The Blooming of Lake Atitlán

Panajachel unites and digs with defiance In The Green Felt Jungle, the story is told of a dapper man in pinstripes who rides a Cadillac into Las Vegas one night, seeking the neonized excitement of that gilded city. But he finds little more than a dreary gas station. “Where is Las Vegas?” he asks the Navajo attendant. “Right here,” is […]

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El Pilar

photos by Thor Janson Experimenting with a Vision The second of a three-part series exploring El Pilar, home to a large diversity of animal and plant life—much of which remains to be discovered and researched. The vision for transforming Finca El Pilar into a protected natural reserve is something of an ongoing experiment. Manager Juan Rivera says constructing a haven […]

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The Antigua Photography Club

The local community of photographers will officially introduce itself to La Antigua this month with its first 
collective exhibit. The sentiment is a common one and spills from the lips of most residents and visitors alike: walking the streets of the quintessentially colonial town of La Antigua is like walking through a living painting, an everlasting photograph. Thus, it is […]

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The Guatemalan Hospitality Bug Bites All

In Guatemala, it is easier to “just drop in” on your friends than it would be in Minneapolis or Melbourne. One reason, I think (write me if you disagree) is that until the end of the previous century telephone calls were something you rarely tried at home. That was when Italy’s telecommunications monopoly brought Gua-temala’s system into the 20th and […]

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El Grinch Returns to the stage

“We are having so much fun!” bubbles Paloma Pérez-Templado, coordinator of this season’s production of El Grinch. Since April she has worked together with producer Johnny Long, Debora du Flon, director of scenery and costumes, and a team in charge of choreography, music and narration. Her expression changes dramatically as she leans forward and lowers her voice, confiding, “The Grinch […]

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Handel’s Messiah

It is that time of year again—a Guatemala City rehearsal hall fills with the sounds of celestial music as preparations begin for one of the Christmas season’s most-anticipated events in Guatemala: the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah. For the sixth year in a row, the Guatemala Community Chorus will be joined by members of the National Symphony and soloists from […]

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GablesHomePage.com

Sister City in Florida gets new online voice La Antigua Guatemala’s Sister City in Florida has an innovative, new website with news, information and citizen commentary. Launched in October, GablesHomePage.com is packed with content about the Coral Gables community. A stately suburb of Miami, Coral Gables has been a Sister City of La Antigua for nearly 20 years. The relationship […]

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Agua y Fuego Fires Up Eco-Tourism on Ometepe

Nicaraguan ultra-marathon not for the faint of heart… literally. One word sums it up: extreme. A new ultra-marathon in Nicaragua is drawing the most audacious of athletes to its volcanic island of Ometepe. Fuego y Agua 100k and 50k is Isla de Ometepe’s first-ever racing event, challenging true adventure seekers to summit not one, but two looming volcanoes … by […]

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Homeward Bound

The word “home” is strong, magical and filled with the power to invoke deep sensations. It’s an English word which is virtually impossible to translate into other tongues. No translation catches the associations, the mixture of memory and longing, the sense of security and the freedom from wariness that cling to the word. There’s no universal definition for home because […]

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El Salvador Launches Coffee Forest Geotourism Initiative

El Salvador has started a project that intends to turn its coffee forests into world-class tourist destinations. “Iniciativa de Geoturismo en los Bosques Tropicales de Café” will enhance the coffee forests’ geographical character, environment, legacy, aesthetics, culture and people. The program is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Multi-sectoral Investment Bank and the Salvadoran Coffee Council, […]

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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 be found in the Highlands. […]

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