Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / All travel posts / Going to Quetzaltenango
Previous post: I should perhaps add…
Next post: Made it to Quetzaltenango

April 25, 2005 by Tien Chiu

Going to Quetzaltenango

I´m stringing the next few episodes in chronological order, as if I´d written them at the time, rather than all at once. I´ll try to get the dates right.

So: Monday, April 25.

Got up this morning and went down to the Ixchel Museum, which is renowned for its textile displays, in hopes that they could find me a textiles expert to act as guide. Didn´t work; they didn´t have anyone who did this normally and weren´t willing to ask random university students, etc. whether they´d be interested. The textile displays were nice, including a very nice set of models of backstrap looms being woven, and sections on the significance of various symbols, but on the whole the samples weren´t as good as they were at the Archaelogy and Ethnobotanical Museum. I did, however, buy just about all their books on weaving and textiles, which include detailed explanations of how they weave and a couple of cultural studies on particular towns. I don´t have time to read them now, but they´ll be cool to have back home.

I am pleased to say that the travelingtigress has collected herself back out of culture-shock “aack!! I need someone to hold my hand the entire time I´m here” and is starting to show some traces of independence. I think I´ll be looking for local guides rather than taking along the same person the entire way. Locals are also likely to know more about the area.

So, I´ve decided to leave for Quetzaltenango, which is the second-biggest city in Guatemala. There I´ll see if I can find a local English-speaking textile-expert guide, and if that doesn´t work, I´ll do a crash course in Spanish and see what I can manage. One thing is obvious to me: the majority of people here don´t speak English, so it´s going to be more of a challenge than I thought. (In Southeast Asia everyone who has anything to do with tourism speaks English.)

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: All travel posts, Central America, Guatemala

Previous post: I should perhaps add…
Next post: Made it to Quetzaltenango

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Information resources

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • How-Tos
    • Dyeing and surface design
    • Weaving
    • Designing handwoven cloth
    • Sewing

Blog posts

  • All blog posts
    • food
      • chocolate
    • musings
    • textiles
      • dyeing
      • knitting
      • sewing
      • surface design
      • weaving
    • writing

Archives

Photos from my travels

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • Travels
    • Thailand
    • Cambodia
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • India
    • Ghana
    • China

Travel Blog

Entertaining miscellanies

© Copyright 2016 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·