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Climber plants are very popular to cover walls around La Antigua Guatemala as shown in Guateflora: hiedras. As you can see in the picture above, they even placed a metal structure above the wall to accommodate the climbing plant. I didn’t get a good look at the climber plants, but I am sure it will be hiedras (Ivies/Hederas helix & H. canariensis) or falsas uvas (Parthenocisus inserta).

Do you know why climber plants are so popular in Antigua Guatemala? The answer is Guateflora category.

These colorful and strange-looking flowers are the gift of a climber plant known locally as Tumbergias (tunbergia misurense is the scientific name). Tumbergias are quite popular in the gardens of La Antigua Guatemala. Tumbergias are also very popular with bees and bumblebees and the why is very obvious once you seen the amount of nectar these plant produces. If you visit the restaurant inside Vivero La Escalonia you can appreciate a ceiling made with tumbergias in one section of the restaurant.

Éstas coloridas y extrañas flores son el regalo de una planta trepadora conocida localmente como Tumbergias (“tunbergia misurense” es el nombre científico). Tumbergias son muy populares en los jardines de La Antigua Guatemala. Las tumbergias también son populares con las abejas y los colibríes y es obvio después las cantidades de néctar que la planta produce. El restaurante dentro del Vivero La Escalonia tiene como techo natural tumbergias por si les gustaría apreciar tan coloridas flores.

The Ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) is very important in Guatemala. For one, the Ceiba tree is Guatemala’s national tree. There are Ceiba trees all over Guatemala. The Maya believed that Ceiba trees were portals to Xibalbá (The Underworld). Xibalba is described in the Popol Vuh as a court below the surface of the Earth associated with death and with twelve gods or powerful rulers known as the Lords of Xibalba (source: Wikipedia).

According to a recent article in Revue Magazine, Ceibas have been sacred trees for over 2,000 years and the Ceiba tree spines show up often in Mayan art and pottery. The Ceiba tree also appears in the 5 centavos coins.

Do you know how many Ceiba tree are there in La Antigua Guatemala municipality?

There are several jacaranda trees in Parque Central which make a gorgeous display of purple or violet during February and March when they are in bloom. I will try to get a panoramic shot so you can see the jacaranda trees in bloon at Central Park.

Well, perhaps it is the fact that gorgeous pale violet colors of the jacarandas trees are more obvious in February, just in time for the beginning of the Lent season in which one starts to see doors and windows adorned with purple or violet bands. Purple is the official color of the Lent season; do you know why?

Jacaranda trees can be found all over town as well. I will be in the look out for other jacaranda trees around town. Stay tune!

The price of flowers goes up exponentially around certain dates like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, just to name a few.

A dozen roses is selling for Q60/$7.50 right now, while the normal price at the market goes from Q20/$2.50 to Q35/$4.50 for a dozen roses, depending on the quality and whether one is a regular costumer or not. For instance, a co-worker at the office buys two dozen roses every week for Q35/$4.50; he always gets this special price because he’s regular customer.

Of course, all flowers get a price hike, but certainly roses are the most affected since most people want to give roses for el Día del cariño.

In Guatemala Valentine’s Day has a much wider meaning since Día del cariño, Day of affection or caring, is about celebrating all the different manifestations of love and caring.

What better way to send my best wishes for Día del cariño and Valentine’s Day to all of you than to share a Corazón chino, Chinese heart, flower which are native of the wet tropical mountain forest of Central America and South America regardless of its popular name. The Anturios or Anthurium is the scientific name.

If you ever decide to hike the volcanoes around La Anttigua Guatemala, don’t ever forget to pay attention to the colors you find on your way up. The flora up there is unique and enchanting.

I don’t know the name of these purple flowers, can anybody help?

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Thanks to Pinar Istek from XelaDailyPhoto and her article entitled Lily of the Nile about a synchronicity market scene on All Saints Day, I was reminded of how much I like the callas lilies. So, I was lured and it was only matter of time before callas lilies, cartuchos in Guatemalan Spanish or alcatraces in Spanish, found their way into my viewfinder.

Calla lilies are quite common and inexpensive in Guatemala; often you can buy a dozen for about Q10/$1.25. Think of it, I should have cartuchos in my office more often.

How much do callas lilies cost where you live?

Today, I continue learning about the Guatemalan coffees. In the past I have mention how I thought coffee plantations were beneficial for the environment because they provided almost undisturbed forested land for birds like Bushy-crested Jay which is native to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Also, I shared with you the biannual procedure of pruning the gravileas shade trees to keep a balance between shade and sun for the coffee bushes.

In La Antigua Guatemala, wood can be used as fuel as a by-product of the coffee industry. Let me explain, if you recalled the photo about Coffee bushes and Gravileas trees, you would remember that gravileas trees (the large trees on the photo) are used as shadow trees for the coffee bushes. Well, after a while the gravileas trees get to be so big and they need to be pruned. The trimmed branches and old trees can provide the necessary wood to be used as fuel. In the areas that grow coffee, the wood from the shade trees prevents the cutting down of the trees on the rolling hills. These trees provide the much-needed root system which prevents landslides.

Day after day, we hear people talking about climate change, resulting from unmeasured and inappropriate human usage of natural resources.

In the biggest challenge facing mankind in the twenty-first century—how to protect the environment—the future begins today. Tomorrow might just be too late.

For several decades the argument has raged about how to best preserve the wold’s resources and biodiversity. This endless tug-of-war has placed those who work the land in direct opposition with those who feel it is being threatened. But as scientific research has proven, agroforestry systems, like shaded coffee, can bring about a compromise that combines the goals of sustainable agriculture with environmental protection.

