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Okay, I will let you do the caption this time… just fill in with your comments.

Okay, all my dear ceviche-loving friends (you know who you are), I have already placed the order for the shrimp ceviches and bought enough of the Guatemalan brews known as Moza and Brahva Beats. I know Manolo is bringing Stella Artois and Steam Whistle; Guy is bringing New Castle and Guinness; Jerry B is bringing a micro-brewery sampler from AleSmith; Edgar and Carmen are bringing Cubas Libres and whatever beer Edgar likes; El Canche is bringing himself out of piles photo memory chips and Guatemalan slavery-work schedules. Everyone is invited to this huge ceviche party, but you better hurry because the lady is putting the final ingredients on the Mexican shrimp ceviches available in La Antigua Guatemala. If you don’t like the Mexican ceviches, we can alway go to La Naranja Pelada or Blanqui Sevicherí­a for the sacred dish.

Don’t take too long… the ceviches won’t last forever, you know!

Rice and beans are an integral part of the Guatemalan diet, sometimes as side dishes and many more times as the main plate. Unfortunately, many times rice or beans are the main dish, the only dish of many Guatemalans.

It was the Garí­funas, the black Guatemalans living in the Caribbean shores of Lí­vingston and Puerto Barrios, Izabal, who made an exquisite meal from rice, beans, coconut milk, tomatoes and herbs. Garí­funas called it Rice and Beans; yes, in English. This meal has several variations and names in the different Caribbean communities. For instance in Cuba, Rice and Beansdish is known as Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians).

If you come to Guatemala and have a chance to try Rice and Beans, please do so; you will not regret it.

Also, if you have five minutes, please check out this amazing and beautiful slide show of the Garí­funa people of Lí­vingston created by my good friend Iván Castro; a superb photographer.

La Antigua Guatemala is just a cosmopolitan town. You can get just about any kind of cuisine here. For instance, the dish above comes from the Guatemalan Caribbean; yes you heard it right: Guatemala is a Caribbean country (as well).

Believe it, you came to the right place, you are looking at LAGDP; this is not the Montego Bay Day by Day published daily from Jamaica by our dear friend Ann. I know it could be confusing to see a Caribbean dish made with sea food, coconut milk, bananas and plantains being served in a Spanish Colonial Town embedded in the highlands of the mountains of Central America. What kind I say, Guatemala’s syncretism knows no limits.

The tapado (covered) dish comes from the Guatemalan Caribbean region of Lí­vingston, in the department of Izabal. Lí­vingston’s population is made up by Black Guatemalans known as Garí­funas, Q’eqchi’ Maya and Mestizos (mixed) and it’s precisely this mixture that is necessary to create such a delicacy. If you are in La Antigua Guatemala, you can only find this dish at El Pelí­cano Dorado (I think). According to Guy, the ceviche connoisseur, you can also find a great ceviche at El Pelí­cano Dorado.

This is the Vuelve a la vida seviche (Come back to life ceviche) from the Blanqui Sevicheria in Escuintla City, a town about 40 minutes from La Antigua Guatemala. I know Manolo, Guy, Pirata Cojo, El Canche and others will have fond memories and things to say about this ceviche photo. Let their comments come…

If you would like to learn a little about the ceviche fascination of yours truly, please, do read the following entries: Ceviche from La Naranja Pelada and Shrimp Cevice in Antigua.

This is what the inauguration of the YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos the photo exhibit looked like inside the Sala Marco Augusto Quiroa of Paseo de los Museos in the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala.

Much of cream of the cream of the Guatemalan cultural scene was there to check out the photo exhibit and the magnificent catalog. As you can see in the picture above, the inauguration was very successful as well.

I hope you have enjoyed this mini series documenting one of the most important cultural activities and exhibit to hit La Antigua Guatemala in recent times.

As I have said it before, I try to document life as I see it in LAG and its surrounding villages and communities. It is not my intention to create yet another touristic site about La Antigua Guatemala, nor to create a site for any particular group or interest. Those who have followed the photo stream and captions for a while will know that I do this on my own precarious time; stealing time from my family and friends; many times sacrificing my own sleep and rest time so I can put up a photo per day. I receive NO grant money from anybody. Except for some donations towards the hosting bills and some donated books, a tripod and a battery charger from the Amazon Wish List, I have NOT received economic incentive or reward from this activity which I have done for 647 consecutive days, with over 680 posts and over 800 photographs. On average, the LAGDP takes a couple hours from my day… from my life.

I do hope that you appreciate my efforts to give you a very honest and very biased window view into the life of La Antigua Guatemala. I do hope you appreciate the part of my life which has been spent to create this body of images and information. I am in no obligation to continue, especially if my efforts go unappreciated.

This is the welcoming display sign that you can find in the hallway that connects the underground parking lot and the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala. Although, there is no reference element in the picture to give you an idea of the size of the sign, I can tell you is very big; the red background of the display must be about 3 meters by 2 meters (9 feet by 6 feet).

The hanging yo-yos and this display sign should be enticing enough to make you go visit the YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos the photo exhibit (portraits and self-portraits) inside the Marco Augusto Quiroa gallery in Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo. Don’t you think so?