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The following excerpt is from an August 10, 2010 article published by The New York Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The sound made by two women’s hands simultaneously patting corn dough into tortillas bears a strong resemblance to the sound of scattered raindrops falling on a bare roof: staccato thwacks that mean a storm – or a meal – is imminent.
Last Friday evening, in a remote town in Guatemala, I was settling into an 8-by-8-foot concrete block bedroom with Jesus posters on the wall when I heard the thwacks. I glanced outside, past the ripe pomegranates hanging from the branches of a nearby tree, and out to the green hills that towered over Lake Atitlán. The sky was clear, and thus I deduced that dinner preparations were underway…
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The following excerpt is from a July 17, 2010 article published by SIFY News. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Archaeologists have discovered a tomb of an ancient Mayan king in Guatemala, filled with materials that have been preserved for approximately 1,600 years.
Brown University’s Stephen Houston and his colleagues uncovered the tomb, which dates from about 350 to 400 A.D. The tomb is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who may have been sacrificed at the time of the king’s death.
It lies beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz.
“When we sunk a pit into the small chamber of the temple, we hit almost immediately a series of ‘caches’…
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The following excerpt is from a May 1, 2010 article published by TimesBulliten.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The gated tourist community of Flores is where I have spent way too many days off of the bike enjoying the hostel and small talk with the locals.
Flores is a city in the north of Guatemala. It’s a stopping point for tourist to make their way to Tikal where the ancient Mayan city lies.
It was interesting talking to travelers while staying at Los Amigos Hostel. I was in the resort area, but if you take a short 5 minute walk to Santa Elena, you will find the real Guatemala. With it’s massive markets with meat hanging from hooks, assorted vegetables and spice stands, cheap authentic Guatemalan food stands and real Guatemalan people.
Just walking through the market’s small narrow paths that weave in and out is an experience in itself. It’s easy to get lost, and I found myself just wondering around and enjoying the smells and sights…
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The following excerpt is from an article published by The Esperanza Project. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
By Tracy L. Barnett
GUATEMALA CITY – Between the black smoke-belching chicken buses and the honking mass of cars that congest the streets of Central America’s largest capital, it’s hard to imagine a bicycle, much less a mass of them. With one of the highest crime rates in Latin America, it’s not a place I was planning to explore on two wheels.
But there’s safety in numbers, and that’s the idea behind Critical Mass, a bicycling movement launched in 1992 in San Francisco that has now spread to more than 300 countries.
“We don’t block traffic; we are traffic!” is the group’s motto, and as an urban bicyclist confronted with rude, honking or just heedless motorists I’ve enjoyed expressing that sentiment, alone and in mass rides in San Antonio (MS 150), Houston, Texas (Bohemeo’s Bicycle Club) and Guadalajara, Mexico (Al Teatro en Bici and GDL en Bici).
So when I saw on Twitter that Masa Critica Guatemala was planning a ride my first weekend here, I decided to drop them a line to see if they might have a bike to spare…
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The following excerpt is from an April 26, 2010 article published in the Sydney Morning Herald. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The Santiaguito volcano showered sand and ash on Monday over a large area of western Guatemala in an “unusual” and “violent” display, the national seismological institute said.
The institute said winds were carrying the ash in a northeasterly direction from the 2,500 metre (7,500 foot) high volcano in the province of Quetzaltenango, 206 kilometres west of the capital…
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The following excerpt is from an April 23, 2010 article published by The Idaho State Journal. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
POCATELLO — Amid a downpour in the spring of 2005, Stanley Guenter worked quickly to excavate a panel from a Mayan temple bearing the ancient hieroglyphs of a long-dead language.
It was the second-to-last day Guenter’s team would be at the ruins of La Corona in northern Guatemala. The inscriptions were perfectly preserved, and the stone retained traces of a red paint the ancient Mayans used to sprinkle on bodies, preparing them for the afterlife…
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The following excerpt is from an April 14, 2010 article published by Stuff.co.nz. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
It looks like the fiery pits of hell but I’m not dead yet.
At least not if I keep my wits about me.
A blast of heat rises between my feet and a thick tongue of lava dribbles about a metre from where I stand.
“Look at this glowing underneath you, guys you are walking on fire,” our guide exclaims excitedly.
