Xela Fair has scope like none other in Guatemala

Xela feria 2011 (photo by Dave Fox)

Xela’s annual feria came to a close the weekend of Sept. 17-18, and it was everything Guatemala has come to expect from the nation’s premiere Independence Day celebration. Everything offered won’t be new to a traveler who’s at least trolled the occasional market: fruit and knick-knacks, dance troupes and shows, and carnival rides that may have been assembled with scrap […]

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Ex-Guerilla Entrepreneurship

The calm (and coffee) after the storm: Santa Anita La Unión Rebels are on the move in Libya, Egyptians are overhauling their constitution and Tunisians unseated a multi-decade dictator, but reading about it in Guatemala’s relative tranquility makes it easy to forget that the same turmoil engulfed Guatemala not long ago. A history of the 36-year civil war and what […]

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Quetzaltenango

Guatemala’s second (and maybe best) city written by Blake Nelson I spent my first year out of college teaching in Puerto Cortés, Honduras, and a typical conversation went like this: LOCAL: Do you like living here? ME: I love it! LOCAL: Really? I don’t. ME: Let’s change the subject! After to moving to Quetzaltenango (commonly known as Xela, from the […]

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A traveler’s Perspective of Guatemalan Destinations

text/photos by Tanya Hughes Guatemala is a magical place. I came here the first time on a brief holiday that started on the Caribbean coast of Mexico and took me through Belize and finally into Guatemala. I was impressed with Tikal and Petén, but I immediately fell in love with La Antigua Guatemala. The unique energy that has captured so […]

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Y’abal Handicrafts

by Erol Reyal In the first few week of October 2005, the Pacific Coast of Central America was affected by severe winds and rains of Hurricane Stan. The heavy rains took the communities of Guatemala completely by surprise and created massive landslides and floods. This catastrophe not only caused material damage but it also took the lives of hundreds of […]

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Holy Week in Quetzaltenango

Colorful and solemn processions will traverse many streets in Central America during Semana Santa (Holy Week) with La Antigua Guatemala’s commemoration of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection among the most elaborate in the World. Each church has its own procession featuring a massive float (anda) carried on the shoulders of as many as 80 colorfully-robed church members (cucuruchos). Residents meticulously arrange […]

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