This week’s photo challenge happens to be a favorite of mine: Pattern. I adore the patterns of the brilliant rusty orange-colored tiled rooftop found in homes throughout the world. Two places in particular have my favorite styles: Southern France and Antigua, Guatemala. Here is a sample of some of the dynamic patterned rooftops I’ve captured throughout my travels.
Antigua, Guatemala
“Women hold up half the sky” – Chinese proverb
Exactly a year ago today I was in Xela, Guatemala on a week long volunteer and spanish immersion trip when I heard the noise off in the distance. It sounded like a parade. I asked my teacher Lilian if she knew what on earth was going on and she replied with a smile, “It’s International Women’s Day!” and asked if I’d like to go see the festivities. I had never heard of International Women’s Day before yet it sounded spectacular. I packed up my school work and Lilian and me were off in a flash to the main square.
There I watched in awe and joy how a community could come together as one and celebrate the rights and beauty of women. It was so incredibly touching that I rushed home and instantly wrote a post on the experience titled “El dia de la mujer in Xela, Guatemala“. Even a year later, the memory of that day will forever be engrained in my heart. It was beautiful so heartbreaking yet also so full of hope.
Violence against women is an enormous problem in Guatemala and sometimes women are victims of abuse and even murder. Lillian told me that this was the first time she remembered having so many men participate in International Women’s Day and was hopeful that it would lead to change.
One of my all time favorite cities in the world is Antigua, Guatemala. I could spend days walking its picturesque cobblestone streets colored in rainbow hues and loaded with history. Every building has a story to tell which can be found by looking into the details of the layers of paint and crumbled buildings sprouting with plants.
Follow me along and look carefully at the details of a street in lovely Antigua….
Its been five months and I still can’t stop obsessing over Guatemala. Lovely, picturesque Antigua obviously captivated my soul and has held it hostage. I can’t seem to break free from reminiscing about the past. You see, Guatemala is a land of a million colors and with color comes texture.
Texture can be found in nearly everything – from the cobblestone streets, to the peeling paint off of Antigua’s colorful buildings. Texture can even be found in the most unusual places too. In the lines and breaks along the tiled rooftops. Along the half-destroyed ruins of the churches and fountains. It is almost as if the earthquakes were intended to make Antigua truly a spectacular, textured place.
Follow me through the cobblestone streets of Antigua and see for yourself if you agree. I hope to see the lovely texture of Guatemala again soon.
For centuries, the color purple has played a significant role in the Christian religion during Holy Week surrounding Easter. The color purple along with red, black, white and gold, has an important symbolic meaning as the color of royalty and suffering. It’s significance is not a coincidence given the expense and difficulty in creating the color purple in early times. Furthermore, the color has often symbolized the suffering of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion.
I had the pleasure of witnessing the power of purple during a recent visit to Guatemala a week before Semana Santa (“Holy Week”).
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. – Rabindranath Tagore
There is no place on earth that has as vibrant of colors as Guatemala. From the brightly painted buildings in hues of a brilliant rainbow to the intense, magical colors of the Mayan clothing and textiles, I’ve found no place quite like Guatemala.
Here are some of my favorite photos from my trip that burst off the page with color and imagination. Since I’ve already written quite a lot about Guatemala, there will be no descriptions of these photos and it will only be a journey of colors. Hope you enjoy!
Doors are fascinating. They are also quite mysterious for who knows what lies behind the doors of a place. They are the gatekeeper when closed. Yet when opened, they offer you a look into a whole new world of possibilities inside.
When I think of doors, there is one place in particular in which I was utterly blown away by the doors: Guatemala. This colorful country had perhaps some of the most unusual and interesting doors I’d ever seen during my travels. For those of you who have been following my blog, you have already seen these photos. However, I decided to spruce them up a little by playing around with the colors.
Come, take a walk with me and admire some of my favorite doors I found…..
To my friend Lucy, who showed me her world in Antigua and how to love the art of photography. I will forever be grateful for your kindness and friendship. May our paths meet again!
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.”- Flavia Weedn
I always find it hard to say goodbye to a place. I found it especially true with Guatemala. Over the last week I’d been as immersed as possible with the culture. I lived with a host family, took intensive spanish courses, climbed a volcano at the crack of dawn, took my first chicken bus and learned to slow everything down and take things as they come. All in all, you couldn’t ask for a better journey than that.
