La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

Poinsettias or Flor de Pascua are in full bloom in The Land of the Eternal Spring for the Christmas season. Commercial decorations are beginning to show up in shops and restaurants. Soon enough we will have the Burning of the Devil celebrations, Nacimientos, Posadas and everything else that comes with the Christmas season. Soon, even the trees will dress for the holidays.

Fumar es causa de cáncer (smoking is cause of cancer)

The warning above is not used in Guatemala. I have only seen it used in Mexico. In Guatemala, the warning on the cigarette boxes is pretty explicit Smoking will kill you, period.

I have no idea how and why in Mexico the message is spelled and constructed as to be ambiguous and fuzzy, like smoke, you know.

The sign above was seen at the Los Mojados Taquería (The Wetback Taco restaurant). It’s a subtle reminder that this is a “real” Mexican restaurant and not a ChapiMex restaurant.

If you eat with our competition this is how you’ll end up!

This is a very simple and effective way to discourage the patronizing of the competition. Sign seen at Los Mojados Taquería (The Wetback Taco restaurant).

Bistrot Cinq is the newest kid on the block of La Antigua Guatemala restaurants. It is an upscale bistro with exquisite decoration. I know restaurant decoration should be different than home decoration, but honest I want to move here. I guess for now at least I should go try the food. I will post my report later on. Stay tune!

Like Manolo said, with Marimba music as the background for many parties and celebrations around La Antigua Guatemala and the rest of the country, I can almost smell the pine needles under my feet and the tamales and ponche (fruit punch) in the air. Oh what memories… sometimes I even wish I could like this type of music.

I dedicate the song Un vals para mi madre to my mother who’s visiting me at the moment.

Post cards request update: I forgot to mention that the last set of post cards I receive came from Flor and Sompopo in Atlanta, Georgia; Gail and Diego (age 3) from Long Island and a home-made post card from Mark from onewayphotoblog.com from Southern England. You guys are awesome and I REALLY appreciate all your post card and kind words. If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

Well, well, what we have here… what’s up with that, why are Guatemalans so enchanted with the infamous chicken bus. I mean what makes Guatemalans take on the crappy junk and retired school buses from up north and give them a second life as public transit chicken bus, mobile libraries chicken bus and now as a marimba orquesta mobile unit chicken bus.

Now this is too much! Come on, who came up with the bright idea of mixing the chicken bus and the marimba orquesta. If hell existed, this would be it.

By the way, chicken bus is the derogatory term used in many guides to refer to the rural public transportation buses in Guatemala and in many parts of Latin America. The marimba (pronunciation) has to be Guatemala’s most popular musical instrument.

If you don’t know what marimba music sound like, I leave you with a sample of it with Tristezas quetzaltecas below. You can also check out the entry Marimba Music at Calle del Arco in Antigua for more background information and two more marimba music songs.

La Antigua Guatemala is the most often used backdrop in Guatemala for… you name it. Anything from films, concerts, paintings, photos, festivals, religious rituals, and why not, weddings too. Actually, La Antigua Guatemala is used often as the backdrop for weddings not only of Guatemalans, but for many foreigners as well.

If you are interesting in seeing professional wedding photos with La Antigua Guatemala as backdrop, please check out the web site of my good friend Daniel Chang, a professional photographer who happens to have a very special click with this kind of photography. If you ever decide to take the plunge in one of the many churches in La Antigua Guatemala, don’t trust anybody else with your photographic memories.

Even fast-food restaurant have exquisite architectonic details to make them be in harmony with the colonial architecture of La Antigua Guatemala. Maybe you remember the fountain inside the Burger King’s restaurant shown here back in April 10th.

Don’t let anybody, including me, take away the pleasure of visiting this fast-food restaurants, if your conscience/soul/principles/memories/nostalgia/health allows for it. I promise you I am NOT, by any means, the exorcist! I AM, however, the native informant.

It is not difficult to find internet access to check your emails while taking a break from Spanish classes. As you can see, even McDonald’s would give you free internet access and a computer if you trade your soul.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the private Spanish teachers yesterday in the cornucopia of options available for taking Spanish classes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Spanish Schools entry. Once again, take all these options with a grain of salt since many of the flyers put more emphasis in the private part of the sale of the service.

Certainly, textbooks could be written about the world of Spanish classes in La Antigua Guatemala. Heck, even novels could be written about it; wait a minute, Ronald Flores already wrote a novel about the plausible ramifications of this exchange under the title of Un paseo en primavera (A Walk in the Spring).

If I was a writer I would write about the all the underground relationships and gossip that goes on underneath the façades of this Potemkin Village we call La Antigua Guatemala. This book would read like The Rum Diary of Hunter Thompson, but set in a town like the Savannah of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil of Clint Eastwood. Oh boy, how I wish I could write it! Maybe I could convince Guy to write. In the mean time, you could read Guy’s numerous entries about life in La Antigua Guatemala.

In the picture above you see two foreigners taking Spanish classes in a Restaurant/School named Korea with the omnipresent beer posters. Here’s the Spanish word/phrase of the day: Quiero más cerveza por favor (please, I’d like to have more beer). Life is though for the Spanish students in the Spanish school capital of Latin America.

