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| Address |
Eco-Escuela de Español
San Andrés
Peten
(+502)-5940-1235
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Registration
Write to the school
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| Rank |
76% |
| Prices |
150 USD for 20
hours per week including host family
100 USD for 20 hours per week without host family
Study one hour daily more or less: add or subtract about USD 25 per week.
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| School Size |
3 - 30 students |
| Openings |
This school currently has openings! |
| Summary |
The school started out very professionally and recommended. You study overviewing the beautiful Lake Petén-Itzá. You can partake in a reforestation project and a formal conservation course.
Eco-Escuela was founded in 1992 and is organized as a cooperative.
Total immersion in Petén is excellent, if you don′t hang out with other students.
In January 2007 the school burned down totally. Classes are currently being held in the school′s library building across the street. Any help in rebuilding the school is greatly appreciated. |
| Registration |
This school fills up when it has big groups. It is wise to sign up beforehand. Also, this enables the school to pick you up by boat from Flores and take you over to San Andrés. |
With a timely registration, the school can assign you the best teacher from its list. (Contact us for group discounts). |
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| Teachers |
There are 15 Teachers earning a salary of $38 per week.
See details for recommended instructors!
[Show Details] |
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School's specific Information:
Teachers have been trained very professionally by ProPetén, a big conservation group, but some of the best ones now only work in administration. Teachers received training in grammar and ecology. They are mostly University students. They undergo formal exams before being employed.
Recommended teachers: Gracie |
General Information:
Spanish language teachers in Guatemala are mostly young people like University students who do this job for very little salary (US$30-$60 per week) and are trying to continue their education. Teachers in our recommended schools have undergone a formal training and know how to make students enjoy learning. By enrolling in advance, you are likely to get a better teacher. This holds especially true during high season.
If you are not happy with your assigned teacher, don’t hesitate to ask the director for another teacher. How to get a good teacher.
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| Methods |
One on one teaching. The curriculum is the same as in most schools.
[Show Details] |
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School's specific Information:
Lectures: Weekly lectures are given by scientists and local experts on topics like chicle, medical plants, xate, midwives, the Biosphere Reserve, and local customs.
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General Information:
Spanish Schools in Guatemala promote the most effective 'one student one teacher' method. You spend your time talking and listening with your own personal teacher. This is why Guatemalan schools are probably unmatched in the world. Go to a good school, and get the grammar right, too.
A typical school day:
8:00 to 10:00 Grammar and exercises
10:00 –30 -minute break for coffee, tea, and socializing with teachers and other students
10:30 to 12:00 - Conversation, pronunciation, reading comprehension
After 12:00 - lunch with your host family
Afternoons: previously scheduled activities and homework
(See your curriculum of learning Spanish)
Most schools offer a diploma stating the amount of time studied and the level of Spanish attained (minimum of two weeks).
See more information about diplomas and university credits.
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| Materials |
No official textbook but verb and exercise lists. Teachers develop their own materials. Blackboards. Library: big. Video library: small.
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School's specific Information:
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General Information:
At most Spanish schools in Guatemala, teachers write examples and grammar on paper; at others, blackboards are used. And at some, students receive a notebook for their own use. Teachers generally have to supply their own teaching materials. The most widespread book is AMSCO “Spanish Three Years” (Nassi, Levy), a very helpful grammar and exercise book in three levels, written in Spanish and English. A few schools have good libraries, video collections, and many have board games like Scrabble and others, to make teaching more entertaining.
If you are not an English speaker, you may want to bring grammar- and exercise books in your language. In any case a good and small dictionary is very helpful for homework.
(See recommendations on good Spanish Textbooks.)
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| Special Programs |
Ecological program and childrens´ program.
[Show Details] |
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School's specific Information:
There are an ecological library and a formal conservation course.
Eco-Escuela teaches children in the same way as adults. Children are well cared for, since many teachers are former primary school teachers, and there is vast material from the school′s library. |
General Information:
Special Programs are available for medical students and nurses, lawyers, missionaries and business people. You study Spanish as any other student, but with emphasis on the vocabulary of your profession or interest. Schools also get you in contact with Guatemalan professionals of your field and organize practical courses upon request.
A few schools have good programs for children. Guatemala365.com recommends schools in safe places and with a garden or ample cubicles. This way the children feel free to play while learning.
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| Location |
A big well ventilated hall overlooking the lake. No garden, no kitchen.
