The Resplendent Quetzal - an illusive bird but spotted on Guatemalan stamps and banknotes

Some of the stamps in  my late father's collection are the beautiful Guatemalan Quetzal bird stamps issued between 1881 - 7 .  These came to mind when planning a trip to Central America where we  visited Guatemala and hoped to catch sight of some of these beautiful birds, which are a symbol of the country, also appearing on the flag, and giving their name to the Guatemalan currency.


 The currency is also called the  Quetzal, and the bird appears  in flight on each note, as below.

Sadly we didn't see any real live Quetzals, but brought home some hand made beaded versions for the Christmas tree!

 Birds, including the Quetzal also appear on hand made textiles, produced throughout the country - more about  this to follow!
Historically, the  ancient Mayans used the feathers of the resplendent quetzal as decoration and these can be seen in some of the stone carvings in Mayan sites such as Tikal in Guatemala and Palenque in Mexico. It's always good to have a local guide who can point out these things,  as these ancient sculpted details, like the birds, are often very difficult to spot! On the right of this stone stella, if you look very carefully, you can see the tail feathers of the Qutezal which adorned the headress of Pakal, a Mayan emperor.

Sorry, no postcards sent from Guatemala

I found a post office while I was in Antigua,  Guatemala, but there were no stamps for sale, and  no way to send postcards, due to a long dispute between the Government and the Postal Service. I had heard about this from a friend in Guatemala, but wanted to double check that nothing had changed, which sadly, it hadn't. There are private couriers and methods of sending mail, but I'm not sure how reliable these are. There was  only one member of staff in this reasonably sized Post Office, and I was the only customer.  I was told the only place to  buy stamps is Guatemala City but we weren't able to go there this time.
I do have some  beautiful old Guatemalan stamps from a collection which was my dad's and these seem  even more precious now that we've visited this wonderful country!  More about the stamps  and locations  we visited coming soo

This  Guatemalan postbox  hasn't been used for a while!