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One way to tour La Antigua Guatemala is through the horse-powered carriage rides around town. If you can obviate the buses, the automobiles, the motorcycles, the tuk tuks, in short—all modern vehicles, then you can almost feel like in the 18th century. Now, pull out your digital camera and set it in the sepia mode and shoot away.

On July 23rd I mentioned that the people of Antigua are known as Panzas Verdes —green bellies—, so it is no surprise that the flag of La Antigua Guatemala is green, as green is their foot ball —soccer— team uniform as well as many schools’ uniforms.

Can you guess why are Antigüeños known as Panzas Verdes?

Inspired by Pamela’s A Place to Rest, which shows a lovely resting area, I decide to follow up with a resting area in the City Hall building (Municipalidad is what people call city halls here, or la muni for short). This bench is on the second floor of this building —seen from the Parque Central—, and it is from this location that I snatched the Taxis photo for October 1st. This is an awesome place to watch the sunset or the rain.

Can you picture yourself sitting at this bench?

Earlier this year, on September 30, I showed you the entrance to the San Felipe Church, which is the only gothic church around Antigua Guatemala. This is an exotic tower for this area since must of the façades are colonial Spanish baroque. I will have to dig up the history of the church and post a follow-up photo.

Now, after all the church photos I have posted so far, you might get the wrong impression that I am catholic or christian. Sorry to disappoint, I am neither. However, I do love architecture and churches, as repositories of power and wealth, have always had the money and the authority to show off the best architecture of the time. I believe this to be true for any religious temple in all the cultures and countries of the world.

Have you posted church photos in your Daily Photo about your city?

Lately blue has come my way. First time it came as blue house with blue doors and a blue sky. Now, it is a blue house again with a blue tuk tuk tourist police unit. I do not know what it is about tuk tuks, but I like them.

Can you guess how many times I have posted images of tuk tuk motorbikes in this photoblog?

This sandwich is called Pirujo and it takes its name from the bread’s name. Pirujos and shucos are the two native sandwiches from Guatemala. Please follow the shuco link to see some of the largest sandwiches around.

This pirujo sandwich comes with guacamol(e), lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and beef or chicken, your choice, along with a clear soup or chicken stock (consommé), chopped onions, chopped tomatoes and chile sauce and jamaica cold tea. The total price for this lunch is Q18 (US$2.35) at Roy.com Internet Cafe and it is enough for two.

With this simple sandwich we end the second food series. Bon appetite! and, please, make sure you hide the scale.

Continuing with our milpa crops, here we have the most widely eaten Guatemalan tamal(e), which goes by the name of chuchito (puppy or little dog). Back on my first Guatemalan cuisine series, I brought to you another type of tamal named pache. Then, I said that tamales are probably the oldest food from the American continent with over 5,000 years of existence. Also, I mentioned that in Guatemala alone, there must be 100 different kinds, but if you ate a different kind of tamal every day from all the areas in Mesoamerica, it would take you over 20 years to try them all.

The chuchitos presented here come wrapped in dried maize husk, with tomato-based antigüeño sauce, a tiny piece of pork or chicken and chipilí­n, a green plant with a very special flavor and aroma. The drink is thicken hot beverage made from boiled plantains, sugar and cinnamon.

The Guatemalan labor code allows for two short breaks of about 15 minutes; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The breaks are known as refacción, and the act of eating something in this short break is known as refaccionar. Bon appetite my friends!

Hilachas is the name of the dish based on shredded meat with recado (tomato-based sauce), and cut up potatoes. If you compare yesterday’s lunch, you can see that only the main dish changed (and the drink, because I requested coffee). Once again, you can see the meal is based on at least three crops from the milpa: maize, tomatoes and potatoes. Here is the recipe for hilachas. Bon appetite!

Trivia question, can you tell us what region of the American continent is maize from?

Frijoles colorados or red beans is the second best dish after black beans, of course, in the Guatemalan kitchen. Here you have frijoles colorados with pork ribs, rice, tortillas, fresh-fruit drink. This is a typical lunch for many Guatemalans with the variation on the main dish which in this case is red beans. Here is the recipe for frijoles colorados.