[Show Details] |
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School's specific Information:
San Andrés is a former Chiclero settlement (people extracted natural chewing gum). It is situated beautifully on a steep slope overlooking Lake Itzá. The San Andrés territory extends up to the Mexican border and includes some of the most adventurous areas of Guatemala (recommended if you are an adventurous person). Eco-Escuela has a well ventilated spacey building with a view on the lake. Student-teacher teams sit at little tables in the study hall. Just across the street, is the big library of the school. |
General Information:
Many schools have big halls or patios in a pleasant environment, with tables that seat two. You can often hear teacher-student conversations from nearby tables. Some schools have separate cubicles for each teacher – student team. Most schools have small patios or gardens to relax and get to know each other at break time. Some schools also have a cafeteria or even kitchens where students and teachers meet to cook local or food from their home countries.
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| Activities |
You can partake in a reforestation project and a formal conservation seminary. There is a volunteer project to clean up the local beach of beautiful lake Peten-Itzá. Dancing lessons: occasionally.
[Show Details]
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School's specific Information:
On Tuesdays afternoons students make outings to the 38 ha Sacbaquecán secondary growth forest reserve (it has a canopy tower providing with great looks at the reserve and the lake), to Macantún beach or to the school′s Ixcalab reforestation.
On Wednesday you learn how to prepare local foods and watch a movie. On Thursday there are excursions to Motúl Maya site, the Petencito Zoological Garden, Cerro Cahuí Reserve and other local attractions. In the evening there are fare well parties. .
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General Information:
During afternoons, a school staff member takes you to the most beautiful places, interesting projects and Maya traditions of the
area, where you have the opportunity to practice your newly learned Spanish and get to know teachers and other students. These activities make your stay a real holiday. Some activities like weekend trips have an additional cost.
Note: small schools have fewer activities during low season.
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| Host Families |
Families earn $50 per week. Student′s reports about host families are mostly good.
See details for recommended families!
[Show Details] |
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School's specific Information:
Homes are simple but have a separate room for each student. Eco-Escuela grants families credits in order to improve service. The school checks hygiene and service every now and then during surprise visits to keep the quality service for the students.
Recommended families: Rosa Gutierrez. |
General Information:
Generally host families provide each student with their own private little room and three meals a day/six days a week. On Sundays, most families provide no meals. There is nearly always hot water and electricity. It is recommended that you bring your own towels, soap, shampoo and other personal care from your country or you can buy it here. Your host parents help you with any problems and encourage you to talk Spanish. It is pretty interesting to see how people live in Guatemala.
A word on food:
By looking at what families earn at different schools you can assess the quantity of food given. The range is from US$30 to $85 per week. If you are in a $35 host family, please do not complain about beans every day. Just eat out now and then.
If you do not want to stay in a host family, we recommend you to visit www.guatemalastory.com for a list of good hotels in Guatemala City, Antigua, Atitlan, etc.
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| Volunteering |
You can partake in a reforestation project and a formal conservation seminary. There is a volunteer project to clean up the local beach of beautiful lake Peten-Itzá. |
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School's specific Information:
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General Information:
Most schools have only loose contact to volunteer social projects or have only poor projects on their own.
If you want to volunteer, it is best to rely on PMG (Antigua, Rio Dulce and Cobán), or Entremundos (Quetzaltenango) or other non profit organizations in order to find an organization that suits students' interests.
More information on volunteering and jobs in Guatemala.
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| Airport Pick-Up Service |
If you fly from Guatemala City to Flores, you can arrange with the school, to be picked up at the airport in Santa Elena.
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School's specific Information:
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General Information:
If you don?t want to worry about closed banks on the airport, late night hotel search or unsafe zones of Guatemala City, take advantage of the airport pickup service of your school.
For hotels in Guatemala City please see www.guatemalastory.com.
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How to get there 
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Send yourself an e-mail with information on how to get to Eco-Escuela de Español.
Upon arrival in Flores, call the school in order to fetch you or take a bus in the Santa Elena terminal to San Jose and get off at San Andres.
