Tertiary Colors in Terra Guatemala

There are six tertiary colors on the Pigment Color Wheel. It is good to remember that each tertiary color is derived from mixing equal amounts of One Primary Color plus an adjoining Secondary Color. So lets see what I discovered while recently visiting Guatemala. Remember that beautiful blue being woven beside Lake Atitlan in an earlier post? Mix that blue with the green at Hotel La Porta in Antigua and you get this incredible blue green.These hanging flowers which look like cascading blue-green orchids were sighted at the Hotel El Pensativo in Antigua.

Blue-violet is made with violet a secondary color and blue a primary color, a color seen in the shy volcano peeking behind another volcano on the edge of Lake Atitlan.

I found red violet on the property of the La Porta Hotel in Antigua. These wonderful blossoms were being swept up by the groundsman.

To be continued----

Color Fragile and Strong

While in Guatemala spring came to the Front Range. This is not the usual time for spring in the Rockies as it seems to normally come about the middle of April. The quiet green furze of leaves begin to appear in the trees and I wait with relief for it all to unfold. This year I feel uncertain as we didn't witness deep snows or multiple cold weeks interspersed with warm days. This year it was multiple warm days interspersed with an occasional cold day. I thought this Haiku in the Denver Post caught the feeling of our undeserved spring beautifully.
"Brittle Denver spring

fragile buds, porcelain blooms

storm's breakage coming"

by Mary Reeves of Littleton , Colorado.
I was surprised to come home to the purple of crocuses and the appearance of daffodils all before St. Patrick's Day. I had just left this sight of violet jacaranda trees in the Parque Central of Antigua.

The Plaza is a meeting place for tourists, school children, demonstrations of clowns, office workers. I think someday I should just sit there from morning through evening to watch the movement of groups of people. The fountain was originally built in the 1700's but restored in 1936. Starting off as I am with violet do you see I am thinking about the secondary colors of Guatemala. The orange of this unknown to me flower, which I saw at the Hotel mansion El Pensativo was unforgettable. I saw a strong representative of the third secondary color - green- at our hotel , La Porta, of Antigua. I am looking forward to showing you at another date the tertiary colors I saw. what an inspiration!

Discovering color in Guatemala

Meet pure Guatemalan RED,as seen in the Solola market. Delicious and if washed carefully can provide many wonderful meals. Is this the inspiration for the red used in the woven textiles of "G"?

Then comes the deep BLUE of a distant volcano, woven into a weaving in Santa Cruz on Lake Atitlan.

Followed by the YELLOW of the Iglesia La Merced. (The Iglesia La Merced is in Antigua and construction was begun in 1548 followed by reconstruction after the 1976 earthquake.) Now you have seen how the three primary colors can be found in Guatemala.

Volunteering in The Most Beautiful Place in the World

Last year I was introduced to the beauty of Guatemala. My husband and I volunteered with the Cascade Medical Team of Eugene, Oregon. It was such a remarkable experience we decided to do this again but this time we included our two grown daughters, Kate and Johanna.

The four of us are not medical professionals so our job on the team are either support or outreach into the Guatemalan community. The members of the medical team we supported is made up of volunteers mainly from the Eugene/Portland Oregon area. They have been travelling to beautiful Solola, Guatemala for the past 6 years. You can find out more at http://www.cmt-oregon.org/ and also at http://www.helpsintl.org/. . Every year is remarkable working with these people as they aid the Mayan villagers who live in and around Solola. This is truly one of "The Most Beautiful Places in the World" as described in a poignant book by the American author, Anne Cameron. however the peoople do live on the brink of great poverty for a host of reasons.

Better health is one of the best ways to start rebuilding natural resources. This year the CMT 's medical team and Outreach saw 1686 patients, the Dental team had 286 patients and pulled over 5oo teeth, there were 72 cases in OR/Surgery which included hernias, gall bladders, thyroidectomy,plastic surgeries, cleft lip and palate repairs aslo 28 patients were given sight by the eye team. All this occurred during 7 days in March. Besides this awesome medical team there are members who translate, work triage, do Lab work and Ultrasound also Pharmacists and a complete other program which builds stoves in the interior and exterior of villagers homes. This year the construction team installed 71 ONIL stoves and 70 Plancha stoves, 80 water filters and an institutional stove plus 2 water filters for a school. Whew! we were busy. My husband and daughter Joey worked construction, my daughter Kate translated in triage and I worked in the kitchen, we served 2500 meals to the team.

Meanwhile working with the team members and soaking up another country is the emotional high of the trip.