I'd assume it was a Catholicism influence. Many churches in the U.S. have continuous burning candles. Traveling in the U.S. or MX, you can light a candle or two in honor of someone who has passed, or to send special prayers for someone.
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Picture of the Day (Dial-up internet users enter at own risk!)
- Thread starter swift
- Start date
MULTIZ321
TUG Member
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- Jun 6, 2005
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Steve,
What a wonderful travelogue! I've enjoyed your photos and commentary and I now have an increased desire to visit Guatemala. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
The vegetables and produce in the market looked wonderful. I do hope they get an export business going.
Richard
What a wonderful travelogue! I've enjoyed your photos and commentary and I now have an increased desire to visit Guatemala. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
The vegetables and produce in the market looked wonderful. I do hope they get an export business going.
Richard
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
The War Murals of Chichicastenango, continued
On to the second set of murals.
Reposting below some previous pictures, you can see that this mural starts on the wall behind this vendor in the mercado. and then runs the entire length of this building, around doors and windows. Also, this photo gives a sense of the location and setting of the murals. Although my photos have been closeups of particular scenes, the murals are painted on the outside walls of buildings, facing the central square and mercado in Chichicastenango.
*******
I've got about ten pictures of this mural, so I'll spread these over two posts.
This is the start, showing life during ancient times.
Note the ritual burning of votive candles in this photo. Also a Spanish influence now starts to appear in the tile roofs of the buildings.
********
The Spanish architectural influence in the houses is now clear. And the depiction of the civil war begins. The soldier shooting the woman near the burning house appears to me to dressed and outfitted as a guerrilla soldier.
*******
To be continued.
On to the second set of murals.
Reposting below some previous pictures, you can see that this mural starts on the wall behind this vendor in the mercado. and then runs the entire length of this building, around doors and windows. Also, this photo gives a sense of the location and setting of the murals. Although my photos have been closeups of particular scenes, the murals are painted on the outside walls of buildings, facing the central square and mercado in Chichicastenango.
*******
I've got about ten pictures of this mural, so I'll spread these over two posts.
This is the start, showing life during ancient times.
Note the ritual burning of votive candles in this photo. Also a Spanish influence now starts to appear in the tile roofs of the buildings.
********
The Spanish architectural influence in the houses is now clear. And the depiction of the civil war begins. The soldier shooting the woman near the burning house appears to me to dressed and outfitted as a guerrilla soldier.
*******
To be continued.
Ridewithme38
TUG Member
Volcán Agua
Volcán Agua ("Water Volcano") looms over La Antigua to the south. I was told that it received that name because towering so high it often receives copious rainfall during storms, and the water coming from the volcano causes flooding.
I keep coming back to these two pictures...don't know why, they're amazing....Just want to confirm its ok that one of these is going to end up the background on my desktop
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Yeah, those are a couple of my favorites as well. The first one I like because it really catches the presence of volcano in a way that you sense when you are there but is often lost in a photo. That photo also has some compositional elements that came together as I hoped they would.
The second, of course, has it's own interest and captures two of the most well-known icons of La Antigua in one photo.
Absolutely feel free to use them as wallpaper. and thank you for asking. I'm flattered that you think that highly of them.
If you just download by clicking on the photo I think you'll end up with pretty low rez version. PM me with an e-mail address and I'll send you a larger copy that should display better as wallpaper.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
The Murals of Chichicastenango (conclusion)
War, then peace.
War, then peace.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Farewell to Chichicastenango
That concludes the photos from Chichicastenango, as we head three to four hours further north to the Ixil Triangle, very near the home of Rigoberta Menchú.
As we headed out of Chichicastenango, the Sunday market was still in full action. This is the scene on the main highway through town, taken from the back seat as headed out.
That concludes the photos from Chichicastenango, as we head three to four hours further north to the Ixil Triangle, very near the home of Rigoberta Menchú.
