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Actually, it is not only La Antigua Guatemala that is a town full of contrasts, but rather the whole country. Guatemala has a rainbow of contrasts between the wealthy and the poor, the indigenous and the mestizo population, between the mountain high lands and the tropical coastal low lands, between the urban and the rural areas, between the antique and the modern, between dogs with education and homeless chuchos, and so on.

For those who have visited Guatemala, what other types of contrasts can you identify or share with us?

By the way, the first time I posted a photograph of this fountain was in June 2006. Can you tell me the exact date and the name of this building?

Life is tough for the homeless in La Antigua Guatemala, but it helps to have a friend to cope with adversity.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. —Mahatma Ghandi

Believe it or not, I read recently in an article in the New York Times (printed edition, so no link) that the latest fashion statement in the U.S. was to adopt Latin American street dogs, commonly known here as “los chuchos”. Well, maybe this should be the type of Guatemalan adoptions that should make the headlines. There is an abundance of chuchos or street dogs available for adoption in La Antigua Guatemala and throughout Guatemala.

So if you want to be in fashion this upcoming season, head down to Guatemala for your own chucho. You can start at Animal Welfare Association Rescue/Education (www.animalaware.org) or at Asociación de Amigos de los Animales (www.amigosdelosanimales.org.gt) for details on how to adopt your own personal chucho friend. You will never regret this fashion tip!

It is amazing how an image can trigger memories. It is usual for a song to bring back memories and images to mind, but today it is a photograph that brought the melodic, nostalgic and angry voice of Alí­ Primera, lead singer of Los Guaraguao [ES] and their world famous song Las casas de cartón back to the present.

The reason the photo above brought memories back from an old forbidden song in Latin America was the lyrics of Las casas de cartón (the cardboard houses) which had something about dog schools where the canine were given education so they don’t bite the newspapers… but I rather leave you with part of the lyrics and the song below it.

Usted no lo va a creer, (You won’t believe this,)
pero hay escuelas de perros (but there are dog schools)
y les dan educación (and education is given to them)
pa’ que no muerdan los diarios (so they don’t bite the newspapers)
pero el patrón (but the boss)
hace años, muchos años (it’s been years, many years)
que está mordiendo al obrero. (that is biting the worker)
Source: Las casas de cartón where you can read all the lyrics.

If you know this song, what kind of memories does it bring to you? what can you share with us?

The transnational Spanish cell phone company Movistar enters the humble Guatemalan market; following the example set by Domino’s Pizza. So now, you can go to el mercado (market) of La Antigua Guatemala for your vegetables, fruits, spices, flowers, dishes, charcoal and cell phones. These two girls, with Telefónica Movistar t-shirts, were selling the cell phones for Q130/USD$18 with Q100 of airtime and your own cell phone number; not bad all.

Do you want to know a little more about the mobile cell phone industry in Guatemala? Then, just follow the white rabbit!

This old tree creates a magnetic shadow by providing shelter from the burning sun. You saw the old lady that did not care about the world, then you peeked at the indigenous Mayan girl taking a break and now you can eavesdrop in our dear friend JM Magaña while he takes a phone call.

We all need it by now.

Today’s entry marks 558 consecutive days of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo; 570 entries total. The tree above is the same tree that appears in the post I don’t care about the world on May 21st, 2006.

Have a great weekend everyone and tell me what are your plans for the next two days!

For some unknown reason, many Guatemalans opt for misspelled Spanish bastardizations of English words to name their businesses. For instance, the image above has the name Stilos (Estilos is the proper Spanish spelling) as a way to relate to Styles the English word for this barbershop (peluqueria in Spanish).

By the way, does anybody know why barber shops have the multi-color cylinder (I believe it should be red, white and blue) as a marker for a barbershop?

Central America and Guatemala especially have an abundance of water resources, many are groundwater. La Antigua Guatemala is located in a valley irrigated with over six months of a rainy season per year. La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that collect even more water. Much of this collected rain ends up as groundwater.

Water belongs to the Guatemalan people and it’s managed by the government; national and local government. In theory, Guatemalans don’t pay for the water itself, but for the distribution system; that is the electricity to pump it and the distribution pipes. The water bill can vary a lot from zone to zone for the same amount of distributed water.

Water is always available in the wealthy neighborhood homes. Water is rarely available in the poor neighborhood homes. Water is not even available in many villages homes. This reality is what brings us to today’s picture. This public water faucet is located in San Pedro Las Huertas, one the villages that belong to La Antigua Guatemala county (municipio in Spanish). That people actually use this public tap water faucet makes me believe that water is not available in all the houses in this community.

