La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

Not to long ago, on July 18th, I told you about the joys of walking in Antigua. I bring to you a similar shot. I hope you like this photo as much as I like it.

hi-tech low-tech, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Often in La Antigua Guatemala you find this dichotomy: old against new, high technology against low technology. The juxtaposition of a 360° closed-circuit camera (probably wireless with internet access) and a brick-n-mortar chimney is a very good example.

Antigua’s colors, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Nuno suggested that we should always look up, beauty is on every direction. That is exactly what I did for this shot; although it lacks the beauty that Nuno is giving us in July 2006, it serves to show you the color and quality of light at sunset, as well as you can see the wood beams and roof tiles that are emblematic of Antigua’s architecture.

This photo also represents the 100th entry in this blog since May 1st. It is not exactly 100 days, but I posted several pictures on the first day to get the feel for the design and to have a slide show of the photos I was going to be posting. If you click the slide show link, you can see all the photos in about 5 minutes.

At this milestone I asked myself if I am not being too wordy, this is a photolog after all, and maybe nobody reads or cares for the long captions anyway. So, I decided, unless you tell me otherwise, to have short and brief caption from this point forward. I thank the 9,521 visits people have made to this blog; I am close to reaching the 10,000 visits milestone, which will probably happen before August 1st. Please, come back often, I promise to be brief and I will put more effort into the quality of the images.

Here is the other side of the Tanque de la Unión.

Yesterday I showed you a public laundry washbasin in Ciudad Vieja. Today I bring to you the Tanque de la Unión public laundry washbasin (->more info in Spanish). In colonial times these public water tanks and washbasins served as the places for doing your laundry and for water distribution. In many places in Guatemala this stills holds true. Furthermore, public laundry washbasins (sometimes rivers or lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place. Public washbasins could be considered the first news broadcasting sites; batteries not required.

Tags: Antigua Daily Photo / Antigua / Tanque de la Unión / public laundry washbasins

On May 13th I posted a photo a public laundry washbasin in Ciudad Vieja and Heidi asked how do people wash their clothes in such facilities. Here I have a follow-up photo taken at the same time and day. People, usually from low income areas, take their dirty clothes to the public laundry washbasin which is nothing more than a large water tank with many sinks where women can wash them by hand using only soap and a small plastic vessel. The mystery is now resolved, but the magic has been taken away.

Tags: Antigua Daily Photo / Antigua / Ciudad Vieja / public laundry washbasins

Antigua’s backstreets, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

If you find yourself on the outskirts of Antigua, for sure you will be next to a coffee plantation. Here I am at only two blocks behind the market and you can already see a coffee parcel (on the right). Volcán de Agua, Water Volcano towers at 3,760 meters on the background and it is the only compass that you need as you walk around the city; it is to the south of the Antigua.

A visitor asked me to post a picture of Water Volcano and why is called that. Well, I promise I am going to post this week some photos about the volcanoes around Antigua and their different names and history. I have not done it yet because I need all the supporting documentation, but let me give you a teaser. Two of the three volcanoes have to do with the genesis of the universe.

Selling avocadoes, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Ever since I came to Antigua about four years ago, I often come across this lady who is always selling avocados. I believe she must have a small parcel of avocado trees. Anyhow, it is a pleasure to see her and her avocados, the local variety, are always of good quality. Mexico and Guatemala are the birth places for this delicious fruit.

Trivia 1: The word avocado comes from the the Spanish word aguacate which in turn comes from the Mexican Nahuatl language word ahuacacuauhitl, which means testicle tree. Avocado in Maya is on and palta en Quechua. Source: UC Davis.

Trivia 2: The people of Antigua are known as Panzas Verdes, green bellies. They have gotten this non-offensive nickname for the great amounts of avocados they ate in the past.

Trivia 3: Local hearsay is that Wilson Popenoe took the local avocado variant to California and from it the California avocado emerged (hass). More on Mr. Popenoe on the June 12h post.

