Palm Trees in Antigua

I showed you these palm trees on August 28th as they reflect on the water tank at the public washbasins at Parque de la Unión (Union Park). Today’s photo is right across the street from yesterday’s Santa Clara Ruins photo. There are not many palm trees around Antigua, as a matter of fact, this is the only place I have seen them (correct me if I am wrong). La Antigua Guatemala is located at over 1500 meters/5000 feet above sea level; maybe this is the reason you don’t see many palm trees. What do you think?

El parque y tanque de la Unión has very colorful history and has gone through many name changes. First it was called the Plaza de San José, then Plaza de la Unión and later Parque y tanque de la Unión. (Source: Article in Spanish at Revista Recrearte and Google-translated into English)

The union part is in reference to the Central American Union, a reality the was only possible under the Spanish rule. Shortly after the Independence in 1821, Central America split into the nations the conformed it today: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Several attempts have been made to unite it, but none have blossomed. In the last decade, many things have been enacted to make Central America a sort of loose union, kind of like the European Union. For instance, nowadays you can move freely in the 4 northern Central American countries with only your ID or Cédula as it is called here. Visas for foreigners for one country are now valid in any of the 4 countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras & Nicaragua). Next, airport taxes will be removed if you fly into any of the aforementioned countries. Slowly but surely, the union is becoming a reality, but Central America will never again be one country.

Technical site note: My apologies to all the visitors that have received access errors in the last few days. It seems that my hosting company is having some problems with the machine that serves this site. I have made a few nasty reports in the hopes that they fix the problems asap. In the mean time, hang on, the sites does come on eventually.

Pamela says:

November 16, 2006 at 10:22 am

I hadn’t realized that you were that high up, but yes, that, I would assume, accounts for the lack of palm trees. How cold does it get in winter, at that altitude? Do you have any Canary Island Date Palms there, by the way? Not entirely flippant, as there are many in North America.

duendemaya says:

November 16, 2006 at 12:49 pm

Belize, or Belice, as is known in Guatemala, was then part of Guatemala, and eventually colonized by the pirates of the Caribbean, I mean, the British crown, and until 1981, it became independent (per se).

Another part that Rudy leaves off this important part of history is that “La Capitania General de Guatemala” included the now Mexican States of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, as well as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Integration of what is now Central America is a constant struggle, but is in the best interest of Central Americans to pursue and crystallize unification.

Meg says:

November 17, 2006 at 3:04 am

Hi, Rudy. My mom is finally traveling to Guatemala from Nov 22 to 2 Dec on a textile tour. She’s 76 and Dad’s 79 and kind of sick, so Mom thinks this is her last long-howl textile trip. (Dad’s not going.) I told her to check out your blog before she goes, so she traveled an hour and a half to my sister’s house to see some of your photos, (my parents are very off-line,) and she thought your blog was a fabulous introduction to her trip. She wanted me to thank you, and I thank you, too.