As we headed out of Chichicastenango, the Sunday market was still in full action. This is the scene on the main highway through town, taken from the back seat as headed out.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Ixil Country
Heading north from Chichicastenango, the road descends almost 2500 feet in elevation to cross the Rio Negro,which runs west to east across northern Guatemela in a crumple in the earths crust created where the Caribbean Plate (on which most of Central America lies) is crashing into the North American plate (on which most of Mexico lies). After crossing the Rio Negro we climb about 3000 feet us the steep south face of the Sierra de las Cuchaniantes to reach the Ixil country.
First, here's a map for some orientation. Mexico is across the white line on the north and west.
The three principal towns in Ixil Country are Nebaj (Santa Maria Nebaj), Cotzal (San Juan Cotzal), and Chajul (San Gaspar Chajul). These three towns define the three corners of the triangle, with Nebaj on the soutwhest, Cotzal on the southeast, and Chajul to the north. Our hotel was in Nebaj, and we spent most of our days in the area around Cotzal.
I'll start my photos of this area with street and city scenes. Most of these were taken from the bed of a moving pickup truck.
Below is a street scene of Nebaj, near the center of the city.
The lettering on the top of the tall building reads "To God be the glory". There is a very strong Protestant presence in the Ixil country. It is quite common to see Biblical names used on stores, such Farmacia Israel, Tienda Jerusalem, Talleria Nazaret. Many of the Tuk-tuks and buses are plastered with religious decals and bumperstickers - slogans such as "Jesus is the operator of this car."; "I serve the King"; "Glory to the Lord", etc.
*******
This building is at the principal crossroads in central Nebaj, anyone passing through Nebaj going in any direction is going to pass this intersection.
The sign with the sheep on the top of the building is the New Testament Bible verse: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God the Father has raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
*******
This is a hillside cemetery in Cotzal.
************
And this part of the town of Cotzal, spreading up the other side of the small valley in which it's located. That road going up the hill in the background goes toward one of the villages we visited.
***********
This is probably as good a place as any for this comment. Once you leave the primary urban areas, wood is the only source of fuel. In the mornings, wood smoke and haze hang low in the bottoms of the valleys and in the cities.
Every day, beginning in the early afternoon you see people and pack animals loaded with wood, heading into town carrying loads of wood that have been harvested from the forests. A disproportionate number of the people scavenging wood are women and girls.
I was struck by how much time and effort went into that simple task; of how much productivity could be realized if people didn't need to spend about two hours per day on average simply gathering wood for cooking. What would be possible for children if that time were spent in schoolwork and getting an education?
We take it for granted that we can heat our homes and cook our food just by flipping a switch. What would our lives be like if suddenly we needed to take two hours out of our day just to obtain and chop wood and feed a stove?
Heading north from Chichicastenango, the road descends almost 2500 feet in elevation to cross the Rio Negro,which runs west to east across northern Guatemela in a crumple in the earths crust created where the Caribbean Plate (on which most of Central America lies) is crashing into the North American plate (on which most of Mexico lies). After crossing the Rio Negro we climb about 3000 feet us the steep south face of the Sierra de las Cuchaniantes to reach the Ixil country.
First, here's a map for some orientation. Mexico is across the white line on the north and west.
The three principal towns in Ixil Country are Nebaj (Santa Maria Nebaj), Cotzal (San Juan Cotzal), and Chajul (San Gaspar Chajul). These three towns define the three corners of the triangle, with Nebaj on the soutwhest, Cotzal on the southeast, and Chajul to the north. Our hotel was in Nebaj, and we spent most of our days in the area around Cotzal.
I'll start my photos of this area with street and city scenes. Most of these were taken from the bed of a moving pickup truck.
Below is a street scene of Nebaj, near the center of the city.
The lettering on the top of the tall building reads "To God be the glory". There is a very strong Protestant presence in the Ixil country. It is quite common to see Biblical names used on stores, such Farmacia Israel, Tienda Jerusalem, Talleria Nazaret. Many of the Tuk-tuks and buses are plastered with religious decals and bumperstickers - slogans such as "Jesus is the operator of this car."; "I serve the King"; "Glory to the Lord", etc.