Economy side note: let me tell you, this lunch which includes fresh fruit, rice, read beans with meat, three tortillas and a drink rings Q18 (US$2.35) at the cashier.

Dietary and historical side note: Many of the dishes of the Guatemalan cuisine are based on the milpa crops. The term milpa refers normally to a maize field, but it is so much more. In a milpa field there a dozen crops at once: maize, avocados, multiple kinds of squash, chiles (hot pepper chilli), beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, camotes (sweet potatoes), jicama (a tuber also known as sengkwang, yam bean, singkamas, Mexican turnip), amaranth (also called pigweeds) and mucuma (a tropical legume). “Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary.” said Charles C. Mann in his book 1491. H. Garrison Wilkes, a maize researcher at University of Massachusetts in Boston is quoted in the same book, “The milpa is one of the most successful human inventions ever created.”

To sum it up, it is impossible to think the Guatemalan, Mexican and Mesoamerican diet without maize. From the Popul Vuh (Popol Wuj in modern spelling), the Mayan equivalent of the Bible, which states that humans were literally created from maize, to Miguel Ángel Asturias‘ novel Hombres de maí­z (Men of Maize) which is one of the best novels to understand Mesoamerica and its people.

Sources:

• 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
• Wikipedia.org

First of all, my apologies to all those masochist Guatemalans who are abroad and visit this humble blog to get their daily doze of nostalgic pain. Sorry guys and gals!

Now unto the photo. This is Pollo Campero fast food version of the Chapin Breakfast or desayuno chapí­n (Chapin is the self-imposed nickname for Guatemalans). The traditional Guatemalan breakfast comes with refried black beans, sunny-side-up or scrambled eggs, chirmol (tomato sauce), fresh cheese, fried plantains (platano or platano macho), cream, tortillas or pan francés (French rolls), and coffee. This version of the Chapin breakfast is called: Huevos Divorciados (Divorced eggs) because it has two sunny-side-up eggs, each with its own sauce. The green sauce is made with miltomate (tomatillos) and the red sauce with regular roma tomatoes. More on Latin American salsas (sauces) on Wikipedia. Here is a recipe for Chicken Skewers with Chirmol Salsa. Bon appetite!

Etymological side note: The most famous and most-widely used Guatemalan red tomato-based sauce is known as Chirmol which is a deformation of the Aztec’s Nahuatl language Chili Mole. Chili for chile or hot pepper and mole for sauce. Miltomate is the name by which tomatilloes are known in Guatemala. Mil for milpa and tomate for small green tomato also known as husk tomato, jamberry, husk cherry or ground cherry. Don’t forget to read my entry on Milpa and Mayan Pizza.

The sign reads: Here lived Fray Pedro de San José Betancourt, apostle of charity. Born in Tenerife in March [21], 1626. Died here the 25th of April of 1667.

So who was this character who has inspired so many people and that eventually became a Saint? First, here are the entries in Antigua Daily Photo related to Santo Hermano Pedro, as he is known now. Back on October 25th, I posted a forged metal lamp with his image.

Known as the “St. Francis of the Americas,” Pedro de Betancourt worked and died in Guatemala. Pedro was born into a poor family on Tenerife in the Canary Islands in 1626. He worked as a shepherd until age 24, when he began to make his way to Guatemala, hoping to connect with a relative engaged in government service there. By the time he reached Havana, Cuba he was out of money. After working there to earn more, he got to Guatemala City the following year. When he arrived he was so destitute that he joined the bread line which the Franciscans had established… As quoted from Wikipedia (click to continue reading).

If you want to see the sign in context, please turn to this image and this other image as well. If you care to see what Tenerife, his born-place, looks like now, please visit Pamela’s excellent Tenerife Daily Photo.

Happy and safe weekend to everyone!

