AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

I don’t know what exactly haunts me about this image. Maybe the moon in the background, the green branches barely lit or the forged-metal railing. What do you think of it?

If I walk around Antigua Guatemala and photograph all the street corners, I could do a series for a long while just about corners. Every corner has its own little personality and color. I leave you with a few samples from the past: Green Corner, White Corner, Yellow Corner, Red Corner and Orchid Corner.

What makes the life-style of Antigua Guatemala so appealing? Well, for starters we point out the great weather. Fountains, gardens with many exotic flowers and plants, bright-colored houses, red Spanish-style roof-tiles, big doorways, forged metal windows, domes, antique lamps (1, 2, 3 & 4), among other things. To top it all, its warm and friendly people. The photograph above encloses many of the ingredients needed for the Antigüeño life-style, or should I say for: a magnificent life-style.

Finally Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo reached its post 300. We’ll celebrate while we’re a head. Just a spin on Marie’s, “Quit While You’re a Head” on January 16th from Alexandria Daily Photo. While 300 posts are nothing compare to other sites like Tenerife Daily Photo, with 500 posts on Friday, or even Paris Daily Photo, with close 700 posts; but, it is quite an achievement for me. Also, Jakarta Daily Photo celebrated 300 posts this week.

By the way, a question to LD, what date will the Christmas bulbs be taken down?

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and your regular visits.

Yesterday I talked about meeting people and having lunch at La Fuente Restaurant, which is a restaurant I visit often because of their economic daily menu. La Fuente Restaurant is next door to Doña Luisa Xicotencatl, one of Antigua’s landmark. La Fuente’s menu is basically a mixture between Tex-Mex and Italian foods, but for their economic daily menu, they serve mostly authentic Guatemalan dishes; including Chow Mein. Some other dishes from the Guatemalan Cuisine series that I have had at La Fuente include: Frijoles Colorados and Hilachas.

Pepian is another traditional or typical meal from Guatemala. It is based on recado, a tomato, chillies and spices sauce, and some vegetables like potatoes and güisquil (chayote is the Mexican name and most people recognize by this name) along either beef or chicken. I imagine the original recipe calls for Turkey, which what most indigenous recipes use for meat. Most recado recipes are served with Guatemalan rice and the ever-present tortillas. Here is the recipe for Guatemalan Pepian (excuse the Mexican spelling for the dish).

If you are interested at looking a small sampler of foods and drinks from Guatemala, please check the Food and Drinks category or the Guatemalan Cuisine series.

Just five days ago I was talking about the learning process and how it can be triggered by a simple image like the Foremost logo on Ice Cream Graphic Menu photograph. More often, for me that is, the learning process begins right after a film, book or song.

The concept of Six Degrees of Separation became part my cultural baggage after having watched Will Smith performed brilliantly the role of Paul in the film Six Degrees of Separation.

According to information found at Wikipedia: Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that all human beings are connected through relationships with at most six other people. Several studies, such as Milgram’s small world experiment have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the “small world” phenomenon.

So, what is that got to do with today’s photo? Well, let me explain. Back on May 18th, 2006 I published a photograph of a giant Guatemalan ant by the name of Sompopo, which, by the way, is only seen in May. The second comment in the entry was made by a person by the name of Sompopo, from the site Sompopo’s Revenge. From the point forward a virtual relationship emerged and I gained a friend; well two friends since Sompopo’s wife is also my friend; not bad if you consider that Sompopo and I do not see eye-to-eye on just about anything, but especially politics. There are ‘real people’ behind all this cyberspace, sites, forums, communities, and blogs or whatever you want to call it. Sometimes there are six degrees of separation and sometimes there is only one. Today, I had lunch in Antigua with Sompopo’s extended family: the mother, sister and brother-in-law of Sompopo and Sompopo’s wife, Flor. Thus, I was separated from Sompopo and Flor by one degree.

It was a pleasure to meet and had lunch with Lizzette, Jim, Flor’s mom and the guy with the baseball cap (his name escapes me now).

