Balsam of Peru
They’re in bloom now, and the sweet but spicy aroma is easy to recognize a block away. Beautiful specimens of this tall tree are in many parks throughout the country, the purple blossoms hanging from the rich green branches. They’re not from Peru, but Guatemala, though this handsome tree—officially Myroxylon Pereirae—grows throughout Central America. Don’t [...]
Feel an April Day
Most of the Northern Hemisphere would delight in an April morning as fresh and mild as this day in Guatemala.
Which Sense?
Holidays in Guatemala bring overwhelming input to all five senses, even more than any other time of the year. So which sense should we highlight for December? The dazzling sunlight, velvety nights, brilliant colors of holiday decorations, lush plants in every color, give evidence that the sense of sight is primary. Deep red pascuas, poinsettias [...]
Woad
Classic Maya painted “Maya Blue” with ground azurite, a copper ore; and with ground lapis lazuli…
Ash
Appreciating ash requires more sensitivity than enjoying most of Guatemala’s dazzling colors. Steel-gray, dull, plain old ash seems uninteresting. Worse, read in your novel that “his face turned ashen,” and you know there’s big trouble ahead. Cleaning up ash from floors and furniture isn’t much fun after breezes sift some of the volcano’s recent burps [...]
Candy-Apple Red
The proud owner of a candy-apple-red 1970s Camaro can sometimes be spotted cruising zones nine and ten of the Big City, but most Guatemalan car paint isn’t quite so flashy. However, that deep metallic candy-apple paint, with a transparent coat setting it off, does show up in other places around the country that you can [...]
Avocado
Californians and Guatemalans share love of the smooth, creamy fruit, brought north from La Antigua Guatemala to the Pasadena area by Wilson Poponoe over a century ago
The Color of Butter
Formally, buttercups are ranunculus, ranúnculo in Spanish, from the Latin for “little frogs,” of all things
Pine
The clean, crisp, fresh, familiar scent of pine, from long and short needles gathered and bundled to be scattered on shop and café floors, is an aroma found year-around in Guatemala businesses and homes. This month more than ever, pine forms a large part of the rich odors of the Lenten season. Before the scores [...]
Aromas
Street vendors send their pungent sizzling meat smell to mix with the orange odor from the juice stand down by the telephone office…
Cardinal Red
This rich red color cries out for attention, from ALTO signs to garden blossoms to a flag announcing fresh meat at the village butcher. No wonder that cardinal signs are used by the big cola companies, a big phone service and most market chains. Your assignment this month, however, is to spot more subtle touches [...]
Sights and Sounds of Christmastime in Guatemala
Christmas colors in Guatemala don’t stop with red and green, and dreams of a white Christmas must also include the entire rainbow. Yes, the brilliant red poinsettias and fragrant green pine needles, the ripe red berries and deep green leaves of the coffee trees, give all Central America the traditional Christmas colors of much of [...]
Spices
Spices are important in Guatemalan cooking, especially in many sweets and drinks around the holidays. Spice colors are rich in the landscape this month also, which seems fitting as spices were what the Europeans sought when they first sailed west to bump into these shores. Guatemala produces some spices, but joins the rest of the [...]
Brown
Brown gets bad press. People feel bad and say they’re in a brown mood. When one U.S. president wore a brown suit, his staff knew they were in for a tough day. But watch some of the street artists under the golden-brown arch in La Antigua Guatemala as they mix their oils to make a [...]
Opal
October’s opal birthstone treats the eye with an explosion of colors refracted through the soft stone, just as Guatemala’s gardens explode with magnificent rainbows of flowers bursting vigorously as the rainy season eases. Guatemala rock hounds find significant deposits of precious opals here, but you can enjoy their bright bursts of color everywhere in the [...]
Drums
Loud, proud bass drumbeats in school parades; sad, slow beats of mourning in funeral processions; rapid, staccato snare drum ruffles accompanying glockenspiel chimes: Drums are part of human culture worldwide, but Guatemalan drumbeating is especially vigorous, more than ever in this month of patriotic celebrations. Archaeologists have uncovered many pieces of unadorned drums in digs [...]