*******
This building is at the principal crossroads in central Nebaj, anyone passing through Nebaj going in any direction is going to pass this intersection.
The sign with the sheep on the top of the building is the New Testament Bible verse: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God the Father has raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
*******
This is a hillside cemetery in Cotzal.
************
And this part of the town of Cotzal, spreading up the other side of the small valley in which it's located. That road going up the hill in the background goes toward one of the villages we visited.
***********
This is probably as good a place as any for this comment. Once you leave the primary urban areas, wood is the only source of fuel. In the mornings, wood smoke and haze hang low in the bottoms of the valleys and in the cities.
Every day, beginning in the early afternoon you see people and pack animals loaded with wood, heading into town carrying loads of wood that have been harvested from the forests. A disproportionate number of the people scavenging wood are women and girls.
I was struck by how much time and effort went into that simple task; of how much productivity could be realized if people didn't need to spend about two hours per day on average simply gathering wood for cooking. What would be possible for children if that time were spent in schoolwork and getting an education?
We take it for granted that we can heat our homes and cook our food just by flipping a switch. What would our lives be like if suddenly we needed to take two hours out of our day just to obtain and chop wood and feed a stove?
Last edited:
John Cummings
TUG Lifetime Member
I had to do that when I was a kid. At least they don't have to chop wood in below zero weather like I had to.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
So did my Dad!!! But they had the wood on the farm, and he used a tractor to haul it to the house. In Guatemala, there were people carrying it back to town, walking about an hour outside of town just to get to the spots where they were collecting it.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Cotzal Street Scenes
Here are a few street scenes, taken in and around Cotzal as I rode in the back of our pickup truck. These are just to give an idea of what it looks like in the towns in northern Guatemala.
*****
The bus in the photo below is a "chicken bus"; these are the main mode of intercity public transportation in Guatemala. Chicken buses cover all parts of the country. Most of the chicken buses are brightly painted but every now and then you see one that is a recycled US school bus that still has the school district name on the side of the bus.
*********
**********
***********
******
Here are a few street scenes, taken in and around Cotzal as I rode in the back of our pickup truck. These are just to give an idea of what it looks like in the towns in northern Guatemala.
*****
The bus in the photo below is a "chicken bus"; these are the main mode of intercity public transportation in Guatemala. Chicken buses cover all parts of the country. Most of the chicken buses are brightly painted but every now and then you see one that is a recycled US school bus that still has the school district name on the side of the bus.
*********
**********
***********
******
Last edited:
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Iglesia San Juan, San Juan Cotzal
The central church in Cotzal is Iglesia San Juan, located next to the main plaza.
********
The interior of the church is pretty simple, and unlike the churches in Chichicastenango, does not have any of the Mayan incense altars.
*******
On one wall is a crucifix, positioned in the middle of some decorative latticework.
*******
Closer examination reveals, though, that it is not latticework. They are crosses, memorializing men of the parish who were killed during the civil war. "Asesinado" means murdered, and indicates that a body was recovered. "Secuestrado" means kidnapped. "Desaparecido" means disappeared or vanished.
The central church in Cotzal is Iglesia San Juan, located next to the main plaza.
********
The interior of the church is pretty simple, and unlike the churches in Chichicastenango, does not have any of the Mayan incense altars.
*******
On one wall is a crucifix, positioned in the middle of some decorative latticework.
*******
Closer examination reveals, though, that it is not latticework. They are crosses, memorializing men of the parish who were killed during the civil war. "Asesinado" means murdered, and indicates that a body was recovered. "Secuestrado" means kidnapped. "Desaparecido" means disappeared or vanished.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
You can all breathe a collective sigh of relief now, as I'm almost to the end of the Guatemala pictures I want to share - just a few more posts remaining after this one. (I can hear the cyber-cheering!!!! 
