The Guatemala City AIRPORT and Buying ART

This will be a long post since it's the Insecure Writer's Post of the Month and also the first one of the A to Z Challenge, and I'm covering several topics.

What I am most insecure about this month is Time. Wasting my Time. Not using it effectively. Avoiding Work. If all I had to do as a writer was Social Media, I'd have no problems with work because I love social media. I love Twitter and Blogging and Facebook and all aspects of social media marketing. I could do it the entire day. Compared to the writing it's easy. Not as satisfying, but easy, yes.

Writing a novel is hard, laborious, difficult, detailed WORK. I tend to avoid it, which makes me insecure about my priorities. Writing my next book is a priority yet I push it to the back of my schedule, day after day after day. Not good. I'm working on doing better. After this month, I think I will do better. Okay, now that I have that off my chest, on to the big event of April, the A to Z Challenge:

First post in the A to Z Challenge:

When people fly in to Guatemala, the first thing they see is the airport. For such a large city, it's a very small airport. You come in, are directed to your luggage pickup at one of several carousels, then guided through customs. It all takes about thirty minutes before you're steered through the door where a crowd is waiting, people watching for whoever they're waiting for.

We wait with a shuttle van parked nearby, the driver loads in the guest's luggage, and then we hand you a water bottle and head off. It's a three hour drive from Guatemala City to Panajachel, with beautiful mountain scenery.

This is where tourists will catch their first view of the Mayans, people who have lived among these mountains and villages for thousands of years, still wearing the traditional clothing, often speaking the ancient languages. The ones in the mountains live much as their ancestors did, growing corn, bean and squash, cooking over open fires, gathering wood from the forests for daily use.

One of the items that immediately catches the attention of tourists when they get to the Lake Atitlan region is the art. The Mayan people are very artistic, even the children seem to have natural talent at drawing and creating things.

When you buy the art, the vendor will remove it from the wooden framing and roll it securely for packing. Even the small paintings must be removed because U.S. Customs will not allow the wood from Guatemala into the country.

My sister and I pose with the artist of the piece she chose to purchase. It cost Q350 or about $75.








The woman in the photos below lives and works in San Juan, one of the smaller villages along the lake. I truly love her work. When I'm ready to select a painting for my home, I'm buying it from her.