La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

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?

The YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos the photo exhibit of some of the most prominent cultural figures in Guatemala now showing in the Sala Marco Augusto Quiroa of Paseo de los Museos in the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala is the second venue for this successful photo display. The first time YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos was shown to the public was back in September 2007 in the Carlos Woods Gallery on zone 14 in Guatemala City under the frame of FOTO30; Guatemala’s name for the yearly celebration of photography in September.

YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos exhibit received so many accolades and magnificent reviews by the critics that it prompted Carlos Woods, owner of the gallery, and his curatorial team to pump even more oxygen by bringing the photo exhibition to one of the most important venues in La Antigua Guatemala and to create a catalog to record the fist YO-YO. This impressively beautiful catalog is printed on an European paper size (24 cm. x 36.5 cm or 9.5 in. x 14.5 in) and was designed by Paola Beverini. This is the second catalog that is put out by the Carlos Woods Gallery, but the first that will be on sale. I recommend its purchase as soon as it hits the shelves.

The YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos (portraits and self-portraits) takes its playful name in the fact that in Spanish the YO means I. So yo-yo means I and I which was the premise for this photographic exhibit where participants were asked to show their other I side.

The YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos exhibit has a wide array of portraits and self-portraits of many key players in the Guatemalan culture scene. Participants were asked to submit a portrait or self-portrait as they envisioned themselves or another facet of their personality they would like to show.

In the picture above, you can see my wife taking a snapshot of our good friend Daniel Chang, a professional photographer. Both of them had portraits in the YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos exhibit.

Under the name of YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos (portraits and self-portraits) the Carlos Woods Gallery is presenting its very successful photography exhibit in the Sala Marco Augusto Quiroa of Paseo de los Museos in the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala.

The photo of the hanging yo-yos above is part of one of the teaser window displays to make you go visit the exhibit inside the Marco Augusto Quiroa gallery in Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo. You can find this yo-yos window display in the hallway that connects the underground parking lot and the hotel.

With this simple image we will begin two mini series. The first one will be about the YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos photographic exhibit. The second will be about art galleries and museums in La Antigua Guatemala. I hope to have you along this cultural trip we are about to embark… please make sure you have your pasaje en mano (trip fare on hand).

Exactly one week ago, these cups were fill with light first, then happiness and finally with wine. These cups were used in the inauguration of the new Mayor of La Antigua Guatemala, Dr. Adolfo Vivar of Unión de Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), and to wave goodbye forever and ever and never again to the former ‘mayor’ Antonio Siliezar; one the worst episodes in La Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall.

The photo above was taken at the reception ceremony in the second floor of the Muni, short for Municipalidad or City Hall of La Antigua Guatemala.

Once again Manolo, in his effort to become the pebble in my shoe, points out that I am such a voyeur… Can you believe that! Manolo made such comment about the capture of a group of women tourists taking a sunbath in a public place, La Fuente Restaurant to be precise, while having lunch or a snack break.

I do not think I am crossing the line since I am capturing everyday life scene as I come across them; sometimes influenced by your comments and suggestions. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to check that I am not crossing the line of capturing private moments, so I found this great discussion about Street photography or voyeurism at photo.net, one my original favorite site (boy, we are talking all the way back to the mid 1990s). Anyway, I leave a teaser quote by Barry Fisher who said this:

…Often the object is moving anyways. I have no simple answer as to when or not to. If I really think someone is going to object or they’ve actually indicated they don’t want to be photographed, I will usually honor that but then, for me, its a balancing test of many factors. I suppose it has more to do of how you identify with personal space. If you believe or are in a frame of mind that “we are all here in public sharing space and time, and I’m going to capture the wonder of it all” then I suppose you won’t think of it as being voyeuristic. But if you feel like you are capturing people’s private moments even stealing them, like we all must at sometimes, then you are a voyeur at that moment. Do you have a problem accepting that you may be a voyeur? —Barry Fisher at Photo.net

We are talking about voyeurism as in the act of observing people without the sexual gratification which is normally associated with the word; just to clarify it. I believe that I do tend to be a voyeur or obsessive observer when it comes to capture the most natural street life scenes. My goal is to capture the intriguing split-second scene. I do not like posed photographs, especially posed street photos because once the subject is aware of the lens the natural feel is lost; the window that I open for you into the daily life of La Antigua Guatemala is broken.

Yet, sometimes I ask permission before actually clicking the shutter and once the permit is granted I wait until the subject goes back to the natural state; less defensive mood. Such was the case for this shot of Jacque (Jack in English he said) drawing this colorful chicken bus in front of Hotel Aurora.

Is this voyeuristic enough for you (Manolo)? Or is it just an honest shot of what you may encounter yourself while strolling around the streets of La Antigua Guatemala? What is it?

Yes Manolo, the weather gods are on LAG side. Above you see a group of tourists having the Sun for lunch and enjoying it too. Yes the temperate weather gods have been given La Antigua Guatemala temperatures between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit in the harshest Winter month. Oh boy, life is wonderful in La Antigua Guatemala…

Don’t you wish you could be in La Antigua Guatemala having a bath of this wonderful sunshine?

Last year, on Thursday, July 19th, on the entry I am not conTigo, I gave a little overview of the cellular telephone industry in Guatemala. It was Manolo who mentioned then how small and advanced are the cellphones in Guatemala. They are very small indeed with so many features that sometimes they forget to actually work well the telephone part.

The cellular telephone industry is one of the fastest growing industries and they just broke a new record for Latin America: 10 million 150 thousand users or the equivalent of 75% of the population has now an “active cellphone“. The key word here is: Active. This makes Guatemala one of the most connected countries in Latin America. (Source: Guatemala bate récord de usuarios de telefonía móvil at elPeriódico {ES}).

The cellular telephone companies have been able to achieve this huge numbers of active lines through aggressive sales campaigns and inexpensive telephones. If you recall the entry Selling Cell Phones in the La Antigua’s Market, back in November 2007, in which they were selling mobile phones in el mercado (the market) for Q130/USD$18 with Q100/US$12.80 of air time. In other words, they were given away the mobile phone for free.

Next time you come to La Antigua Guatemala, make sure you bring your mobile telephone with you since you will be able to buy ‘Guatemalan mobile telephone number’ through a chip or SIM card that you can swap with the one inside your telephone for about Q25/US$3.25 (Q25 stands for 25 Quetzales. the Quetzal is the Guatemalan currency {follow the link for pictures of the coins and bills} and the exchange rate is now about Q7.80 per US$1).

Un poco de todo or A little of everything could be the most appropriate description for La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park. Interestingly enough, we call it El Parque Central or Central Park although its official name is La Plaza Mayor (The Main Plaza).

Do you know what Un poco de todo is and what they sell there?