Indigenous Villages of Antigua

Famous for ancient Mayan ruins, lush rainforests and towering volcanoes, Guatemala is located in Central America and bordered by Mexico to the north and west, Belize to the northeast, Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast. Its history dates back to Mayan civilizations from 2600 BC – 1697 AD, while its modern history began with the Spanish Conquest of Guatemala in 1524 and its independence from Spain and Mexico in 1821. Known as “Land of Eternal Spring”, Guatemala’s unique heritage and natural beauty create a rich landscape of tropical weather, interlaced traditions and proud people.

These days, the country has settled into peace and is a land rich in flavor and biodiversity. Local produce, coffee and chocolate production can be found throughout the country, particularly in the fertile soil surrounding the villages of Lake Atitlán, a massive volcanic crater lake often considered the most beautiful lake in the world. West of Guatemala City, the country’s capital, lies Antigua, a charming town home to colorfully preserved Spanish colonial buildings and countless cathedrals and monasteries. Indigenous villages dot the country and those I visited offer delights like macadamia nut farms, textile cooperatives, central markets and food stalls oozing authentic Guatemalan art, food and culture.

My adventures in Guatemala started out rough, with a missed flight and multiple trips back and forth to LAX but was worth the trouble once I landed in the candy colored colonial city of Antigua. Flying into Guatemala City, Antigua can be reached by taxi in under an hour for about $35 USD. After spending a few magical days wandering Antigua on foot, I booked a day trip to Lake Atitlán to explore Mayan villages and volcanic crater lakes. Later, back in Antigua, I linked up with a local guide to tour the surrounding indigenous villages in search of macadamia nuts, textile markets and authentic Guatemalan fare. My final destination was Tikal, an ancient Mayan civilization hidden in the rainforests of northern Guatemala, using Flores as my base.

Favorite places to visit in Guatemala

Contents

• Devour Macadamia Pancakes at Valhalla Macadamia Farm

• Admire Gorgeous Textiles by San Antonio Agua Calientes Weaving Cooperative

• Discover Traditional Guatemalan Ways of Life

• Wander a Local Market at the Base of Volcán de Agua

• Explore Antigua's Central Market & Taste Guatemala's National Dish

Devour Macadamia Pancakes at Valhalla Macadamia Farm

My guide for the day was Delia, a local Guatemalan woman interested in showing me a good time. I’d received her contact information from my hotel and arranged a day tour to the villages surrounding Antigua. Delia arrived at my stay, Good Hotel Antigua, at 8:30 in the morning to get an early start. We’d be heading to a macadamia nut farm called Valhalla Macadamia Farm & Restaurant about 30 minutes southwest near San Miguel Dueñas. And more than anything, I couldn’t wait to visit their restaurant, Valhalla Oxygen Lounge, to taste homemade dishes with organic macadamia nuts.

Breakfast was first. My order of gluten free blueberry macadamia nut pancakes with a side of papaya and latte reached the table quickly. The flavor of the pancakes was incredible but they were a bit dense and the frozen blueberries were a surprise. Delia and I sat chatting about Antigua and its surrounding villages, while I enjoyed my meal.

Once I was finished with breakfast, we received a tour of the grounds, exploring the macadamia plants at various stages of growth. We also learned about the history of the farm, how it came to be and the harvesting process. At the end, we’d visit the gift shop to taste macadamia nuts and purchase goods made at the farm.

But first, why macadamia trees? Perhaps most importantly, macadamia trees help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, more so than other crops. Because of their unique physiology, large size (heights up to 49 feet), long lifespan and substantial volume of foliage, macadamia trees are able to hold a significant amount of carbon. The trees can live for 50-150 years and even produce for over 100 years. Additionally, macadamia nuts are very nutritious, they are in high demand and are a constant source of food. Planting macadamia trees can help prevent erosion and cultivating the nuts provides year round employment and income.

The farm’s mission is simple. They’re dedicated to preserve and heal the planet through sustainable agriculture and the education of indigenous people. So, it’s no wonder Valhalla Macadamia Farm has had success and plants every tree with passion. For over 20 years, they’ve been planting and maintaining macadamia trees, preserving the environment and promoting sustainable agriculture.