They are discomforting words that belie the dangers of messing with molten magma.
I am perched just below the belching crater of Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala. She’s active and I’m scared.
Located about 30km southwest of Guatemala City, Pacaya forms part of the volcanic belt on the eastern flank of Central America…
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The following excerpt is from an April 1, 2010 article published by The Poughkeepsie Journal. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Ralph Ferrusi • Hike of the Week:
Hike name: A walk through the Mayan ruins in Tikal, Guatemala, settled in 700 B.C.
Length: We booked an all-day guided tour of Tikal while in San Ignacio, 10 miles from the Guatemala border. The entire site could involve a 10-kilometer walk.
Rating: A super archeological site.
Photo Gallery: www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/photos
Maps: Lonely Planet’s “Central America on a Shoestring,” pp. 196-197.
Features: Pyramids, bigger pyramids, and a frighteningly HUGE pyramid. Exotic rainforest and jungle trails.
Watch out for: Some parts of Tikal are remote, and possibly dangerous to explore on our own. The last pyramid on our tour, Temple IV, Tikal’s tallest, is 64 meters (211.2 feet) tall, and extremely steep. You can’t clamber up the stone steps anymore (too many touristos have fallen to their deaths), but can ascend on sturdy wooden stairs…
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The following excerpt is from a March 31, 2010 article published by ArtDaily.org. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
 MEXICO CITY.- Iconographic studies of Teotihuacan murals confirm the extension of the lineage of a ruler of the ancient city of Tikal, Guatemala, already revealed by epigraphists of the Maya area.
The aforementioned investigation sums up to interpretations of Stele 31 of Tikal that relate to the dynastic line of Atlatl-Cauac (“Dart-thrower Owl”), possible ruler of Teotihuacan between 374 and 439 AD, and whose son, Yax Nuun Ayiin I, was seignior of Tikal. The emblem of this lineage would be represented by the image of a bird with a shield, observed in Teotihuacan murals, declared Dr. Raul Garcia Chavez, researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
There would be a relation between the register at Tikal and other Maya sites of late 4th century, which refers to the son of Atlatl-Cauac, Yax Nuun Ayiin I, as ruler of Tikal between 379 and 404 AD, commented the researcher during his participation at the 6th Academic Conference of Archaeology at Templo Mayor Museum.
The archaeologist from Estado de Mexico INAH Center, remarked that a series of enthroned figures with eye rings and headdress began appearing at iconographic register of Teotihuacan from 370 of the Common Era, possibly symbolizing the supreme ruler of the Central High Plateau city.
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The following excerpt is from a March 27, 2010 article published by Press Release.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The Cycle Messenger World Championships (CMWC), will take place in Panajachel, Guatemala from September 3rd to 13th, 2010.
Toronto, Canada, March 27, 2010 –(PR.com)– Now entering its 18th incarnation, the Cycle Messenger World Championships is an annual event which pits speed and endurance against experienced messenger skill. It is also a celebration of messenger’s lifestyle, culture, and history.
The CMWC has a long tradition of unique events formatted to actively represent the Bicycle Messenger Industry. The main race is a simulation of a real workday with deliveries and pick-ups organized in a mock city core where routing and decision making becomes as important as speed and performance.
First held in 1993, messengers have been making the annual pilgrimage to some of the world’s major metropolis’ who’ve played past CMWC hosts including: Berlin; London; Toronto; San Francisco; Barcelona; Washington D.C.; Zurich; Budapest; Copenhagen; New York; Sydney; Dublin; and most recently in Tokyo last year.
Making its first stop in Central America, one of the goals for this year’s CMWC organizing crew is to have Latin messengers meet, connect and participate with the rest of the world. Bringing this prestigious event to Panajachel, Guatemala has excited both the global Messenger Community and the Guatemalan government. …
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The following excerpt is from a March 24, 2010 article published by the Guatemala Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Guatemala will host the 4th Edition of the Magdalena Endurance Challenge on 24th of April 2010. Magdalena is a giant sugar mill in La Gomera, Escuintla. This event is the most challenging endurance event in Guatemala. According to  Fernando Paiz, President of Jinetes de Aventura Endurance (Endurance Adventure Riders) and President of the Organizing Committee of this international competition, the race will be very exciting and very tough.
