Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Wall Art of Comitan

Comitan is a great walking city. There are wide sidewalks stretching off into interesting places, and often hordes of other people around strolling, shopping, visiting. My husband and I have been all over town and not once felt anything but safe. He takes his camera when he goes and especially enjoys taking pictures of the wall art that's everywhere.

I thought I'd post a few of my favorites. This leopard is the winner, followed by the snake. The leopard is regal and majestic, the snake just cute and friendly.



It's amazing to me how an artist can paint on such a large canvas as a wall, with great detail that one has to move far away to appreciate. How do they do it? And when do they do it? I've never seen anyone painting the walls, then one day it's done.


I'm glad the authorities don't go around arresting or fining anyone, or painting over their work. The artists don't get anything for their creations except the joy of doing it for public display. For the joy it gives them and gives those who see it as they go around town.


The scene below is painted on a wall in a children's park. It's so sweet and charming, illustrating the culture of an earlier time.


Ending with another depiction of an earlier era, the Aztec culture. We lived among the Mayan culture in Guatemala. Mexico is land of the Aztecs. They are much friendlier these days, thank goodness. And the food is amazing.


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Our Guatemala Experience

I'm currently working on a book about our Guatemala experience. We sold everything we had, moved to Guatemala and stayed there two years. Right now we live in Mexico, and yet Guatemala is fresh on my mind. I can't write fast enough. There's so much that happened to us, so much to write about.

I published a blog post on my website, an excerpt from the book, here. They say writing a memoir is painful. I certainly felt that with my self-help memoir, as I wrote about on my last post

I'm not feeling that kind of pain with this new project. Mostly just an urgency to get it all down before the memories fade away.