The story of Valhalla Macadamia Farm began decades ago. After retiring as a fireman in Redwood City, California in 1972, Lawrence Gottschamer studied sustainable agriculture with Dr. Edelberto Camacho, a well known agricultural engineer in Costa Rica. Once his time was finished in Costa Rica, Lawrence traveled to Guatemala, a country without much knowledge of the macadamia. While there, he met his wife, Emilia Aguirre, who shared his passion for the environment.

The two worked together in the effort of environmental preservation and in 1984, they acquired macadamia seedlings from the California Macadamia Society. At the time, this stock was considered one of the most advanced gene pools of macadamia in its day. The next year, Lawrence and Emilia founded the Experimental Station Valhalla. By selectively breeding the varieties from California, they were able to get local varieties to produce without requiring a graft, helping preserve the genetic diversity of a species and supporting sustainable agricultural practices.

Their main goal was to find solutions that help local indigenous communities have access to additional income, employment and general well being. Planting macadamia tress addresses many of these issues surprisingly well, and so, Valhalla started donating macadamia trees to local farming communities, hoping farmers would grow, eat, sell and benefit from them, with a constant source of income, food and labor. Over time, hundreds of thousands of macadamia trees have been planted throughout Guatemala, providing the country with the most diverse gene bank of macadamia varieties.

The process of growing macadamia trees is slow but worth the wait. Seedlings require about six years to produce trees that are ready to generate nuts and reach full production at 12-15 years. Once producing, nuts are in season all year long. As the trees flower, they grow small green nut-in-shells, which over time fall to the ground as they are ready.

Workers gather the nuts from the ground and move them to a fairly rudimentary machine for processing. The husks, or outer green part of the shell, are removed revealing a hard brown shell inside is called the endocarp. These are dried in the sun for 20-30 days, reducing the moisture content to around 1-3% and then moved to another area.

The endocarps are cracked open to extract an edible kernel inside. The extracted kernels are sorted and graded based on size, color and quality and lesser nuts are removed. From there, the kernels are ready to eat as snacks, roast or make products like creams, oils, soaps and butters.

During my visit, I was able to test out the machines and see exactly how they operate. Certain machines were used to crack off the tough green shell, while others were used for sorting. As the nuts roll down the slats, they fall into troughs below, depending upon size.

Harvesting by hand is slow and simple but effective. From my understanding, larger facilities would use automated machines rather than those operated by hand using small batches.

Historically, macadamia nuts are a tree nut native to Australia but are now grown in different areas of the world like Hawaii and parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa. The nuts have a mild, butter-like flavor and can be eaten raw or added to recipes.

While high in fat, macadamia nuts mostly contain monounsaturated fats, a heart-healthy type of fat and are packed with vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, manganese and iron. I also learned that there are several different varieties of macadamia nuts because as bees pollinate, they tend to mix everything up, or cross pollinate. Cross-pollination can also increase the quantity and weight of nuts and improve the quality and yield of the crop compared to self-pollination. To improve the pollination rate in an existing orchard farmers can replace unproductive or incompatible trees with another variety that is compatible.

And finally, the best part - after learning all things macadamia, I got to taste some of the delicious nuts. Smooth, mild and buttery, these were the best I’d ever eaten.

After the tour, I was shown the gift shop where they sell a variety of products. Of course, I picked up a few packs of plain nuts, along with macadamia oil. Macadamia oil is one of the best natural skin moisturizers and contains oleic acids that mimic skin’s natural water barrier properties. Their oil is 100% natural, without preservatives of any kind and is the highest quality possible.

Oh, and don’t forget to stop by the farm’s outdoor toilet. It’s a bamboo shack turned lush garden overflowing with ferns, tropical plants and flowers.

Up next, we’d head 20 minutes north to a textile cooperative in San Antonio Aguas Calientes.

Admire Gorgeous Textiles by San Antonio Aguas Calientes Weaving Cooperative

San Antonio Aguas Calientes Weaving Cooperative helps provide income for woman weavers in the San Antonio Aguas Calientes area near Antigua. The cooperative offers services to local women and encourages success through selling textiles made with the traditional backstrap loom. They do this by helping support a massive artisan center in the middle of town. It’s lined with stalls, 10 feet deep and eight feet wide, displaying thousands of beautifully woven authentic textiles.

While traditional native dress has disappeared in many parts of the world, Guatemala remains a place where the vast majority of the Mayan people still proudly wear their traditional dress, called traje. The women wear traditional huipiles, or woven blouses, and cortes, long woven skirts. It’s this form of clothing that’s held closely to the Mayan culture and created through generations of weavers using the backstrap loom.