How’s the water situation in your neck of the woods?

Disclaimer: I write the above the best of my knowledge, which is not much. So if you know better or can provide actual facts and statistics, please, do so. This web site and all of us benefit from your input.

The irony of life in La Antigua Guatemala, a tiny colonial town with hundreds of bed & breakfasts, luxury hotels, cozy posadas, 5-star hotels, and thousands of rooms for every kind of budget. Yet, the number of homeless people without a roof increases every year. Certainly, life can be tough in La Antigua Guatemala.

Soon enough the electric wires become adorned with kites, lots of kites. See kite flying and the Guatemalan electric wire webs just don’t get along. One serves as trap for the other.

As of 22 hours local time of Sunday 4th of November, Guatemala’s Electoral Supreme Tribunal or Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) in Spanish has declared the Socal-Democrat Alvaro Colom as the new elected president of Guatemala. You can see the live results at the Tribunal Supremo Electoral web site. The result were 52.76% (1,409, 990) for Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) the Social Democrat party; Alvaro Colom’s party and 47.24% (1,262,680) for Partido Patriota (PP) which postulated Ex-General Otto Pérez Molina; this results as of 23 hours.

The second round of the 2007 elections (first round was on September 9th) had a low participation, but were swift and without any violence. In La Antigua Guatemala you could into one of the voting centers and cast your ballot under three minutes.

This is the sixth time since 1985 that Guatemalans elect a president by popular vote. And this is the first time Guatemala left the conservative right wing. Beginning January 14th, Guatemala will be considered a Social-Democrat country and it will be inline with most of the countries of the American Continent. Guatemala will be turning green with hope of a better future; green because is the color of the party of Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza and hope because that is what Esperanza means. Let’s hope this new turn and focus will be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of the masses. Let’s hope too that this time around the empire and its intelligence means will let us be what we have decided with our democratic elections. Let’s not have another 1954 ever again.

Cross-culturization is happening so fast that Guatemala may seemed foreign to those Guatemalans who have lived a few years outside its borders. Walt Disney figures and just about any comic hero like Spiderman, Superman, Wolverine, et-cetera are being absorbed by the popular culture and mixed with their own traditional icons like kites and parades for town fairs. But this cross-culturization is happening at all levels and not only with U.S. trivial merchandise, but with Mexican culture, music, food, novelas (soap operas), et-cetera. For instance, a few year back, I took a photograph of menu board in Panajachel, Lake Atitlán, which advertised the Desayuno Chapí­n (Guatemalan breakfast) with eggs a la Mexican style… You’ve got to see it!

For better or worse, Guatemala will be changed forever. What is your opinion of cross-culturization?

This picture is like a summary of the Guatemalan Idiosyncrasy. First we have the giant kite with all the Mayan motifs, which for a long time represented the pagan rituals as the dominant catholic church used to call them. Anything that represented non-christian religious rituals was denigrated and prosecuted under the pagan label; infidels other religion would say. So, there you see the Mayan motifs and Mayan religious connotations behind the meaning of the giant kite and its flying with evangelical message “Joeva es mi pastor” (Jehova is my pastor) encircling a Guatemalan volcano and its sun setting vista. Then you have as toppings the clothes of the father and sun, probably acquired from a paca store. Paca means second or third hand clothes from the U.S. sold to Latin America in big pallets (there was recently in GuateCiy an artistic performance under the name of Guatepaca). The Señor Frogs and Sideout t-shirts, baseball caps, jeans and tennis shoes are very representative of how a large number of Guatemalan dress.

Really. Honest. Well, maybe.

Certainly this is one of the most exotic dishes in the Guatemalan cuisine menu.

This picture is dedicated to Manolo who is having a hard time finding fiambre in Toronto. This fiambre picture is also dedicated to all those Guatemalans living abroad, who today will be missing the fiambre and all the stuff that comes with it. For those of you crazy enough, I made a close-up fiambre wallpaper (1600×1200) for you computer. Believe it or not, I feel for you all.

I don’t know why the word salad brings all kinds of vegetables to mind. Fiambre is a salad, but it mostly has meats, all kinds: sausages, hams, chicken, sea food, meats pork and beef. It is Domino’s or Pizza Hut that has a meat lover’s pizza with a mere 5 meat. Move over meat lover’s pizza; fiambre has over 25 meats.

If you want to see how this meal is prepared, check out last year’s fiambre slide show.

We will continue with the kite flying rituals and meaning tomorrow. Stay tune!