No MarieMcc, this is not the façade of my house. This façade belongs to the Capilla de Belén (Bethlehem Chapel) located right across the street from the house that belonged to Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt (Saint Brother Peter of Betancourt). More about him and his house tomorrow.

It looks like Daily Photo Family is in a church photos frenzy: first was Nuno, then Zsolt22, followed by Edulabbe. Have you came across other church photos lately?

Since Nuno set the mood for church photos for this Friday, November 3rd, here I do a follow up photo of yesterday’s bell housing at San Pedro Las Huertas Cathedral. Here is another angle of the same church.

Here is a rough and free translation of information I found at EnAntigua.com site about San Pedro las Huertas: According to the writer Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán, San Pedro Apóstol, also known as San Pedro Las Huertas, was founded after the flooding of the second City of Santiago in 1541. San Pedro is on the skirts of Volcán de Agua, 1533 meters above sea level, at 2 km South from La Antigua Guatemala and has an estimated population of 1622. The weather is nicely tempered.

It just does not seem fair that Nuno gets all the attention with his church photos; sure he captures great images, sure Porto has many gorgeous churches, sure the weather is fabulous there. It is difficult to keep up with image magic that Nuno delivers almost daily, but I know La Antigua Guatemala has plenty of churches that are quite beautiful too and I will do my best to show them to you. For starters, here is a fraction of San Pedro las Huertas Cathedral, come back tomorrow for the rest of it.

In this image you can see the bell ringer merely peeking out of the bell housing. Can you see him?

Here is the soundtrack for this image: a melody named Campanas (bells) which seem appropriate.

Side note: Thank you all for your wonderful feedback and comments. Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo is as much yours as it is mine. Lil sis thnx 4 your comments.

On November 1st and 2nd Guatemala, like many other catholic countries, celebrates the Day of the Dead (Dí­a de los Difuntos) and the All Saints Day (Dí­a de los Santos). The cemeteries, from the most exclusive to the most modest and humble, become overwhelmed with people bringing flowers, crosses, food and even music (sometimes Mariachi music) to their dead relatives.

Two days ago I told you about the Giant Kites (over 15 meters wide) that fill the skies over the cemeteries of Sacatepéquez to help guide the dead back to their love ones. Unfortunately it was not possible for me to go to the near-by towns that have them. So, I found a site that has a Photographic Tour of the Giant Kites (thanks to blog dumitraqui for the link). You will have to know four Spanish words to navigate the show: Entrar (enter), Siguiente (next), Anterior (previous) and Inicio (home). More photos of the Giant Kites can be found at Flickr.

Fiambre, a salad made from cold cuts, all kinds of meats, fish, vegetables and pickled vegetables, is served on November 1st, after a visit to the cemetery. Fiambre is a cold meal of Spanish origin, possibly from the Extremadura provinces in Spain. Fiambre is a very special meal for Guatemalans and it is only available on November 1st and 2nd. Because fiambre is an extremely rare and unique meal which can include over 50 ingredients, I decided to show you the final part of the preparation through a slide show.

The photos were taken a Lo-Mix Cafeteria, which is a small restaurant with over 35 years of making fiambre. Lo-Mix is chosen by many Antigüeños as their fiambre provider and we have bought our fiambre from them since 2002. The owners of Lo-Mix told me it takes them about 15 days of pre preparation to get to the stage you will see in the photos. For those who live in Antigua and want to know where buy good fiambre, Lo-Mix is on 7a calle poniente N. 25B and their telephone number is 5656-9417.

This slide show is dedicated to Ale from Arte-sano. Bon appetite mano!

Other sites that cover Dí­a de Muertos, Fiambre and the Giant Kites:

1. Day of the Dead at Chapinadas
2. Vegetables for Fiambre at Chapinadas
3. A mis muertos at Arte-sano (Spanish)
4. Tradición oral en el dí­a de los Santos at Guate360 (Spanish)
5. Noviembre inicia con fiambre at Guate360 (Spanish)

Tags: Antigua Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / slideshow / Guatemalan cuisine / Fiambre