The backstrap loom can be seen as far back as 2500 BC in the Mayan villages of Guatemala and Peru, along with several other Central and South American countries. It’s one of the oldest forms of weaving, with earliest evidence of it traced back to the Bronze Iron Age.

Backstrap looms, also known as telar de cinteron or belt looms, are simple, mobile tools used in Guatemalan weaving traditions. They are ocommonly made by the weaver themselves from sticks, rods and threads, and can be rolled up easily for storage. The loom gets its name from the strap that goes around the weaver's waist, which is used to create tension as the weaver moves back and forth.

In the making of cloth, warp and weft are the two basic elements in weaving which transform thread and yarn into textiles. The vertical warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a loom while the horizontal weft is drawn through the warp thread.

A weaver must first prepare the warp by wrapping thread around a warping frame, then transferring it to the loom. One end of the rod is tied to a tree or a post for support, while the other end is placed around the weaver’s waist or back using the belt. The heddle sticks are then used to separate alternate threads of the warp. To weave, the weaver sits on the ground or a small stool and rocks back and forth to create tension. The first and last six inches of warp can be left unwoven and used to create braids or tassels.

Weavers in Guatemala use a variety of techniques on their backstrap looms, like pic bil, a delicate technique using fine threads to create something close to embroidered-looking textiles. They also use additional weft patterning to create outlines of shapes, filling them in with various designs like animals, plants or people.

At the cooperative, my guide and I spent some time with Sonya, a local weaver, at her stall. We talked about the different types of textiles she had for sale, how each were created and how long each style took to produce, along with their corresponding price. I was shocked to learn that some pieces take several weeks or even months to create and hold a special place in the weavers heart. Sonya was very kind and even offered to dress me in a traditional Mayan outfit including the blouse, skirt, belt and headdress. It was all good fun.

Mayan women wear their traditional Mayan outfits as everyday clothes and so I asked how they’re able to wear such beautiful clothing day after day. She explained, they only have a few outfits, maybe two or three, and they must be washed between wears. It was incredible to learn that even though these women spend most of their lives weaving, they only were able to afford a few outfits but had enough pride to wear their special dress each day. Of course I wanted to purchase something wonderful from Sonya to show my appreciation, so I selected a rich turquoise blanket with gold, wine and emerald embroidery.

Discover Traditional Guatemalan Ways of Life

Delia was excited for me to try some street food in her hometown of San Pedro Las Huertas. Her favorite spot was posted up in the center of town under a brightly colored umbrella. Serving tostadas and atol blanco for modest prices, Delia treated me to both dishes.

On chilly mornings in Guatemala's highland markets, shoppers and vendors stay warm with steaming cups of atol. Made from ground corn and flavored with a range of toppings ranging from cinnamon to black beans, the thick Maya drink has a creamy density and custardy sweetness similar to eggnog.

The tostada was made with a thick chewy corn shell, smeared with avocado and topped with lettuce and hot sauce. It was the perfect combination and I loved every bite. The atol was creamy and thick, accented with black beans.

In the square, Tanque de la Unión, a public lavaderos or washing station was being used by locals to clean and rinse clothing. Several women were busy washing their items by hand, swishing them about in the massive pool of water coined Pilas de Santa Clara.

Across the plaza was a beautiful church in pale yellow with white accents, Parroquia San Pedro y San Juan Bautista. The church began construction in 1560 but wasn’t finished until sometime between 1798 and 1804. The architecture is Romanesque Baroque with an interior in the Rocco style including gold and gold leaf trim, large paintings and a niche for offerings where visitors pray for help with illness.

And, as luck would have it, I was finally able to get up close and personal with the popular Guatemalan chicken bus. Buses are incredibly important in Guatemala and surrounding countries as a major mode of transportation and are additionally valuable in commerce because personal vehicles and trains are less common than in wealthy countries.

The vehicles are known as chicken buses for the occasional bird that flies out of a passenger's basket and are used to transport all types of goods including small animals and bultos (baskets, bags or boxes) full of vegetables, fruits, flowers, textiles and so on.

These buses can be quite the experience, so keep your eyes and ears open. Though they’re adored with bright colors and often beeping horns or blaring music, they tend to fly by in the blink of an eye, leaving only a trail of dust behind. If interested, wave your hand to signal you’d like a ride, hop on and grab a seat quickly.

