up being one of our favorite places to hang out!
When we came home from classes, Rosa was usually brewing magical gastronomic creations in the kitchen. Almost everything she served was from scratch and organic. This was also where the dining room table was located for meals. You can see the opening at the far end of the kitchen that leads to the homestay rooms.
A whiteboard next to the dining room table has words that summarize the philosophy of Rosa’s home.
“Full belly, content heart.”
Walking through the kitchen, you enter an area that leads to rooms for students, as well as family-specific living spaces.
Entering the space and turning 180 degrees, you can better see the stairway that leads up to additional student rooms and family spaces.
Heading up the stairs you get to the second floor, where our room was. You can see that the stairs continue up to a fantastic covered terrace space!
Here is a tour of our room, with a comfy twin bed…
A desk to work at…
And a private bathroom with a shower, because middle-aged people like us don’t like sharing facilities!
Facing the entranceway to our room, there were plenty of windows for light and ventilation.
Continuing up the stairs to the terrace were tables and chairs for studying, but most importantly a KILLER view!
Midday.
Nighttime.
Morning sunrise.
Rosa tidied up student rooms and emptied the trash weekly. She also offered a paid laundry service which all of the students used.
A very comfortable living space indeed!
Ohhhh the Food!
Rosa is a culinary genius.
She has taken many cooking courses over the years and can produce fantastic versions of almost any cuisine and dietary restriction imaginable. In fact, Rosa readily admits that the reason why she struggles with the English language is that cooking takes up all the space in her brain!
As mentioned earlier, Rosa makes just about everything from scratch. This includes juices, sauces, teas, and obviously the food itself. And the food she bought was as fresh as possible, as she made near daily trips to the local open-air market in town.
Here is a sampling of the kinds of luxuries we were subjected to on a daily basis for desayuno (= breakfast)…
Almuerzo (= lunch), the meal with the most protein…
And cena (= dinner)!
My birthday tamales…
With a tasty surprise inside!
It was truly a burden eating like this three times per day, six days per week.
We did the financial math of what we would have spent to get this level of quality in restaurants. And when you consider the cost of a homestay, the savings was staggering!
Family Fun Time!
Since Rosa’s immediate family is well into adulthood now, she would always make time for us to do fun things together if our schedules allowed.
It must be distracting playing fútbol surrounded by a mountain view like that!
On another occasion, we went to San Juan La Laguna in a tuk-tuk to see some of the local weaving cooperatives at work.
We spun thread like pros…
And visited an apiary while we were nearby.
When Rosa’s 51st birthday came, we were invited. As was half of San Pedro apparently!
Her home was filled with friends and relatives that came and went over the course of the evening.
Seriously, there must have been over 50 people that came through her house that night!
Making New Friends
One of the great added perks of doing a homestay is that you share the home with other international travelers going through the same experiences as you.
And sometimes you really hit it off!
We had five different roommates over our month stay:
Marie (Austria)
Gregor, our adopted travel son on loan (Germany)
Andrew (Ireland)
Juliana (Germany)
Lia (Germany)
It was fun talking over dinner, going out on weekends, and sharing travel experiences! And it is our hope that we can maintain our friendships over the years that we travel.
Our adopted travel son, Gregor. When we walked the streets, people apparently thought we were a traveling family. Which was a little awkward in bars.
Juliana, Lia, and Two Travel Turtles at the Ola Bar!
Speaking from experience, it is really special when you can visit friends that you make when you travel in their home country. Fingers crossed that we can do a reunion tour through Europe sometime in the future!
Farewell to La Casa De Rosa
Sadly, all good things come to an end eventually.
Leaving Rosa after a month was not easy, as we had developed quite a bond over the last month. Needless to say, there were tears.
We cannot recommend a homestay at la Casa de Rosa strongly enough!
Her love for her guests, her interest in their lives, and the way she expresses her feelings through her cooking will make an indelible impression on your heart.
Should you decide to take courses through the Community Spanish School, you can request Rosa as your homestay host. I absolutely suggest that you do!
I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Farewell Rosa! Thank you for everything!
Thanks for reading!
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2 thoughts on “Homestay at la Casa de Rosa in San Pedro La Laguna”
Hi Mark,
After your enthusiastic description of the school and homestay I am considering to follow your footsteps to San Pedro next year.
Question: website has a price of Q1200 per person per week for homestay with a private bathroom. As you shared a room, did you pay a full price for each of you or was there a discount for double occupancy?
No double occupancy discount, sadly. Our costs were locked in at pre COVID rates, believe it or not. The travel world was just waking up when we went, and inflation hadn’t established itself in the Atitlán area yet.
2 thoughts on “Homestay at la Casa de Rosa in San Pedro La Laguna”
Hi Mark,
After your enthusiastic description of the school and homestay I am considering to follow your footsteps to San Pedro next year.
Question: website has a price of Q1200 per person per week for homestay with a private bathroom. As you shared a room, did you pay a full price for each of you or was there a discount for double occupancy?
No double occupancy discount, sadly. Our costs were locked in at pre COVID rates, believe it or not. The travel world was just waking up when we went, and inflation hadn’t established itself in the Atitlán area yet.