As Sunday morning came and went, I felt a sadness about leaving so soon. I could hardly believe how much I’d done and seen in only a week. Perhaps more than many people ever experience at all. I honestly believe that immersing oneself as much as possible in the culture you are visiting, is the greatest reward ever when it comes to traveling. It was no vacation, that is for sure. Every day I rose exhausted beyond belief and wondering how I’d gather the energy to make it through another long albeit exhilarating day. But one thing I’ve come to learn and understand about myself over the years is that this is how I like to travel. I would do it no other way. A vacation? No thanks. Sitting on the beach? I’d be bored in two minutes. Running around a country and trying to see and learn as much as possible in only a week with never taking a moment to sit still? That is what I do. That is what I crave. And most importantly, that is what I love.
Sensational, cloudless view of Agua Volcano on Sunday morning, the day of my departure.
I know that many people find my way of traveling absolutely crazy. They don’t understand me one bit.
But as I always love to say and quote my parents for reminding me “The world is your oyster”. With those encouraging, motivating words….there was no time to sit aimlessly in my room checking emails. I had to take advantage of every moment and opportunity I got to explore, learn and see my surroundings. For how else would I get a sense of compassion for Guatemala? It certainly wouldn’t be gained from laying on my bed reading a book.
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
I woke up early Sunday morning, my last day in Antigua and in Guatemala itself, to a wonderful gift. It was sunny. I laid in bed rubbing my eyes as they slowly adjusted to a beam of light shining through the small, stained glass window above my door. Other than that beam of light, the room was pitch black.
I slowly rose my tired body out of bed, gently pulled back the heavy, dark drapes and lone behold, there it was….the sun, at last! I was overjoyed. It was only half past six in the morning. I could have slept another hour or so. I certainly was tired. My entire week in Guatemala was so intense that I was in desperate need of sleep. Yet that beam of sun was calling my name. It was like a beam of hope. A sign that I would finally get to see the peaks of the three dominant volcanoes that dominate Antigua.
Finally, the clouds had lifted and gave me a gift: An entire, unobstructed view of Volcan de Agua or “Volcano of Water” the most commanding volcano, to the south of Antigua at 3766 meters/12,356 feet which dominants the colorful city of Antigua like an omnipresent God.
“I cannot rest from travel; I will drink life to the lees”.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
After full day of non-stop sightseeing and picture taking (over 400 each!) Lucy and I were exhausted and ready for some rest and relaxation. It was time for a drink. Lucy knew just the place, the Sky Bar, which had a great selection of icy cold beers and drinks yet best of all, a rooftop deck with a view to the world.
The sun was beginning to set and cast its lovely shadows across the brightly colored terra-cotta buildings of Antigua. I could hardly stand the urge and temptation to forego the drink and keep taking pictures. Yet my camera battery was really dying down as was my energy. It was also well past five o’clock happy hour.
I must admit, I seem to have an odd fetish when traveling. Every time I go to a new place there is something unique that seems to gravitate to me. In China, it was the exotic foods. In Morocco, the goods at the souq. In Nepal, the prayer flags.
So what was it when I was in Guatemala? Hands down the funky, multi-colored Guatemalan Chicken Buses that grace the roads and streets throughout the country. Known as “las camionetas“, the Chicken Buses are decommissioned American school buses that are sent on a long journey south to poor countries in Central America, where they are repainted, refurbished and act as the main source of transportation for the Guatemala’s 13.8 million people.
While researching my trip to Guatemala, I had read about the much loved and hated Chicken bus. I even googled it and found several silly pictures of these elaborately decorated buses. I knew that they were cheap, relatively reliable and safe (that is for the most part) but I wasn’t sure where the name came from and whether or not there would be real, live chickens on board. The origin of the name still remains a bit of a mystery to me today as I never did see anything except people on board. Then again, I only got to actually ride inside one chicken bus so that is perhaps not very good odds.
Today, while I was tooling around on the internet, I found an interesting piece on Chicken Buses called “LA CAMIONETA: The Journey of One American School Bus” which offers a rather fascinating account of how the school buses arrived south of the border as well as some rather grueling facts about the dangers Chicken Bus drivers face. I was warned to never take a bus at night yet I met plenty of young travelers who did. Not sure how their trips ended up but hopefully they were safe.
Above is my first sight of the Guatemalan Chicken Bus! I had heard so much about these old American buses that were shipped south of the border and then painted in an elaborate spectrum of colors. My fabulous hosts informed me that each bus is color coded for its destination. Pretty clever!
A strong aura filters around the ruins and church of San Francisco. Inside the sanctuary, the tomb of the only saint in all of Guatemala rests. It is believed that the powerful and humble Santo Hermano Pedro de San Jose is watching over the place in a sense.
Santo Pedro was a Spanish missionary who came to Guatemala during the 17th century and was known for his commitment to fighting poverty, disease and hunger among his people. A large statue of Santo Pedro looms over the grand church walls offering a sense of protection and well-being to the people of this lovely town.