The chofer, or driver, has an assistant known as el brocha. El brocha is in charge of collecting cash fares from passengers and loading bultos on top of the bus. Brochas also announce the stops, so keep close by if you’re nervous. The chicken buses run on a tight schedule and require a bit of bravery to master but offer a real authentic experience while in Guatemala.

Called by the Spanish names “camioneta” or “trambilla”, the vehicles began life in the United States as yellow school buses. After about 10 years of use and with over 150,000 miles, they’re auctioned and sold to Central American drivers who repurpose them for a second life. Buyers pay about $2,000 each and then drive the bus all the way down to Guatemala or beyond. This second life usually includes flashy upgrades like neon lights, bright colors and various additions like speakers or religious paraphernalia.

Wander a Local Market at the Base of Volcán de Agua

For our next stop we visited the small town of Santa María de Jesús, which lies below Volcán de Agua. The town is known as a base for climbers hiking the impressive volcano. The tree covered Volcán de Agua stratovolcano forms an imposing backdrop to the former capital city of Antigua, opposite the twin volcanoes of Fuego and Acatenango. The volcano has had no historical eruptions but its name does originate from a devastating mudflow in 1541. The mudflow destroyed the first Guatemalan capital city established by the Spanish conquistadors, now known as Ciudad Vieja. The disaster prompted the establishment of a new capital city in nearby Antigua. All this feels evident visiting the town, as tour offices line the edges of the town center, each with tattered posters offering the next hike up the volcano.

Delia and I made our way to central market in the village of Santa María de Jesús, stopping to speak with locals along the way. Seventy-three year old Viviana was super cute, selling beans in large plastic bins. She’s a mother of 14 children, half of which had passed away, and only made it through the first grade. Viviana landed in produce because she didn’t like weaving, the main skill women learn in the region. She was such a sweetie but shy, and had an infectious smile, though when she did she tried her best to hide several missing teeth.

From there, Delia and I browsed the rest of the outdoor food market, pausing at stalls to look closer at what they had to offer. And Delia picked up something she needed for dinner.

In time, we bumped into two little boys playing in the market, Pedrito and Brian. Delia seemed curious about the two and tried to pry for information but they weren’t having it.

They did, however, seem interested in getting a few photos taken. They were adorable and I was bummed I couldn’t hang with them for longer, especially since my poor Spanish could’ve been used to connect with the boys.

Bidding them goodbye, our last stop of the day would be Central Market back in Antigua.

Explore Antigua's Central Market & Taste Guatemala's National Dish

Heading back to Antigua, Delia suggested we stop by Central Market to eat at her mother’s food stall. There she serves chicken pepián, one of the oldest dishes in Guatemala’s food heritage. Born out of the fusion of Spanish and Mayan cultures, it’s possibly the most famous Guatemalan stew, a Mayan curry of sorts. Pepián de pollo is commonly referred to as Guatemala's national dish and is made by serving chicken in sauce made of chiles, pumpkin, tomatoes, onions and sesame seeds.

Rushing through the aisles overflowing with fruit, vegetables and grains, we found Delia’s mom’s food stall deep within the market and grabbed a seat at a wooden table with long wooden benches. Without hesitation, we were served fresh slices of persimmon.

Then, the pepián arrived. A hot steamy plate of rich brown sauce smothered a massive chicken drumstick and side of rice. The dish was served with taro, avocado, tortillas and sides of various sauces that lighten the heaviness of the dish. Everything was incredibly delicious.

During my time there, I also learned that in order to sell in a stall, you have to buy it outright. Delia’s mother owns her stall, which after saving for most of her life, paid $25,000 USD for. Today, its value has risen to nearly $45,000 USD.

Sadly, the day was coming to an end. There wasn’t much time to explore the market any further but all that I saw was captivating and activity continued in all directions, the rush before closing. The market was full of locals gathering produce, meat and fish for the day, while vendors continued to sell souvenirs of all kinds, ripe fruit and freshly cut flowers. Women dressed in traditional clothing were busy making their final purple corn tortillas or selling mounds of peppers, mangoes or potatoes, even with children in tow.

After dinner, I spent one last night in Antigua before flying to Flores and making the trek to Tikal for an incredible day exploring the Mayan ruins of Tikal National Park.

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Map of Antigua