Guatemalan Coffees are 98% shade grown, counting more than thirty-eight million shade and coffee trees. The resulting coffee forest extends approximately 270,000 hectares and makes up 6.4 percent of the national forest cover. As expected, Guatemala’s coffee forests bring environmental benefits, like protecting soils, biodiversity, and water resources, and help in diminishing the harming effects of global warming. (source: Guatemalan Coffees/Anacafé)

Anacafé has put together a Green Coffee book and information to show us how verdaderamente verde, truly green, Guatemalan coffee really is.

Want to learn more?

If you are a knowledgable enthusiast, ask for your “Green Book”; a unique jewel for your personal collection that contains all you need to know about Guatemalan Coffees and its symbiotic relation with nature.

This printed material can now be accessed in a digital format (PDF), optimized for web viewing to keep the best level of detail while reducing download times at minimum.

Versions available to download in PDF:

• Green Book in English (19.8MB)
• Green Book in Spanish (17.8MB)

In this photograph I try to captured the different ages or stages of the coffee berries. Since we are showing the different ages of coffee I thought I should share with you the information about the different premium coffees from Guatemala.

According to Anacafé, Guatemalan National Coffee Association, there are eight distinct strictly hard bean quality coffees in Guatemala.

8 Regional Coffees

Since the early 1990s, we have led a pioneering effort to define the country’s coffee-producing regions based of geographic, climatic, and coffee characteristics and cup profiles.

As a result, eight distinct regions producing Strictly Hard Bean (SHB) quality coffees within defined microclimates have been identified, awarding coffee enthusiast with eight specialty coffees with unique characteristics. (source: Guatemalan Coffees/Anacafé)

The eight coffee regions are: Acatenango Valley, Antigua Coffee ®, Traditional Atitlán, Rainforest Cobán, Fraijanes Plateau, Highland Huehue, New Oriente and Volcanic San Marcos. As always, follow the white rabbit (the links) to learn the specifics of the premium coffees of Guatemala.

How many Guatemalan regional coffees have you tried?

These are the hands the rock the coffee berries off the branches swiftly, almost effortlessly it seemed.

There’s something about these hands that moves me . What kind of stories are behind these hands? What life have they lived?

Believe it or not, in La Antigua Guatemala we have flowers in our gardens year around. We also are lucky to have a temperate weather during the dry and wet seasons to enjoy them. On top of that, the humidity levels, the water and soils are of such quality that just about anyone can be a constant gardener. Finally, the variety of flowers is quite large; browse the Guateflora category to get an idea of the flowers available in the Antigua gardens.

If you lived in La Antigua Guatemala, what kind of flowers and plants would you have in your garden?

Repollitos are little cabbages and that’s what Jenn Klee used to call hortensias when she was a little kid. I can see the similarities with little cabbages sprouts.

Hortensias are called Hydranga by most people in the U.S., I learned, thanks to Stephanie, who also shared with us that they can be found in different colors—white, pink, lavender, and blue; all the same variety but shifting colors according to composition of the soil they are in.

Hydranga flowers are very popular in the jardín antigüeño, Antigua garden. You can see the final color of these hortensias here; make sure you pause to read the caption. Also, if you want to see what other flowers are popular in the garden around Antigua Guatemala, make sure you browse the Jardín Antigüeño series.

Sometimes you live so fast that before you know it, life is over. Life is not a race that you want to win. Life is rather marathon where you want to finish last, just like Tono Ballena and his last position in the yearly Medio Maraton de las Rosas. But if you’re tricked into running the rat race, you have to find ways to slow you down, to pause to smell the coffee, to stop long enough to realized life is more than money.

Tending a garden is one sure way to pause and enjoy the ephemeral moments that make up life. When I live in the U.S. I never care for gardens; I could not name any flowers except for roses or carnations; I didn’t know the names of plants, except for the most obvious.

Life in La Antigua Guatemala is so much different, full a little pauses, with gardens everywhere you go. Now, I am learning the names of many flowers and plants. Heck, I now tend for a garden and have long talks with our gardener. I even found the courage to share with you many of the plants found in and around Antigua Guatemala in series entitled Guateflora. I still make mistakes; just the other day that I called birds of paradise some exotic flowers which in realty were heliconias. I am glad to know that if I make a mistake, you guys come forth to correct me.

A little over-sharing every once in a while doesn’t hurt, right? All the flowers in the Jardín Antigüeño series come from our garden. As you can see if you browse the Jardín Antigüeño series, I have now plenty of reasons to pause and enjoy the beauty that Nature offers. I am far from being The Constant Gardener, like Jenn Klee, but I am slowly learning.

How are you living your life? Do you have enough pauses to slow you down?

It seems like this corner is good for the sale of exotic flowers, like aves del paraíso, birds of paradise Heliconias. Last time I reported on the sale of orchids at this very corner, however I have seen all kinds of exotic tropical flowers and plants being offered the the passing vehicles.

I am still amazed on the fact that is relatively simple to have an exuberant, colorful, eye-catching garden in La Antigua Guatemala. You can browse the Guateflora category for small sampling of the many options available in jardín antigüeño. Enjoy!

Visitors can easily spot the Maya people dressed in rainbow colors weaving their way throughout the renowned colonial architecture of La Antigua Guatemala. But, sometimes, such prized culture and striking architecture can distract one from noticing the more obscure, yet just as captivating beauty that’s found in this city. For me, the bright, exotic flowers scattered throughout the city perfectly accentuate the traditional dress and handcrafted goods of the indigenous Maya. The Maya must have drawn their inspiration and favor for such a collage of brilliant color from the exquisite flowers and plants that ornate their world.

text and photo by Laura McNamara