One of my most favorite towns that i have ever visited is Antigua, Guatemala. So I definately knew that I wanted to revist here. I also knew that last time I was here in 2005 I bought a beautiful beaded braclet that I have wheeled out on many a special occasion since then. I wanted to see if I could get some more of this jewlerry for Happy-Hammock and I wanted to get an idea of what else was being sold in the handicrafts markets that would fit the brand.  

First a bit about Antigua … to say that you have visited the ‘real’ Guatemala is not to visit Antigua. Guatemala is a very poor and predominately rural, indigeounous country. Antigua is quite seperate from this, but I still love it. The architecture is amazing, beautiful cobble lined streets with pastel coloured colonial buildings, courtyards filled with fountains and flowers, great restaurants and cafes, boutiques selling lovely but expensive clothes and classy hotels. Antigua feels quite affluent whereas Guatemala as a country, clearly is not. I’m still not ashamed to say that I still love it ! It is one of the most beautiful relaxing towns I have been to, and I will visit it again and again whenever I can.

  central square .. blooming puple flowered trees (forget the name)   cobbled streets with famous arch .. shops and restaurants all the way down to the main square .. I wish I could rotate the photo .. last and only time I could do this was in an internet cafe in Accapulco of all places   Church on the main square at night .. like Oaxaca in Mexico there is alot of live music in the main square (especially classical) at night time (mostly on the weekends) … this night they were performing some pieces with a full orchestra all light up, and people were out either listening to the whole thing or just stopping buy for 20mins or so .. really nice.

Antigua is surrounded by volcanoes, which make a spectacular back drop. There is an active volcano close by called Volcan Pacaya which currently you can hike up (takes a few hours) and get up close and personal with lava .. great!

    on the way up   Volcan Pacaya

   me and  me in front of lava .. really close !! I sooo wish I could rotate these !   Here you can see the lava streams coming down (very slowly I might add). The looked amazing as it gor darker. I really enjoyed this hike and would highly recommend it to anyone passing through Guatemala … although getting this close to lava obviously carries some risk so make your own mind up.

Sourcing: Goods from Guatemala have been hitting the hippy stands and shops for many years now (much like Thailand), so going into the artisans markets didn’t really unearth much that i hadn’t already seen or that I felt, fitted the brand. The one thing that I have clocked here is that there are some lovely children’s clothes and I do feel keen to get into this as most of my friends and family will be (or already are) having children soon.

I found one potential supplier who has set up her own business making good quality clothes that I think have a very cute traditional vibe but are in funky colours. Here are some pictures of the types of things I would like to source into the Happy-Hammock brand for kids clothes …

          lovely traditional dresses for a party or dressing up on a Sunday .. good quality material and embroidery.

  Shorts for the boys        booties and a hat   dungarees and   hairbands with Guatemalan ‘Worry Dolls’for the girls.

I haven’t ordered any of these goods yet but will probably get a sample order for the summer to see how people react to it. I really liked the lady who ran the company. She is 1/2 Guatemalan and seems to have a genuine passion for developing a company that employs many Guatemaln people using traditional materials and ideas to make cool items.

I have also picked up a stack of funky kids dungarees from the market in San Crstobal, Mexico. I think that they are actually officially made in Guatemala but the peoples in the mountains are essentially from the same ethnic groups and tend to ‘bleed’ into each other.

            very cool … love these!

Back in Mexico now and about to do another loop of places visited to buy some Silver, pick up orders and see what else I may have missed.

Hobo Out x

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