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Dan Hardy
danwhardy@gmail.com
07 / 2009 |
Hi, we decided to go to, Eco-Escuela de Español in San Andres, Petén. We studied for 2 weeks there. Our family of 5 went and all of our instructors were excellent. Their names were, Vilsa, Lisbet, Mary, Brenda and Martha. Study materials were good. My Spanish definitely improved. When we arrived, I was a complete beginner and my wife was pretty advanced, we both improved a lot. The after school activities were very organized and varied. This was truly an immersion experience. Everything from traditional medicine, to rain forest management, to caving. We stayed with 2 families: Lola and Martha. We would recommend the school very much. Thanks for keeping the website up. It′s very helpful! Sincerely, Dan. |
Gesche Timm
gesche1@gmx.de
01 / 2009 |
Hello, I decided to go to Eco-Escuela de Español in Petén. I studied for 3 weeks there. Yes, my teacher was very good! Her name is Gracie. Study resources were adequate. The host family was fantastic! The best I could get, I guess. It was the Familia, Rosa Lilian Chavin Gutierrez. They need a new Toilette but, I can recommend this school to others. Thanks, Gesche. |
Gabriel Boisclair
g_boisclair@hotmail.com
01 / 2008 |
I decided to attend Eco-Escuela de Español in San Andrés, Peten. I studied for one week there. I did not know if the teacher was really a teacher. I mean, she didn′t know what we had to practice. She had no answer for a lot of my questions. She was lazy and boring. My teacher was so surprised when I asked her for exercises. She found a bunch of sheets of exercises. Not too much. My host family were quite nice. But after a while, I began to feel like in an hostal. A kind of superficial acting. They were talking and hosting me only for the money, and I could sense it; it was hard to get some fruits for eating. Other than that, it was nice. I would grade the school with a C-. Thanks, Gabriel. |
Milène Leduc-Robillard
01 / 2008 |
I decided to attend Eco-Escuela de Español, located in San Andres, Peten. I studied for one week there. My teacher was unsatisfactory and I was really sad about that. At that time, I was intermediate in Spanish so my teacher didn′t know what to do. I told her I wanted to practice the past tense and she told me to write sentences at home, but she didn′t want to practice it with me. She only read to me her book, even when I told her that I already knew what she was reading. When I asked her what should we do to practice my Spanish, she told me that she didn′t know but me, I know. So I had to find and make exercises for myself, and she always looked not interested to correct it. So, I took the exercise of my friends who was with another teacher. I had to organize the classes! Next time, I will take a hotel for a week and do exercises there! My host family was ok, respectful. I ate well. They took time to speak with me and even with my friend. Your website is really nice and really useful. Thanks, Milène Leduc-Robillard. |
Verna Castro
vcastro_10@hotmail.com
06 / 2006 |
My daughter and I ended up at Eco-Escuela de Español in San Andres, Peten. We studied for just 1 week and the teachers were okay. There were a few activities that cost money and we did some. The family we both stayed in Eco-Escuela was very good, the mother of the house spent time speaking with us. |
Lioba Suchenwirth
suchenwirth1@hotmail.com
10 / 2005 |
I also stayed for 2 week in Eco Escuela de Espanol in San Jose, Peten. I would really recommend this school to anybody who has an interest in learing Spanish and enjoys the magnificent jungle surroundings of Peten. Howver, san jose is not a party place... which was totally fine by me. My teachers were excellent, and my host family did everything to make me feel at home. |
Anonymous
08 / 2005 |
The first school I went to was Eco Escuela de Español in San Andres. I planned to spend one week there and would have stayed longer except for the heat. I didn′t have a lot to compare to but the school was adequate. I studied in the afternoons, with no other students, which meant I got a very good immersion experience. I feel like I learned more Spanish in the first 3 days than the rest of my whole trip when I was exposed to more English speaking students. The town was friendly and the natural surroundings were quite beautiful. Business was a little slow at the school, so there weren′t many activities. I liked my teacher, but she emphasized too much on grammar exercises and wasn′t as skilled at practicing it in conversation. The school rotates teachers every week and other students found other teachers at the school better. I enjoyed my family very much, two older women who were sisters. They were close to the school, provided great vegetarian food, and had great stories to tell--plus they were patient with my Spanish. It seems like families are hit or miss, other students at the school had a rough time with host families. |
Dean Cramblit
thedeanc@hotmail.com
05 / 2005 |
