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Antigua Guatemala has four entrances to the city. If we think of them as doors, this would be the main door: the road that comes from Guatemala City. La Antigua Guatemala is located at only 45 kilometres from Guatemala City; you can travel it in about an hour driving safely. If you consider that, in some cases, you can travel for two hours and still be inside Guatemala City, 60 minutes is a short time that separates two completely different cities. Guatemala City is the largest and most chaotic city of Central America. Meanwhile, Antigua is a tiny colonial town with cobblestone streets. Guatemala City is a modern city with skyscrapers, tree-lined boulevards and streets, with a huge metropolitan area, and the most horrible public transportation system in the world. On the other hand, Antigua building code does not allow for two-storey buildings, there are some, but new buildings can not be built; there is no public transportation system, unless you count the tuk tuk and taxis; most of the streets are one-lane ways. So, there is a huge distance that separates Antigua from Guatamala City, and it is not measured in kilometres.

lock and stock, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The side entrance to the garden of Hotel Porta Antigua is guarded by this very old lock. I was shown the key to the lock once and as I remember it was huge compare to our modern standards. I like the look and feel of the whole gate.

Old tree from the Popenoe House garden, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

As your enter the Popenoe House, the main feature of the garden is this old tree. The house is only open for two hours (14.00 – 16.00 hrs.) every day except Sunday. Entrance fee US1.25. I am planing to do a photo tour of the house; I promise I will post more photos.

Entrance to the Popenoe House, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

This is the entrance to the Popenoe House, a colonial mansion restored by Wilson Popenoe from the United Fruit Company. An intimate glimpse into the house and its rich history and rebirth was done on the May issue Revue Magazine(page 10) as PDF download. The house was built in 1634 by a supreme court judge originally from Spain. Over the years it was abandoned and fell into disrepair, until finally in 1932, it was bought and restored by Doctor Wilson Popenoe, a United Fruit Company scientist… (text from virtual tourist ).

Sidenotes:
The United Fruit Company played a malevolent role in the history of Guatemala. The Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was toppled by covert action of the United States government in 1954, after the directors of UFCO had lobbied to the Truman and Eisenhower administrations (text from Wikipedia).

Miguel Ángel Asturias, a 1967 Nobel Prize in literature, wrote The Banana Trilogy, three books (novels) about what the UFCO did in Central America. The books are Viento Fuerte (The Cyclone, 1950), El papa verde (The Green Pope, 1954) and Los ojos de los enterrados (The Eyes of the Interred, 1960). These are very good reads and they can be fount at Amazon.

Also, the local hearsay is that Mr. Popenoe took the local avocado variant to California and from it the Hass avocado emerged.

Now, there are many more stories from this tiny town and I will them to you as I come across the photos that serve as trampoline.

Look, I am watching you, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

A young Antiguan lady was watching me as I took the photo that will be published tomorrow. As I turned around, I saw her peeking through the window, and I was quick on the shutter button. I guess I was lucky that the camera responded as well.

Selling furniture on Antigua’s streets, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

The other day, on my way to work, I saw this wood-carver selling his furniture on the street. I parked and took a snapshot for this blog. Later that day, on my way home for lunch, I saw a car parked next to wood-carver; he was smiling and pay attention to what the lady next to him was saying; his furniture was already loaded on her vehicle. The sale was made within a few hours: good for him.

Best coffee in the world, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

We produce the best coffee in the world: coffee from Antigua. I said it on my May 1st post and again on May 26th, but I am not the only one saying it. Here you see a sign at the entrance of a Cafe near my office.

Sidenote:
The pound here cost Q45 (quetzal is the local coin), which is about US$6. The minimum wage salary for the day is Q40 which means about 60% of Guatemalans can NOT have this coffee.

What a paradox, they produce, but they can not have it.

Chiltepe is the name given to Guatemala’s most widely-used hot pepper. I posted a photo of shrimp ceviche, a shrimp coctail, on May 14th that had chiltepe in it. In the picture above, you can see chiltepes as they are sold in the mercado of La Antigua Guatemala.

Here is another fruit stand in Antigua’s market. Most vegetable and fruits stands are owned by Guatemala’s indigenous people. The mayority of Guatemalan markets do not pay taxes to government and they do not extend sales receipts. Vendors do, however, pay for the right to sell in the market.

Veggies and Lucky, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Antigua’s market days are Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Although, you can go to the market everyday, vegetables and fruits are fresher on those days. In market days the supply of goods cuadruples. I posted another shot of the market on May 12th; here you can see Lucky our friendly vegetable vendor.

Arch and fountain of Jaulón, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Okay, here is another fine example of a building restoration. Most buildings in Antigua are one-story, but you can still find two-story buildings, usually used as shopping centers. The Jaulón building houses a bank, a cafe, a bar, a jewelry store, among other business. P.S. El Jaulón is Spanish for big cage.

If you thought I was kidding when I said that if you take a stroll in Antigua you will be approached by people trying to sell you orchids. Well, here you have the sellers, some of them at least. Come on down to Antigua, they are waiting for you.

Antigüeños demand safety, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Many businesses and Antigüeños demanded safety from the city and province government today. There has been a lot of crime for a while now and the Antigüeños said today: enough is enough. The whole story can be read in Spanish here.

Veggie Oil Bus, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

For being such a small city, Antigua has more non-governmental organizations (NGOs, thanks anonymous) based here than maybe any city in Central America. NGOs or private voluntary organization (PVO) are tough cookie to swallow and there seems to be two camps on the subject: the ones that say NGOs are necessary and the ones that think NGOs are useless and even harmful to poor countries.

My very short experience is that they are usually run by locals, Guatemalan in this case, who are paid in Guatemalan salaries, in quetzales (Guatemalan coin, about US$1 buys 8 quetzales), and live in the towns around Antigua, while the appointed directors or administrators are European or U.S. citizens and they are paid with first world salaries, in Dollars or Euros, and live in Antigua. So far, NGOs appear to replicate the unjust system they are trying to alleviate.

On the photo you see a bus powered by veggie oil driven all the way here from San Francisco, California, so they told me.

Sidenote:
I want to thank the 1.190 visitors who made 1.769 visits to the Antigua Daily Photo in its first 31 days of existence. Also, I enjoy very much all your comments; keep them coming.