Guatemalan Textiles

I don't know how anyone could resist buying Guatemalan textiles. I wanted to show you some of the things I bought while we were there.

I bought two lengths of fabrics that were on bolts. These were not handmade textiles but the colors were so wonderful. This one will be a tablecloth and I think it will go great with the Gorky Gonzalez dishes.
I've needed something to cover this table for a long time but just had not found anything that I really, really wanted. No problem in Guatemala. I found this piece that I plan to use as a tablerunner from the dealer in old fabrics in Solola.This is a huipil from Santiago de Atitlan. I kept seeing and trying on these rose and bird embroidered huipiles. Finally I found this one. I've already worn it to a party with a black skirt. This is a cermonial robe/huipil. I bought it from the dealer of old textiles in Solola. I plan to use it more as a serape for the cool evenings here in San Miguel. I wonder how soon I can talk Ned into going back to Guatemala.

Tianguis in Solola

From Panajachel we took a van to Solola because we wanted to connect with some people that Bill knew who handled old textiles. Not only was it the market day in the village but it was also a fair.

We left the van and walked through the tianguis, through a building and in the dim light of the back of that building we found the dealers hidden away. We never would have known or found them without our leader, Bill. They started pulling out one textile after another. It seemed like their supply was endless. Although we had a difficult time deciding what to buy, each of us walked away with a treasure or two or three.

The Guatemala Story

We're back in San Miguel de Allende. Arrived home Thursday night but it has taken some time to sort through emails, wash clothes, buy groceries.....you know all those things that make up life. I took 15 rolls of film with the Holga. It is off being processed. I'll get it back on Monday evening. If the Holga angel was on my shoulder, I'll have a few pictures to go along with the blog.

The trip to Guatemala was great. We had a wonderful time but I'm not going to give you a day by day trip report but I would like to tell you some things about the trip so over the next week or so, I'll add additional entries.

The schedule for the trip was planned by Bill who has been to Guatemala many times over the last 30 years and he was the textile expert who traveled with us. We wanted to hit the market days in several places and so the trip was planned around them. Just in case anyone else might want to do the same, I thought I would share the plan with you.

Hotels – Guatemala
August 4-14, 2008

Monday and Tuesday
Aug. 4 & 5 Antigua – Casa Ovalle B & B
011 (502) 7832-3031
casaovalle@yahoo.com
Great B&B in the Centro

Wednesday
Aug. 6 Chichicastenango – Mayan Inn
011 (502) 7756-1176
info@mayaninn.com.gt
The huge Chichicastenango market is on Thursday. We left Thursday afternoon after the market.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Aug. 7,8, & 9 Panajachel – Hotel Dos Mundos
011 (502) 7762-2078
info@hoteldosmundos.com
Panajachel is on beautiful Lake Atitlan. It is very easy to rent a boat to take you to the villages that surround the lake. The Solola (about an hour away) market is on Friday

Sunday and Monday
Aug. 10 & 11 Antigua – Quinta de las Flores
011 (502) 7832-3721
contact@quintadelasflores.com
The Antigua market is on Monday

Tuesday
August 12 Tikal - Jungle Lodge
011 (502) 861-0446
reservaciones@junglelodgetikal.com
Visit Mayan ruins of Tikal Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Wednesday
August 13 Flores - Hotel Isla de Flores
011 (501) 926-0614
reservaciones@junglelodgetikal.com
Out of the jungle and close to the airport for early morning flight back to Guatemala City on Thursday.

We used private shuttle vans for all the travel between towns. Provided by: Turansa
evadeguardia@turansa.com

Yes it is a lot of moving about but at the same time we covered places that we really wanted to see. We went down with only one suitcase each but with extra baggage which we managed to fill up with textiles as we traveled so by the time we were 3/4's of the way through the trip we looked like we had moved to Guatemala and getting from one place to another become more difficult. I kept saying that I really was only going to buy one or two things. Babs told me I would not be able to resist the textiles. She was right.

Okay, now you have the trip plan so if you like my stories about Guatemala, you can duplicate it.