La Antigua Guatemala was founded as Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (Saint James of the Lords of Guatemala) on July 25th, 1524 at a location now known as Ciudad Vieja and then moved to its present location in 1543 (about 2 miles to the north from the founding site). I tell you this, so you know why July is the town’s fair and why as part of the fair activities there is a book fair. Books are a luxury in Guatemala and the levels of readership are probably among the lowest in America.

Nonetheless, here are some interesting figures: there are 69 book publishers in Guatemala, 29 are big industrial businesses. There are only 450 points of sale for the whole country, 50% of those outlets are pharmacies. 70% of the editorial market comes from Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Guatemala is the only country in the region that taxes books (12% is the tax at the register). These figures came from a recent interview with Cecilia Baily, president of the Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (book publishers association) in the July 2006 issue of Recrearte magazine (available as PDF download in Spanish). There are two international book fairs that will start on 28th of July in Guatemala City. FILGUA, International Book Fair in Guatemala and FILCEN, International Book Fair in Central America merged on a single huge event; if you can read Spanish you can hop over to my other blog for a longer description of Filgua and Filcen.

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Saint James Celebrations / book fair / Filgua and Filcen

Antigua’s main entrance, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On my post Welcome to La Antigua Guatemala, I showed what you see first as you come to Antigua. Today I move a little further and show you the entrance from the the opposite end. You are thrown into a different state of mind as soon as you arrive: the cobblestone streets, the Antigua’s color palette and architecture, the artworks, the lamp and the people in a relax attitude; all of it at once on the first block. You immediately realize you are not in Kansas anymore.

Just follow the white rabbit! But be careful, looks can be deceiving.

Ruins are everywhere in Antigua. Heck you could even say the whole town is a ruin or a post card from the past. Here you see the rear of the San Jerónimo ruins. I mentioned on June 18th that Palo de Izote is used often as a fence. Well, here is the proof. If you want to know a little more about Palo de Izote, visit the June 18th post.

Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

On June 29th I posted a photo of Charly García on concert in Antigua Guatemala. Well, then I mentioned that Antigua is used as natural venue for concerts, jazz festivals, classical music recitals. The venue they use most often for concerts is La Ermita de la Santa Cruz ruins. Santa Cruz ruins sit on the outskirts of Antigua, on the east side, against a very densely tree-populated mountain.

A few months back there was a historic concert by Guatemala’s most famous rock band Alux Nahual who recently reunited for series of fund-raising concert for the victims of Hurricane Stan (unbelievable, it is already on Wikipedia). I did not go to this first concert, but I was told it was incredible. Because of previous commitments, I was unable to attend, but I was a few blocks away and I still can sensed the greatness of the concert and felt the energy that emanated from the Santa Cruz ruins. Here four photos from their official web site (maybe?), F1 the preparation, F2 the concert overview, F3 close up with the musicians, F4 the closure. 120 photos of this concert are available here; small photos but you get to see the venue at its best.

“Nobody walks in LA…” goes the song. In Antigua is the opposite. People enjoy walking and with such small grid (about 10×10 block), you can certainly do just about all your chores faster by walking than by driving. Besides many blocks are one-way only which means you have to drive four to six blocks to park your car half-a-block away. Besides the utilitarian walks, people tend to take strolls and to see people and talk to friends and acquaintances on the streets.

Side note: You will not believe that behind the yellow wall is a mansion. Well, Antigüeño architecture is very deceiving. They like their houses to be very simple and plain on the outside, but as soon as you enter through the driveway (Zaguán in Spanish), you are not in Kansas anymore.

Live flowers for the innocent, originally uploaded by rudygiron.

Today’s photo is dedicated to the dead and the innocent victims of the war in the Middle East. Let’s hope they find the road back to PEACE. My heart and sincere worries go out to all of you.

Please pay a visit to Beirut Daily Photo.