Marimba Orquesta Chicken Bus Ave Lira
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.
Daily Content
He could be straight from Anderson with those droopy drawers and that hat. 
November 27th, 2007
why is the term chicken bus used, is it because the people from out side the city ride and bring chicken with them to market?
November 27th, 2007
Everything in this photo (the sky, the church, the bus, the driver) remind me to your country. Fabulous !
November 27th, 2007
Chicken bus: it’s a name that I believe foreign tourists must have come up with. It’s so called because it’s the cheapest form of transit around the country (apart from riding in the back of a pick-up truck) and so a lot of rural residents use it, getting to and from the market, sometimes with live animals in tow. I’ve been on several chicken buses that actually do have live chickens in a basket. Then when the woman owner leaves, the basket and the chickens inside go straight on top of her head.
Nice pics, Rudy. I felt like a sinner needing confession for not liking marimba music when I was in Guatemala. Looks like this would be a church to avoid for that confession!
November 27th, 2007
Pues I believe that must Guatemaltec@s born in the last few decades do not like marimba. I also think that sometimes when you leave Guate, sometimes you try to connect however we can with what is from our motherland (la patria, pues), although that is not my case, I came this way to Canada already.
I know you don’t like rock that much either LD, but there is a song by Alux Nahual called “Toca viejo” that talks about this old guy playing marimba in a plaza and how the young people don’t know how to move to the beat of the so-called national instrument. It is from the “Alto al fuego” album which this year is celebrating its 20th anniversary (here is where Rudy has to make advertising for the upcoming issue of his magazine ;-)) so the issue has been for a while.
I actually feel I should be the one confessing for liking marimba to my generation… although what I really love is the quartet versions of Joaquin Orellana of some of the pieces written for marimba like Noche de luna en ruinas, Luna de Xelajú, and La Nochebuena… and I still kick myself for having missed “En los cerros de Ilom” a Guatemalan opera presented in the 90s with some of his music for marimba.
November 27th, 2007
Flor and I are glad to see the cards made it to La Antigua. Very cool indeed.
November 27th, 2007
Your mom is visiting? May you have a grand time in a beautiful city.
November 28th, 2007
I have a vacation planned to Antigua this coming summer and I cannot wait! The colors on the bus and the style of the building only get me excited about the photo ops available there.
November 29th, 2007
Patsy, I believe LD responded your questions very well on her comment.
Fabrizio, Long time no see. I am glad you came back to tour this foreign lands again.
LD, Feliz cumpleaños ‘watermelon head’. Thanks for stopping by.
Manolo, actually I think I might like Joaquín Orellana’s work, I just haven’t got a chance to listen to it.
Sompopo, thanks for the cards. They are now in my post cards album.
Coltrane_lives, thanks for the wish.
December 1st, 2007
Congratulations on some great photographs - I think the juxtaposition of the colourful bus and the old architecture is super!
December 6th, 2007
The music might be awful but these buses sure are colorful!
February 8th, 2008
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May 3rd, 2008
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August 17th, 2008
[...] of how I may feel for the marimba, this instrument and its waling sound are very important to Guatemalans all over. For instance, [...]