Now I wonder, when I will get to meet all you? either in person of by some degree of separation. Either way, I am happy to report that I have gained many friends through the Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo, including you! If you are just lurking in the back, please, stop by and say hello.

This is one of the kitchens at La Fonda de la Calle Real, which shows a typical kitchen in the colonial times. As you can see, if you click on the image to enlarge it, that most of the pots and pans were made from ceramic (cooked clay). La Fonda de la Calle Real is one of Antigua’s landmarks with three locations around Calle del Arco. Mr. Bill Clinton and her Royal Highness Infanta Doña Cristina ate here at different times. You can see the entrance of one of the restaurants in the Antigua’s Color Palette: Red as well as more information.

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 297 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. Also, please visit Tenerife Daily Photo which is about to reach its 500th photo.

Although this image is not as impressive as photo of the kid caught in the mid-air stride in Run Lolo, Run, it is nonetheless a good capture since the bicycle-rider is framed. The house, that serves as backdrop and frame, belonged to Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt (Saint Brother Peter of Betancourt), which is Central America’s only Saint. I have posted a couple of entries before about Hermano Pedro de Betancourt who was born in Tenerife, Canary Islands in 1626. I noticed that I like framing my subjects, in action, against a static rectangle in a wall or doorway as you can see in one of my favorite shots: Framed Shadow.

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 296 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. In the days before today, I promised that I would send the best ten photos (4″x6″) from Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo to the person who left the first comment after the 100,000 visit. Well, sometime today we received the 100,000 visit, but I did not notice it until now (sorry! I was way too busy). There are now 100,590 visit according to the stats counter. The last two comments belong to Luggi-Foeger, from Los Angeles Daily Photo and Santy, from Jakarta Daily Photo and to be fair I don’t know who made the first comment after the 100K mark, so I will extend the contest to both of them only. The first of them who come to make a comment will receive the 10 photos. Good luck to both of them and I thank all of you for helping the Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo get past the 100,000-visit milestone.

Thanks to a comment by Sarah from San Antonio Daily Photo, I noticed the opposing stripe patterns weared by this couple on my entry of Love is in the air.

Have an unexpected striking day!

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 295 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. See the entry on January 18th for further details.

One of the things that I like most about publishing the Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo and visiting the other Daily Photos Cities around the world is what I learn. I have an insatiable desire for learning and enlarging my education. I keep myself informed with magazine, newspapers, television and the web. I try to cultivate myself with books (especially literature), films, music, photography, paintings, and blogs.

For over a long time now, I have believed that the real education is acquired right after school. I keep handy in my quote compartment some words my Mark Twain: I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. Interesting enough I have kept this quote close-by since my days at school. George Santayana adds some words of wisdom with, “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” All those thoughts to let you in a secret: I publish the Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo because I learn and educate myself in the process.

Today’s photo is a very good example of the learning process. I have seen the Foremost ice cream handcarts everywhere in Guatemala. I have seen the Foremost Dairy products in the Guatemalan supermarkets. Thus, I had assumed that the Foremost brand was from Guatemala. After looking at the ice cream menu in the photo above, I get a little intrigued about the Foremost logotype and the history behind the company. The logotype interest has to do with me being a graphic designer. I do little googling. Surprise, surprise! Foremost Dairies of Guatemala is part of a transnational company founded in 1931 by James Cash Penney (J.C. Penney). The Foremost Dairies Company takes its name from a very special thoroughbred stud bull by the name of Foremost (click to view the bull). Little did the bull know that by 1951 his name was part of the third largest company in the world (source: Foremost Dairies of Guatemala/in English thanks to Google). The Foremost brand has been part of Guatemala since March 1960.

So there you have it. I can still learn while in the process of publishing a photo blog about a tiny colonial town in the Guatemalan highlands of Central America. So can you by visiting this humble site; unless you believe, like Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet, that the mind is like an attic: you can only put so much stuff in it.

Have an exceptional milky and creamy day!

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 294 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. There had been 97,673 visits up this point. See the entry on January 18th for further details.

Helado is the Spanish word for ice cream. The warm winter weather has been a bonanza for the ice cream carts around Antigua. Here we see the traditional Guatemalan-style ice cream handcart. The paint style of the handcart is so typical of Latin America and even more so in Guatemala that even public buses are painted using the same techniques.