)
These last sets of pictures will have a bit of diffferent theme, as they will focus more on the people and activities instead of sites. And I hope that some of you will start to draw a personal connection through the photos and narrative that I'm going to conclude with.
So let me lay some groundwork.
********
The villages that I visited are part of a program set up for the specific purpose of getting land into the hands of the rural poor in Central America. Fundación Agros purchases land and creates villages from scratch for the purpose of developing the land. The villagers take our mortgages on the land, which they are obligated to repay. When they pay off the loan they get title to the land. Meanwhile the payments provide the seed money for new villages. Agros works with the villagers on training programs to train them on how to develop the land, build village governments, market crops, etc.
The borrowers need to develop the land - clear the trees, develop water systems, plant and harvest crops, build their houses, etc. As the land becomes revenue producing they pay off the loans from the proceeds of their labors.
If you know about microcapitalism and microlending in third world countries, that's exactly what this is. Fundación Agros has been doing this before those became trendy words - they've been at this for almost 20 years now.
*******
That's preface for what I'm going to show you now.
The pictures below are snow peas; snow peas that some of you have likely eaten.
The week that we were there, harvest was starting. They were going to pick 1500 lbs of snow peas - for foreign export.
And who receives these snow peas??? Well one of their major customers happens to be Costco. If you're in Costco and you see snow peas, especially out of season for the US, there's a good chance those snow peas came from Guatemala, from this village or one very much like it. Marks & Spencer, in the UK, is also a significant customer.
The development of this snow pea market has made a huge difference in the lives of these people. Snow peas are a cash crop - without snow peas they are subsistence farmers, living on beans and corn. With snow peas they generate income to pay off their loans, send their children to school, build a better water system, etc. And we get great quality peas.
I think my jaw dropped when I walked into these fields. i hope you can catch from the photos the quality of the fields and the health of the plants - these fields are the equal, if not the superior, to what you would see in the US. And they can usually get from two to four crops per year, because the climate is temperate year round.
********
Here is Matias, standing in a part of his field. Matias was very proud of this patch - this is cabbage that Matias is growing for personal consumption. Look at that size and health of that head of cabbage in the foreground.
******
Now you need to consider that this is not the "good" land. The good land was taken years ago by the descendants of the Spanish colonists and converted to plantations for coffee, bananas, and (in the lower elevations) sugar cane. This is "marginal" land, that was wild and less fertile.
Yet it has this kind of productive capacity!!! And you can this throughout the Guatemalan highlands. As I asked our host translator - "Why is Guatemala not the food supplier to the world???"
******
So the next time that you go into a Costco and you see snow peas in the produce area, or in mixed vegetable packages, I hope you pause and think about this.
In my next post, I'll put up a some photos of some of the villagers, with the goal of helping you perhaps get a bit more of a personal connection.
)These last sets of pictures will have a bit of diffferent theme, as they will focus more on the people and activities instead of sites. And I hope that some of you will start to draw a personal connection through the photos and narrative that I'm going to conclude with.
So let me lay some groundwork.
********
The villages that I visited are part of a program set up for the specific purpose of getting land into the hands of the rural poor in Central America. Fundación Agros purchases land and creates villages from scratch for the purpose of developing the land. The villagers take our mortgages on the land, which they are obligated to repay. When they pay off the loan they get title to the land. Meanwhile the payments provide the seed money for new villages. Agros works with the villagers on training programs to train them on how to develop the land, build village governments, market crops, etc.
The borrowers need to develop the land - clear the trees, develop water systems, plant and harvest crops, build their houses, etc. As the land becomes revenue producing they pay off the loans from the proceeds of their labors.
If you know about microcapitalism and microlending in third world countries, that's exactly what this is. Fundación Agros has been doing this before those became trendy words - they've been at this for almost 20 years now.
*******
That's preface for what I'm going to show you now.
The pictures below are snow peas; snow peas that some of you have likely eaten.
The week that we were there, harvest was starting. They were going to pick 1500 lbs of snow peas - for foreign export.