I went to the Eco Escuela de Espanol de San Andres, Peten and studied for one week. My experience was less than satisfacotry. The school and instructors were OK, but nothing out of the ordinary. I have studied with 2 other schools in Antiqua on previous occasions. The town was tiny, dirty, opressevly hot, with absolutely nothing to do, and no transportation to Flores in the evenings. My first home was small, dirty, lacking food, and with an outhouse and a non-working shower. Had a bucket of water to use. The outhouse was just outside my unscreened room. Great aroma and mosquitoes. I left that morning and was assigned another house. The people were nice, the house clean and the toilet operational. But the food was very lacking. The houses and food in Antiqua were much better and at less cost. It was not a good situation for learning. I could not recommend it in any way. The town is friendly, a beautiful lake, and a nice place to visit for about an hour. I had planned on at least 2 weeks, but after a very long first week I came home. Cannot say I learned any Spanish. I do plan to return to Guatemala for more sudies, but it will not be to San Andres. You had remcommended a lady in Quetzaltenango and if I can ever get time worked in to make definate plans I will contact you to see if I can get with her. Thank you for your site and assistance. |
Jennifer Savage
jenijumper@hotmail.com
12 / 2004 |
Eco-Escuela de Espanol de San Andres Petén I studied for 3 weeks. One excellent teacher, one pretty good teacher, and one teacher whom really didn′t work for me My family was wonderful, my host mother treated me like one of her kids. It was really special to have someone who made me feel so welcome and at home somewhere so different and far away from home over Christmas. |
Sara Tyler
sara_minx @hotmail.com
07 / 2004 |
Had a great time at 2 schools:Eco Escuela de Español,San Jose. 2 weeks here, lovely home stay family, very friendly & patient with my slow Spanish, was 2 mins from the school. Had 2 teachers, one week of each, there is a set order to teaching so when a teacher takes over from another, he knows what has already been taught. School was in fantastic location, sat by open window with fab view over Lake Paten Itza. School caretaker kept the school open till about 9pm each night, so I could sit there studying in a peaceful environment, while watching the great storms light up the lake! Both teachers′ pretty good, nice people are little English spoken, so frequent looking up things in dictionaries! I knew NO Spanish at that point & realized before i went that it would be hard to do a total immersion, but that was what i wanted & it was brilliant, I just had to learn fast! Did various activities in afternoons, like traditional cooking, clearing paths in rainforest, learnt a lot about the trees, fruits etc. was 2 small libraries, one in the village & one in the school. A quiet village, very few visitors there. Were 3 other students my 1st week, only one other the 2nd, but I think that small is better for learning & fitting in with real life there? I would thoroughly recommend a visit, for a confident person who wants a real Guatemalan experience! |
Susan Vonderhaar
09 / 2003 |
I attended Eco-Escuela for two weeks, Jan. 20-31, 2003. It was a wonderful experience. The school and teachers were excellent, and I learned a lot of Spanish. The family I stayed with was also wonderful. The food was excellent (too much of it!), and the mother of the family cleaned my room each day while I was at school and even did my laundry. Some of the students complained of dirty outhouses, but I had a spotless flush toilet. I have forgotten a lot of my Spanish, but I have a pretty good reading knowledge. I just don′t get a chance to practice speaking anymore. I hope to return for another home stay, either in Guatemala or Peru (I′d like to visit Machu Pichu). I highly recommend Eco-Escuela. I also highly recommend guatemala365.com. When I first decided to go to Guatemala, I wasn′t sure how easy it would be to get information or register. I remember that you responded immediately and made me very comfortable with my decision. Thank you! |
Paula Fitzpatrick
12 / 2002 |
We went to Eco Escuela in San Andrés in the Petén to study for one week. The school has very good one to one tuition but hard work for beginners as limited English spoken. Suggest complete beginners spend at least 2 weeks and expect to work very hard. Our family was very good, although the accommodation was basic, it was clean, but it may be a challenge for someone used to living in very comfortable environment. Very friendly and keen to practice Spanish with us. |
Mark Brooks
11 / 2002 |
hi. I studied with Eco-Escuela in San Andres, Petén and with another school in Antigua. Eco-Escuela was better but more expensive, and my home stay in San Andres was fantastic. I learned some Spanish at both schools. The instructors were fine. I only studied one week at each school. I am still studying Spanish now back in Canada. cheers, |
Dan Pilver
08 / 2002 |
The next school I studied at was Eco-Escuela in San Andres, El Peten. This school was very good as well (but not quite as good as the first). The teachers at this school were wonderful. The activities were nice as well but seemed somewhat limited in variety if one was there for a long period of time. My family stay here was ok. Myself and some of the other students didn′t feel as though we were an actual part of the family but more as a guest in a hotel. This may have been due to cultural differences or other reasons. I enjoyed my stay at this school and would recommend it in the future. |
Michael Benanav
04 / 2002 |
We went to the Eco-Escuela in San Andres, and were very pleased over all - intimate setting, great small rural town, and unbelievably friendly locals. The only real negative is that it is difficult to get information or make reservations in advance from the States. For more detail, see my article about studying Spanish there, which is due to be published in The New York Times travel section in the near future. |
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