Find the Heliotrope
Here’s a challenge for November — find the heliotrope. It’s there, around us, hidden among the rainbow of prolific colors in the Guatemalan spectrum, in weavings, on some walls, along the roadways. I said heliotrope, mind you, not fuchsia, indigo, lilac, mauve, periwinkle, or any of those other shades of violet that are also to [...]
High Flying
A sensuous high comes throughout October and into November as colors swirl and sounds swish around the city and countryside. It’s the season for big and small kites, with big and small people on the ground holding on to strings while their creations soar above—or come crashing down to drape trees and wires with pastel [...]
Blue and White
Free into the wind, your beautiful flag marks a happy month of national celebration just as Guatemala’s national anthem proclaims. Blue and White are the colors of the flag, with fresh flags and blue-and-white bunting on display all over “Guatemala Feliz,” happy Guatemala, as we near mid-month and Independence Day. The new flags are indeed a beautifully clear blue and [...]
Tune In and Enjoy
First, find a comfortable bench right in the middle of things, in front of the old National Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral in the center of Guatemala City. Close your eyes. Don’t look at the rich palette of colors around you. (Maybe it’s best to have dark glasses on, so passers-by don’t think you’re asleep.) Don’t sniff. Don’t breathe [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Pink
Pink has a reputation as a wimpy color, sort of weak and watery. You wouldn’t think pink could stand up strong and proud against the deep blues, rich greens, bright yellows and striking reds of the Guatemalan palette. Even by using the fancier French name rosé, pink wine is considered, well, sissy. Pink bows look cute on little girls, but wouldn’t be a [...]
Tweets
Twittering is nothing new for Guatemala. Long before North America or even Europe were very civilized, the ancient Maya were sending twitterrific tweets around Mesoamerica. Archaeological digs in Pre-Columbian sites encounter thousands of the clay tweeting devices they used. The tweeters were later carried back to Europe by Cortez and his gang and renamed “ocarinas” [...]
May Flowers
Up in northern latitudes, folks get so excited when the first crocus breaks through the snow or when a scrawny poinsettia plant lasts past the holidays. Our British gardening friends bubble with joy when they spot mayflowers, even if those simple flat blossoms are usually a month or two late. After consulting seed catalogs all [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Semana Santa
Colorful carpets, thumping bands, pungent odors, rich tastes, thick crowds—through the Lenten season, into Palm Sunday and Semana Santa, Holy Week, all five senses are overwhelmed in every Guatemalan city and village, but nowhere more than in La Antigua Guatemala with its colonial traditions and frequent processions. Intricate floral designs, forming colorful alfombras, carpets, are [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: White
OK, so if you really must bring it up and insist on being scientific, white is officially an absence of color, and our editor wants these “sensuous” comments to be about Guatemala’s rich palette of all the colors in this land of rainbows. So maybe you’ll allow us to think of white as the framing [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Red
Just a little dab of red will do you, if you’re trying to put the colors of Guatemala on canvas. You’d need lots of variations of blues, greens, and browns to capture the subtle shades of this country’s glorious Highlands, jungles and coastlines. Your pallet needs only a bit of red. But don’t forget the red, as it’s essential. Red can [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Holiday Mélange
Red and green are the traditional holiday colors around the world, including Guatemala. Here, however, sight is not the only sense involved in the year-end celebrations. Pungent odors and delightful tastes combine with vivid colors and sweet sounds in a multi-sensory holiday mixture. Bells ring with special joy, carolers sing, marimbas play the music of [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Yellow
Butter yellow. Flowers in the fields after the rains, corn ground to a smooth masa, cotton-dyed yellow to weave into blouses with multicolored designs on the yellow base, rich yellow bougainvillea and shrimp flowers spilling over white walls, and an occasional flash of a finch flying after a bug for lunch. Yellow is important on [...]
Sensuous Guatemala: Independence Celebrations!
The steady beat of the marching drum, the somewhat-less-steady march of student footsteps along the cobblestone, the sudden thump of a mortar, a shell climbing to burst into multicolors of celebration. Any good excuse is a good time for celebration, of course, but September holds a special one: Independence Day on the 15th, and the [...]
Bikeloads of Smiles
Two years’ work in Ireland proved fun for a couple from Madrid, but with the New Year 2008 they decided it was time for something different: a seven month, 7,000 mile bike trip from Buenos Aires to Guatemala, ending with lots of smiles in La Antigua when the bikes gave out before the Spaniards did. [...]