The race will demand a lot of technical expertise from the riders and horses because it will be held at night, to reduce the effect of the extreme heat of the coast area where Magdalena is located. The route of the competition will go through roads and paths of tropical forest, sugar plantation, rivers and irrigation channels.
The President of the Organizing Committee expressed his excitement and satisfaction that Sugar Mill Magdalena is opening their doors for the fourth year in a row to provide their adventurous terrain for one of the most important competitions of the year. Family Leal, the owners of the Sugar mill have been of tremendous help to support the logistics for such a complex event. The event is called: Magdalena Endurance Challenge, in their honour.This event will is a classifying event for the FEI World Endurance Championship held in Kentucky USA, this year…
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The following excerpt is from a March 24, 2010 annoucement from Grassland Online. To read the annoucement in its entirety, please click here.
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The following excerpt is from a March 21, 2010 article published by the Telegraph UK. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Chris Moss offers a guide to Guatemala, ahead of this year’s celebrations to mark the bicentenary of Latin America’s fight for independence.
Guatemala was once a major block of New Spain, the viceroyalty that spread from Central America up into Texas and California, across to Florida and the Caribbean, down to Nicaragua and eastwards to the Philippines. It later lost control over Chiapas, Nicaragua and other territories. Guatemala’s official day of independence is September 15 1821.
Top five attractions
The Mayan ruins of Tikal and the surrounding Petén jungle; Lago Atitlán, a beautiful highland lake ringed by volcanoes; and the twice-weekly market at Chichicastenango (both of the latter in the Maya-dominated western highlands); the natural limestone pools of Semuc Champey; and the Cuchumatanes mountain range for hiking.
Best city …
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The following excerpt is from a March 16, 2010 article published by USA Today.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
An archaeologist reports the ingredients of ”Maya Blue” pigment beloved by Central America’s ancients may have been widely mined, not traded as previously suggested.
In the Journal of Archeological Science report, Leslie Cecil of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, reports on “palygorskite” minerals, the chief ingredient in the bright and long-lasting pigment, found at the archaeological site of Ixlú in the Petén region of Guatemala. Maya Blue was widely used by the classic Maya of Central America to decorate buildings and wares, making the cobalt color a signature of the pyramid-building culture.
Rather than emerging from one of seven mines already discovered in Mexico, the mineral traces back to a nearby site in Guatemala, a first sign that the color’s recipe was traded widely outside the Yucatan…
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The following excerpt is from a March 10, 2010 article published by Telegraph UK. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Cradled by the soaring peaks of the volcanoes Agua and Fuego, the Guatemalan city of Antigua is among the finest examples of Spanish-era architecture in the Americas, a place of baroque churches and rigorously maintained colonial homes. But none of the maintenance comes easily, as Alvaro Mendez explained to me the morning I was photographing the front door of his magnificent 18th-century town house on Calle Poniente.
While Antiguans have lovingly primped and preened their city for generations (a fact recognised in its being named a Unesco World Heritage Site), these days it’s not just about being house-proud, “it’s about putting our best front forward for El Señor Conservador.”
As the unelected representative of the five-member Council for the Protection of the City of Antigua (four of whom are also unelected) the conservador is charged with the enforcement of Decreto 60-69, El Ley Protectora de la Antigua, a lengthy and restrictive document that puts the most stringent of Britain’s listed-building regulations to shame…
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The following excerpt is from a March 11, 2010 article published by WSMT TV-Nashville. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
Serves 8
This beloved Guatemalan main course, also called pollo en jocon, is best served over rice with corn tortillas on the side for soaking up the rich and tangy tomatillo and green onion sauce. If you like, use parsley as a flavorful substitute for the cilantro. For a more rustic version, serve the chicken on the bone. This recipe was inspired by microcredit clients who live in the Lake Atitlan region of Guatemala.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
4 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 bone-in, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 to 2 jalapeños, stemmed and halved lengthwise…
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The following excerpt is from a March 6, 2010 article published by The China Post. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Jaime Vinals Massanet, the first Central American mountaineer to have reached the world’s seven summits, is in Taiwan to scale the island’s highest peak, Yushan (Jade Mountain), a national park source said yesterday.