Rain
INVIERNO, winter, is here. It’s the rainy season, and all our senses know it, even though most days still have lots of sunshine in the Guatemalan Highlands around La Antigua Guatemala, and temperatures continue to be mild. Drizzles, showers, deluges, each day’s touch of rain is different, something for all five senses. The colors of [...]
Bronze
You can see it, hear it, taste and smell it, even touch it. All the senses get involved with bronze in Guatemala. Bronze metal is seen and heard in church bells, of course, and bronze tones cover the hillsides in the reddish-brown fields of peanut and wheat. Light tan coffee beans are bronzed during roasting, [...]
Aquamarine
One of this month’s birthstones is beryl, a simple colorless crystal in its pure form. But Guatemala is never colorless, so to celebrate May we must find some impure beryl, which gemologists tell us can be green, blue, yellow, red, white. Whatever, it’s still beryl, with different names. Let’s go find this month one crystal [...]
Kaleidoscopic Days
A fellow in Scotland coined the name and invented that mirrored tube he called the kaleidoscope, an “observer of beautiful colors.” We don’t need his device to see swirls of beautiful colors that form our sensuous Guatemalan kaleidoscope all year. Color, sound, aromas, tastes and touch are especially strong throughout Lent, from confetti and fireworks [...]
Chocolate
Chocolate is coming back home to Central America, good chocolate at last. The cacao plant has been cultivated here for at least three millennia, the bean used as beverage and a food ingredient. Archaeologists found evidence of cacao cultivation at sites dating back to 1400 BC, with carvings of Maya enjoying the frothy, bitter drink. [...]
Turquoise
Turquoise is just a stew of copper and aluminum, found in Turkey as in much of the world, a soft stone that’s a symbol for December and the holiday season. Turquoise was on the list of paint colors approved by the Spanish Colonial governments, and many little tiendas and homes continue to be painted turquoise [...]
Pearl
Pearls are scattered across this favored country, ready for your discovery without your needing to bother getting wet or even opening an oyster. Our pearls can be found along roadways, wildflowers of translucent white that bloom most of the year, and in our gardens, from tiny white buttons of blossoms to creamy white roses. Pearls [...]
Sapphire
Sapphires sparkle all around you in Guatemala. Unlike some other gems that must be searched out, sapphires are overhead, underfoot, all around. You can easily bathe in deep, rich pools of sapphire. No, not the imported jewelry gems found in stores, but rather in nature throughout this “land of eternal spring.” The Pacific and Caribbean [...]
Emerald
Yes, emeralds are found in our jewelry stores, but only imported gems. Emerald, however, is a rich sight in the Highlands of Guatemala, especially now with the rainy season polishing the leaves and enriching the grasses. And yes, we’ve our own emerald stones too, the deep imperial of Guatemala’s very special jadeite jewelry, but it’s [...]
Which way is up?
This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word. The word is ‘UP.’ It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why [...]
Seasonal Scents
Breathe deep and enjoy some of the rich scents of this Lenten season! Enjoy the odors of Holy Week, with two pungent yet pleasant smells standing out in your memory. Use all your senses at the processions. See the colors of the carpets and vestments, hear the funereal bands and shuffle of feet, taste the [...]
Be My Valentine
Our town of La Antigua and the Guatemalan Highlands send valentines to their lovers this month through each of the senses. Elegant long-stemmed red roses go out from local growers to all Europe and the Americas, and the roses not exported fill the markets for local romantics. Rich red bougainvillea vines spill over the white [...]
Holiday Scents
These days of celebrations bring colorful treats of greens, reds, golds and other holiday shades. All the senses enjoy December, with its rich foods to taste, velvet cloths to touch, carols to hear. The laughter of children, the ringing of the bells, the singing in the streets, all the sounds of the month join the colors and savors to enjoy.