And who receives these snow peas??? Well one of their major customers happens to be Costco. If you're in Costco and you see snow peas, especially out of season for the US, there's a good chance those snow peas came from Guatemala, from this village or one very much like it. Marks & Spencer, in the UK, is also a significant customer.
The development of this snow pea market has made a huge difference in the lives of these people. Snow peas are a cash crop - without snow peas they are subsistence farmers, living on beans and corn. With snow peas they generate income to pay off their loans, send their children to school, build a better water system, etc. And we get great quality peas.
I think my jaw dropped when I walked into these fields. i hope you can catch from the photos the quality of the fields and the health of the plants - these fields are the equal, if not the superior, to what you would see in the US. And they can usually get from two to four crops per year, because the climate is temperate year round.
********
Here is Matias, standing in a part of his field. Matias was very proud of this patch - this is cabbage that Matias is growing for personal consumption. Look at that size and health of that head of cabbage in the foreground.
******
Now you need to consider that this is not the "good" land. The good land was taken years ago by the descendants of the Spanish colonists and converted to plantations for coffee, bananas, and (in the lower elevations) sugar cane. This is "marginal" land, that was wild and less fertile.
Yet it has this kind of productive capacity!!! And you can this throughout the Guatemalan highlands. As I asked our host translator - "Why is Guatemala not the food supplier to the world???"
******
So the next time that you go into a Costco and you see snow peas in the produce area, or in mixed vegetable packages, I hope you pause and think about this.
In my next post, I'll put up a some photos of some of the villagers, with the goal of helping you perhaps get a bit more of a personal connection.
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
At this point all I have left of my Guatemala photos are pictures of the some of the people we were visiting, and some shots of the villages and village life. If there's a level of interest, I'll put up some of those.
Otherwise, I hope the followers of this series of posts have enjoyed seeing a bit of Guatemala through my eyes, and I thank all of you for indulging my almost total domination of the thread these last weeks.
Otherwise, I hope the followers of this series of posts have enjoyed seeing a bit of Guatemala through my eyes, and I thank all of you for indulging my almost total domination of the thread these last weeks.
Fredm
TUG Member
More!MULTIZ321
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 32,494
- Reaction score
- 9,341
- Location
- FT. LAUDERDALE, FL
- Resorts Owned
-
BLUEWATER BY SPINNAKER HHI
ROYAL HOLIDAY CLUB RHC (POINTS)
Steve,
My vote is for more pics and a continuation of the story.
Thanks for your efforts and sharing.
Richard
My vote is for more pics and a continuation of the story.
Thanks for your efforts and sharing.
Richard
jerseyfinn
TUG Member
Steve,
Those murals are outstanding. There's a lot of things you can do with them in Photoshop etc. as they could become wallpapers or elements in some other post-processing scheme -- lot's of things to tinker with now that you've parsed through most of your photos.
Congrats,
Barry
Those murals are outstanding. There's a lot of things you can do with them in Photoshop etc. as they could become wallpapers or elements in some other post-processing scheme -- lot's of things to tinker with now that you've parsed through most of your photos.
Congrats,
Barry
jerseyfinn
TUG Member
A Lucky Shot
Sometimes you get down right lucky as a picture comes right to you. Such is the case with this image.
We're down at the Marriott Oceana Palms resort sitting on the beach just as we do every day. The wind blows straight north to south this day ( north being behind me in this photo ). We're seated in a cabana taking in the waves and wind as the gulls keep shooting past us flying N to S. When they see us in the cabana, they pull back and hover very close to us, sort of freezing themselves in mid-air. Of course the gulls are looking for hand outs or discards ( they're smart birds who know how we humans behave ). Carol and I have no hand-outs for them, but I do have my camera in-hand when they drop in.
The gull is perhaps 5 to 6 feet above me and about the same distance away as he hovers in the strong winds looking to see if there are crumbs and tidbits from sloppy-eating people. I don't even have to get up to snap this image as I need only zoom a little bit to crop in-camera to fill the frame. It's a treat for me as I use a P&S and do not have a real tele DSLR lens which makes bird-watching an easier, more fulfilling task when shooting birds further away in their natural state ( some nice avian photos taken here by other TUGgers are proof of this ).