Vinals, 49, a Guatemalan national, is scheduled to scale 3,952-meter Yushan on March 7-8, said Chen Lung-sheng, head of the Yushan National Park Administration (YNPA).
…
Vinals, the first Central American ever to climb the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest, was invited by Taiwan to drum up publicity for Yushan, which has been nominated as one of 28 candidates in a worldwide contest to choose the Seven Wonders of Nature on the planet…
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The following excerpt is from a March 4, 2010 article published by SF Gate. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Marco Pappa scored to help Guatemala beat El Salvador 2-1 Wednesday night in an exhibition. Jhony Brown also scored for Guatemala, which hasn’t lost to its neighbor in nine years.
Pappa, who plays for the Chicago Fire in MLS, scored from 31 yards out in the 45th minute after El Salvador struggled to clear the ball off its back line…
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The following excerpt is from a February 24, 2010 article published by Today Online. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
Some 1,700 years ago, the great Mayan civilisation chose this country in Central America to set up their most impressive structures – it was on these sacred grounds that their priests would ascend the steps to speak to the gods. Today, Guatemala continues to draw the awe of travellers to the country with its rich history and quietly majestic landscapes. Its most-visited townships lie at the base of towering volcanoes, or alongside great lakes that invoke in travellers a sense of serenity as they would a sense of foreboding.
Visitors to Guatemala have two things to check off on the country’s to-do list – scaling the active volcano Pacaya in Antigua, and visiting the country’s most famous Mayan site in the northern city of Tikal.
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The following article is an excerpt from the Vancouver Sun on February 22, 2010. To read the article in full, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan indigenous Maya people held religious and cultural ceremonies Monday to mark the start of the year 5126 under the ancient Mayan calendar.
 Culture Minister Emilio Ajquejay said that under the Mayan calendar, 5126 marks Kej, year of the stag or deer.
The four-legged creature symbolizes four cosmic points of strength and power, said who said that this is likely to be a year in which “world powers will be strengthened,” he said.
Director of Indigenous Affairs Maria Quezada said the stag reflects the four energies of life: physical, mental, spiritual and emotional, as well as mankind’s dominion over other beings on earth.
In the Mayan faith, the new year is ushered in after the end of Wayeb — a five-day period of reflection, meditation, planning and goal-setting — and to mark the event ethnic Maya leaders held vigil services across Guatemala overnight Sunday into Monday.
Roberto Cajas, director of a confederation of indigenous groups said the new year celebration offers Guatemalans the chance to express their “profound gratitude to Nature” for having provided humans all the essentials needed for life.
To read the rest of the article, please click here. To read more about the Mayan calendar, check out our review of the MY2K blog, which focuses on Mayan symbols in Guatemala.
This is excerpted from an article in the Latin American Herald Tribune on February 13, 2010.
GUATEMALA CITY – Spanish researchers from Valencia University presented in Guatemala a book analyzing the meaning of drawings and incisions on a Mayan architectural decoration in the form of a mask dating back to between 300 and 600 A.D.
The publication “Los Grafitos Mayas” (Mayan Pictographs) has been prepared by the team of Spanish and Guatemalan researchers who last January announced the discovery of a stucco mask at the La Blanca archaeological project in the province of Peten in northern Guatemala.
The book, according to Spanish academic Gaspar Muñoz Cosme, who has directed the project for the last six years, “seeks to spark interest and vindicate the importance of pictographs, which are normally seen as a minor art” within the Mayan culture.
The decorations on the mask, Muñoz said, “are of great quality, and show that whoever sculpted them were true artists,” since they were able to immortalize the cultural characteristics of that ancestral civilization.
The type of wall paintings known as pictographs or pictograms are typically found inside Mayan constructions.
Interested in Mayan Culture? Check our profile of the MY2K blog on Mayan glyphs by following this link.
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The following excerpt is from a February 11, 2010 article published by America’s Quarterly. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
On a smoggy Thursday afternoon in late January, Mark Camp, director for U.S.-based Cultural Survival Project, drives a big red truck with Massachusetts plates through Guatemala City traffic toward Congress. Camp—who looks more like an insurance salesman with a ponytail of gray hair, suit and polka dot red tie—has organized volunteers from community radio stations to flood the legislature’s halls on this big day for Guatemala’s community radio movement. Some have traveled almost two days by bus to make it in time.