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 293 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. Please, send the link of this site everyday to your friends and family for a few days and explain to them what we are trying to achieve. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. See the entry on January 18th for further details.

Blame it on the weather. Ice cream handcarts have appeared, like mushrooms, around Parque Central in Antigua. There are all kinds ice cream carts. Here you see the two handcarts for one of Guatemala’s national ice cream chain.

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 292 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. Please, send the link of this site everyday to your friends and family for a few days and explain to them what we are trying to achieve. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. See the entry on January 18th for further details.

The weather has been fantastic in the recent weeks. Even though, we are in the middle of winter, temperatures have been around 25°C/75°F during the day. When the weather is this nice, people go out to buy ice cream and eat it in the park, on the sidewalk, anywhere so long they sit down and enjoy of the company of other humans beings. No special occasion or celebration is needed.

If you happen to live up-north and you are longing for nicer weather, please, take a short trip to Guatemala, we have the sunshine and warm temperatures you need. Photos like this one really make Guatemala’s slogan sound true and honest: The Land of the Eternal Spring!

Countdown side note: Today’s entry is number 291 so far and we continue with a countdown to post 300th. Please, send the link of this site everyday to your friends and family for a few days and explain to them what we are trying to achieve. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. See the entry on January 18th for further details.

El Calvario Church, located to the south of La Antigua Guatemala, is another famous landmark, yet it only took me 290 entries and over 350 photos to show it to you. There are many reason to the fame of La iglesia de El Calvario, but three I will mention here. First and foremost is its relevance to the processions of Holy Week in Guatemala. Being El Calvario Church the last Station of the Cross, thus the place for the culmination of the Holy Week celebrations, which lasts over 40 days long. Second is the fact that in its garden was planted the Esquisúchil tree in 1657 by the Holy Saint Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancourt, Central America’s only Saint. The Esquisúchil tree has aromatic flowers and it is believed to have curative powers. This specific tree at El Calvario Church was declared Cultural Patrimony of the Nation in 2004 (Source: Prensa Libre). Last but not least is its exquisite architecture and mustard-yellow color.

Can you tell me the name of the volcano that can be seen in the background? Check the last two days entries for a hint (January 16th, 17th) or the photos in the Volcanoes category.

Today’s entry is number 290 so far and we will begin a countdown to post 300th. Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo has received 94,390 visits and I am going to need your help to reach the 100,000 landmark visit before or on the 300th entry. Please, send the link of this site everyday to your friends and family for the next ten days and explain to them what we are trying to achieve. I will send the best ten photos (4″x6″) of this site to the person that makes the first comment after the 100,000 visit. Pamela’s comment is number 4,384 on my last revision of the site. I thank you all for your wonderful comments and feedback so far. By the way, the Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo opened its door on May 1st, 2006.

Volcán de Fuego (“Volcano of Fire”) is an active stratovolcano in Guatemala. It is close to the city of Antigua Guatemala. It has erupted frequently since the Spanish conquest. “Fuego” is famous for being almost constantly active at a low level. Smoke issues from its top daily, but larger eruptions are rare. The last eruption occurred in 2006. The volcano is joined with Acatenango and collectively the complex is known as La Horqueta. (Source: Wikipedia)

I like the graphic, almost an illustration, feel of this photograph. Also, it lends itself as a wallpaper for your desktop PC, Mac or Linux workstation with its clean lines.

To download the image as wallpaper, all you need to do is click the photo above and you will be taken to a larger-size image that you can download. The rest depends on the operating system you use.

Since the volcanoes Agua, Fuego and Acatenango show up often in the background of many of the photos I present here, I decided to give you a satellite view of the volcanoes and their close relationship to La Antigua Guatemala. Below you will find a screen capture of Google Maps that shows the volcanoes. Click this link to go to Google Maps and zoom in even further into the volcanoes or even Antigua Guatemala.

I hope you enjoy this particular view of Southern Guatemala. Don’t forget to click on the image below to get a larger version so you can read the call outs.