Sometimes the photo gods are very kind . . . . so long as you bring your camera and allow the day to be what it will be. Wish I had this sort of luck with the pelicans who are eyeball-to-eyeball with me on our 20th floor balcony. But those guys move so fast that I never get the kind of shot I was hoping to snag during our two weeks. I do manage a few decent video clips of those guys.
Seashells do not move as fast, so I have less trouble dealing with these guys.
Barry
Sometimes you get down right lucky as a picture comes right to you. Such is the case with this image.
We're down at the Marriott Oceana Palms resort sitting on the beach just as we do every day. The wind blows straight north to south this day ( north being behind me in this photo ). We're seated in a cabana taking in the waves and wind as the gulls keep shooting past us flying N to S. When they see us in the cabana, they pull back and hover very close to us, sort of freezing themselves in mid-air. Of course the gulls are looking for hand outs or discards ( they're smart birds who know how we humans behave ). Carol and I have no hand-outs for them, but I do have my camera in-hand when they drop in.
The gull is perhaps 5 to 6 feet above me and about the same distance away as he hovers in the strong winds looking to see if there are crumbs and tidbits from sloppy-eating people. I don't even have to get up to snap this image as I need only zoom a little bit to crop in-camera to fill the frame. It's a treat for me as I use a P&S and do not have a real tele DSLR lens which makes bird-watching an easier, more fulfilling task when shooting birds further away in their natural state ( some nice avian photos taken here by other TUGgers are proof of this ).
Sometimes the photo gods are very kind . . . . so long as you bring your camera and allow the day to be what it will be. Wish I had this sort of luck with the pelicans who are eyeball-to-eyeball with me on our 20th floor balcony. But those guys move so fast that I never get the kind of shot I was hoping to snag during our two weeks. I do manage a few decent video clips of those guys.
Seashells do not move as fast, so I have less trouble dealing with these guys.
Barry
HatTrick
newbie
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2008
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- 1,261
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- 5
Getting your Photo of the Year entry in early this year, eh Barry?
jerseyfinn
TUG Member
Actually, my "best" photo is one taken at Oceana Palms showing me standing in the floor-to-ceiling window butt naked
( shot from behind of course -- and no, people can't see me because we're 20 floors up and the turtle glass glazing in the windows prevents any voyer with a telescope in the hi-rise condo up the beach from scoping me 
) . I figure if Terry Bradshaw could do his "neeked room" shot in his movie ( Failure to Launch ), I could also do it since I'm a Steeler Nation guy -- I was wearing my Steelers cap.My wife of course knows nothing about the photo as I've not yet sprung it on her. Still trying to figure out the when and how. I was thinking of for her birthday, but that's in December, and I don't know if I can wait that long.
Thought about posting it in my Oceana Palms gallery, but I don't think that Marriott wants to attract naturists ( of which I am not . . . this was just one of those idiotic guy-thought moments ). Don't worry, I won't post it here on TUG as I don't want to attract any gulls.
Barry
BTW, I like your neat gull photo
HatTrick
newbie
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2008
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- 1,261
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Actually, my "best" photo is one taken at Oceana Palms showing me standing in the floor-to-ceiling window butt naked
See? This is what happens when we talk too much about our photos... :rofl:
Ridewithme38
TUG Member
Who did you have take the Picture? Or are you just hoping the Wife doesn't ask that question? :hysterical:
T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
At this point all I have left of my Guatemala photos are pictures of the some of the people we were visiting, and some shots of the villages and village life. If there's a level of interest, I'll put up some of those.
Otherwise, I hope the followers of this series of posts have enjoyed seeing a bit of Guatemala through my eyes, and I thank all of you for indulging my almost total domination of the thread these last weeks.
Conclusion of Guatemala in this thread: Finishing Up Guatemala