“This is a historic occasion—years of trying and frustration have never brought us this far before,” said Camp nervously waiting outside the steps of Congress. “We think we have a real opportunity this year to get a law passed that will recognize the right of communities to have their own radio station.”
For the first time in 12 years of attempts to pass a law to legalize and to grant frequencies to community radio stations, the National Movement of Radio Stations—represented by these cell phone-wielding radio volunteers ready to broadcast live in a Mayan language—have scored a win. The bill, called “The Law of the Community Radio Number 4087,” has received support from the President of Congress’ Pueblas Indigenas Committee and is now being sent back to the General Assembly. If passed, the bill would guarantee the use of at least one FM frequency …
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The following excerpt is from a February 10, 2010 article published in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Online. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Guatemala and Renaissance music do not go together in many people’s minds.
Nevertheless, Ensemble Lipzodes will explore that correlation at their concert Saturday, presented by Early Music Now.
Spain’s New World colonies had a thriving arts scene in the 1500s. Ensemble Lipzodes’ repertoire comes from 15 volumes of musical manuscripts from Guatemalan churches now housed at Indiana University.
The group comprises musicians at IU who were excited at the prospect of resurrecting previously unknown music. Most of the compositions do not specify instruments, but it will be performed on shawms and dulcians, the Renaissance predecessors of the oboe and bassoon….
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 We’ve all heard the dire prediction: 2012, the end of the Mayan calender also signifies the end of the world. When there’s a movie about it with John Cusack, you know it’s getting serious.
The MY2K blog takes a closer look at the symbols that make up the calendar (known as ‘glyphs’) and the meanings behind them. They take the form of books, carvings on rock and drawings. The blog explores the Mayan culture in many incarnations: from modern art to ruins, from 2012 comic strips to ancient customs. It is incredibly readable because it doesn’t take itself too seriously while still conveying new and interesting information.
The blog’s author, Susan, first became inspired by Guatemala in the 1970s when she backpacked around Central America with her soon-to-be husband. That was her first experience with the glyphs: seeing someone do a rubbing of a small stelae type monument in the middle of the jungle, though they were hardly a rarity there. Later, she read a book about the Mayans which made a reference to the infamous doomsday date and made her realize the sophistication of the Mayan civilization.
The blog doesn’t follow strict guidelines when it comes to source material; instead, Susan uses most any literature that inspires further questions for her to consider. The fact that the entries make sense of a broad spectrum of material is the aspect of her blog Susan is most proud of.
The response from the public has been very positive; like Susan, they are fascinated by the subject material. Although many blogs exist on 2012 and Mayan culture, her’s remains popular because she chooses to focus on the historical realities of the Mayan culture rather than capitalizing on the sensationalism of an end-of-days prediction.
She doesn’t think the world will end in 2012, but the hype surrounding it will be enormous, which won’t hurt her blog’s success.
To continue reading about the MY2K blog, please follow this link.
The following excerpt is from a February 7, 2010 article published by The Washington Post. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
IPALA, GUATEMALA — Red-shirted mariachis stroll singing and strumming into the dusty yard of a whitewashed villa where roosters crow the dawn. The lyrics of their serenade compare a maiden’s beauty to the shine of the moon, as homemade fireworks explode in the lightening sky.
…
Jennifer’s smile flashes on and off, as if she were groping for the proper response to all the attention. She is thinking about her mother, who was born in a shack around here and left as a famished farmer’s daughter 18 years ago. Now her mother cleans houses in suburban Maryland. And Jennifer has returned: A queen. An American citizen.
This is her day. She hopes her Spanish doesn’t fail her. “I kind of get stuck on big words,” she says.
Such great expectations have been invested in her, such dreams. She is proof of the future available to the children of those who strike out for a better life in the north. But her presence also speaks of a companion dream: The possibility of return, the possibility of never leaving at all.
Jennifer contains both. She is origin and destination. The whole aching drama of immigration might be distilled in the story of one transnational teenager on her special day in the pueblo of her mother’s birth…
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