Guatemala is full of beauty, brimming with life and color. During the 4 hour bus ride from Guatemala City to Quetzaltenago, we passed rollicking hills with steeply terraced crops ready for rain and eventually cultivation. We cut through valleys and mountains, domed by volcanoes and slathered in sunlight. It was land of wild beauty, touched upon heavily by its people, but uncontainable in neat piles or bundles of packaged suburban yards. Let’s just say the tidy well-maintained English garden would never exist here in the Land of Eternal Spring (read: tropic fever).
In the city of Quetzaltenago, there is much less nature and visible green space. But the city can never escape nature’s claws; Xela, as the inhabitants refer to it, is nestled between Volcanoes in a valley high in the Western Highlands. It is characterized by warm days due to an excess of sunlight, but cool mornings and evenings as the sun disappears and the crisp mountain air settles around the city like a shroud as the evening fades into night.
Before I arrived in Xela, I used the term concrete jungle for several severely urban cities. I now know I used it too loosely. Xela is the ultimate concrete jungle in the best sense of the word. The ferocity of nature is inescapable from the constant tremors and shakes of platonic activity (Guatemala is right on a tectonic hotspot, thus it’s many famous volcanoes). Add to that a city constructed of concrete from the newer streets to the buildings. The buildings come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but the general structure is the same. There is an outside facade which serves as stronghold against street life, and in many casas, leads to the outside courtyard which usually contains vegetation in plots or pots. The courtyard also serves as the living room in a country where the temperature changes over the course of the day (rapidly some days), but mildly during the seasons. The main difference is the addition of humidity and mucha calor in the summer, and much lleuve during the rainy season. Therefore the courtyard allows for a space that does not have to be enclosed, and contains haphazard rooms, some without windows or doors even. There is no central house, rather a collection of rooms and quarters. It’s part of the unique flavor of Latin America, which I promise to note that no door may be available to shield the very cold night from my abode, next time I decide to visit in winter.
However the most striking thing about the houses, stores, and various other buildings in Guatemala, beyond the antiquity, is the variety of colors. All the buildings are basically constructed from the same material, concrete, brick or stone; but they never appear the same because each casa screams with a shade of color louder than the one neighboring it. It’s quite refreshing actually, like instant Prozac. It’s hard to imagine a city bursting with so much color as anything but one on-going fiesta for the eyes.
For your viewing pleasure I’ve included some eye candy of various buildings I have the extreme pleasure of passing by everyday.
In the city of Quetzaltenago, there is much less nature and visible green space. But the city can never escape nature’s claws; Xela, as the inhabitants refer to it, is nestled between Volcanoes in a valley high in the Western Highlands. It is characterized by warm days due to an excess of sunlight, but cool mornings and evenings as the sun disappears and the crisp mountain air settles around the city like a shroud as the evening fades into night.
Before I arrived in Xela, I used the term concrete jungle for several severely urban cities. I now know I used it too loosely. Xela is the ultimate concrete jungle in the best sense of the word. The ferocity of nature is inescapable from the constant tremors and shakes of platonic activity (Guatemala is right on a tectonic hotspot, thus it’s many famous volcanoes). Add to that a city constructed of concrete from the newer streets to the buildings. The buildings come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but the general structure is the same. There is an outside facade which serves as stronghold against street life, and in many casas, leads to the outside courtyard which usually contains vegetation in plots or pots. The courtyard also serves as the living room in a country where the temperature changes over the course of the day (rapidly some days), but mildly during the seasons. The main difference is the addition of humidity and mucha calor in the summer, and much lleuve during the rainy season. Therefore the courtyard allows for a space that does not have to be enclosed, and contains haphazard rooms, some without windows or doors even. There is no central house, rather a collection of rooms and quarters. It’s part of the unique flavor of Latin America, which I promise to note that no door may be available to shield the very cold night from my abode, next time I decide to visit in winter.
However the most striking thing about the houses, stores, and various other buildings in Guatemala, beyond the antiquity, is the variety of colors. All the buildings are basically constructed from the same material, concrete, brick or stone; but they never appear the same because each casa screams with a shade of color louder than the one neighboring it. It’s quite refreshing actually, like instant Prozac. It’s hard to imagine a city bursting with so much color as anything but one on-going fiesta for the eyes.
For your viewing pleasure I’ve included some eye candy of various buildings I have the extreme pleasure of passing by everyday.
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