The Good:
When we arrived in La Antigua Guatemala in 2002, I was told there were over 65 Spanish schools in town. Wow! that’s twice as many catholic churches. I have read and have been told that taking Spanish classes in La Antigua Guatemala is one of the least expensive options in the world. La Antigua Guatemala is very beautiful, full of great little cafes, bistros and restaurants where you can take your one-on-one classes. After you finish your daily classes, you are in a magical and enchanting town to do all kinds of sightseeing, research, photo tours, and whatever your imagination allows. So, all and all, La Antigua Guatemala could be best place to take Spanish classes. It could be like learning English in Disneyland or Disney World.

The Bad:
If your first language is English or if you speak English, then La Antigua Guatemala is bad place to take Spanish classes because most everybody and just about anything you need can be resolved in English. Besides, like Manolo commented, there is a large community of ex-pats living in La Antigua Guatemala. If you are looking for a full immersion program, maybe Xela (Quetzaltenango) would be a better place to learn the language of García Marquez, Cervantes or Augusto Monterroso. On the other hand, Xela (pronounced shay-lah)could be a dangerous place since it is the “real” Guatemala and thus it could be magnetic enough for you end up ditching your “real” life in your native country in the first world and moving to Guatemala in the third world, like a very special person did. Really, living in Guatemala could mark you life forever! Think twice before attending a Spanish school in the “real” Guatemala.

The Ugly:
After your daily classes of Spanish, you go out into an English-speaking world. Even the shoe-shiners in Central Park will ask “if you want your shoes shine?”. Then, like Manolo said, you could be harassed by so many Guatemalans who want to be loved to the point of exportation; this could include your teacher regardless any age difference. Now with over 60 or 70 Spanish schools, how could you know which ones are reputable, responsible learning institutions? So I guess before you take your first class, you should do your homework.

For those who have taken Spanish classes in Guatemala or La Antigua Guatemala, what other aspects of your experience can you share with us?

Okay, here we go again. We are going to discuss a sensitive issue again.

Yes, Spanish Classes in La Antigua Guatemala is a very touchy subject, you know. The next post will definitely raise a few voices and hurt some feelings. I just hope to come out slightly bruised from this affair. But before we open the book on this unpredictable topic, we should take a coffee break.

Come back tomorrow to learn about the zillion Spanish schools available in La Antigua Guatemala.

At the entrance of the San Francisco El Grande Church, burial home of Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt, you can find this stall of candles. We visited the entrance of this church before with with Monk in San Francisco El Grande Church and The Guatemalan Chevere Hot Dog Cart.

This time the lady was calling out the following: “Se venden velas, velas, velas para el Hermano Pedro, velas para el Santo Hermano Pedro,” like a song she sang it over and over again. Heck, I can still hear it in my head.

The tree of knowledge was an apple tree and Newton took a bite from a fallen apple. The rest is history they say, but history is being rewritten as we speak.

Adam and Eve also had a bite or two with the apple in their so call paradise; probably somewhere in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia, bordering China. Kazakhstan is also the home country of Borat, who has had many apples for sure.

Paris also had some trouble because of the apple he gave to Aphrodite, offending Hera and Athene; thus the Apple of Discord (c 1400).

No other fruit, well maybe except for chile and maize, has changed history in so many ways.

We could go on and on about apples throughout history, but since this is not history site, we move forward to the future, all the way to 1984, not George Orwell’s novel, which he wrote in 1948 (I believe he was dyslexic at the moment he typed the title of his novel). Anyhow, we are talking about the 1984 television commercial launched by Apple Inc. in 1984, to promote a tiny computer under the name of Macintosh, another kind of apple. This is what Wikipedia has on the now world famous advertisement:

The ad showed an unnamed heroine (played by Anya Major) wearing red shorts, red running shoes, and a white tank top with a Picasso-style picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer, running through an Orwellian world to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother — an implied representation of IBM — played by David Graham[1]. This was followed by an on-screen message and accompanying voice over by actor Edward Grover: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” At the end, the Apple “rainbow bitten apple” logo is shown on a black background.

Okay Rudy, where the heck are you going with this entry, you ask just about now?

Oh nowhere really, just a little explanation for the plausible origins of the little white apple with a bite taken out of it.

Postdata. There are many Apple computers in La Antigua Guatemala and the apple orchard just keeps on expanding with new iPods, iPhones, and iPod Touch fruits. Soon Guatemala will go from the derogatory alias of “Banana Republic” to an Apple Republic. Maybe not. I often forget this is a third-world country. I must’ve had one too many apples today!

This is what happens when you watch three of Darren Aronofsky films in a row: Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain. The last one with so many references to Guatemala, that is not even funny. You should see it.

From the tables of Cafe Micho’s, right across yesterday’s fountain, in the corridor facing south of the Jaulón building, you can meet with friends and family for coffee or beers, or simply enjoy a sandwich from one the best bistros/pubs in town. The tables all face to the central patio, with the fountain slightly off-center. You can enter this beautifully restored building from the east and south entrances; from the south entrance you enter the Jaulón building through and arched doorway.

Cafe Micho’s is a great place to have a dark Moza beer (a bock type brew and my favorite beer from Guatemala), while taking a breaking from all this walking around town.