Guatemalan Textiles

In this blog post, I will be telling you about the textiles that are made here in Guatemala.

 A woman's dress is made almost always made up of a long skirt, a woven belt and a woven and embroidered shirt.  Most weavers still use the traditional natural plant dyes to dye the yarn.  Also, almost all weavers use cotton as their yarn to weave with.

this is a natural dye called ajocote

A lot of the things that the weavers weave are like hammocks, table runners, tablecloths, blankets, clothes and hammock chairs.  Usually, these textiles have geometric, floral, animal, or human designs.  Textile looms are composed of short wooden sticks that are put in the loom to make the weaving process easier.  Almost all of the women and some of the men still wear the traditional clothing of their village.

Of all the textiles that I have seen, I like the clothes the best because they are always so elaborate.

this is a woman's belt

these are some of the yarns that the weavers use

these middle school girls are wearing their village's traditional

 clothing.

Handwork

me doing a rock sculpture

At school, we have a class called handwork.  In handwork, we are making rock sculptures.  In total, everyone has two finished pieces and one that we are currently working .

To carve the rocks, we are using a chisel and a hammer.  This is a photo of me with "Nacho" (the handwork and music teacher) helping me on my rock.  Also in handwork, we have little buddies that we help in handwork every Monday afternoon.

Here is some info about Mayan rock sculptures:

•the sculptures are made with an amazing amount of detail.

•the altars are usually frogs.

•some royal stairways have carvings in them.

•jaguars and musicians are used in a lot of their sculptures.

Lago Atitlan

About 85,000 years ago, Super volcano Atitlan erupted.  The eruption was huge.  People in Florida and Panamá found pieces of the volcano's explosion.  The eruption covered the sky with black ash.  It also created a crater for a lake,now called lago Atitlan.


15,000 years after Super volcano Atitlan, the San Pedro volcano began to erupt and form.  30,000 years later Tolimán, 30,000 after that, Atitlan(not the super volcano).


And that is how Lago Atitlan was formed over many years.

Guatemala!

This is the dock where I catch a boat to school every day.

    On January 25th my mom and I arrived at Lago Atitlan in Guatemala.  While we are here, I will be going to Escuela Caracol.  Escuela  Caracol is in San Marcos La Laguna.  Every day, when I go to school, I take a launcha (a small motor boat taxi) that goes as fast as it can even on really, really bumpy waves, to get there and then walk the rest of the way.  Sometimes to get back we take a "tuk tuk".  A tuk tuk is a little three wheeled car with no doors.  In Mexico, tuk tuks are called "Moto Taxis".

This is me jumping off of a rope swing over the lake.  In the background you can see the San
Pedro volcano.

This is my classroom with my whole class in it.