La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

And just like that, July left the frame… Oh Cazuza, how right you were… Time doesn’t stop!

Okay, the last game for July 2008. Tells us what the sign says… the answer is in the archives for July of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo.

What an unusual assortment of small chairs. Certainly, you would say, these chairs are not for adults, right?

Well, if you browse through the archives of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo for the month of July 2008, you will find a tiny chair being used by a large person. Once you do find the photo, come back here and let us know what date it was and what was the photo about.

The hunt is on!

As part of La Antigua Guatemala’s town fair celebrations of Santiago, there are books stands right on Central Park. These book fairs are a great opportunity to get Latin-American literature a discounted prices.

Today I bought four books for Q25; that’s about the price of an economic meal in La Antigua Guatemala. El examen by Julio Cortazar, Ensueños and Demián by Hermann Hesse, and Amor y Pedagogía (3 novelas ejemplares y 1 prólogo) by Miguel de Unamuno are part of our library and my to read list. With those four books and three more books given to me recently by LAGDP readers I pretty much have my books to read for the rest of year. I am a slow reader; I wish I was not.

I am in the middle of The Divine Husband by Francisco Goldman, which was given to me recently as a present (Thanks! you know who you are). When I finish reading this amazing Guatemalan novel by Francisco Goldman, I will embark in two Canandian novels: The Age of Longing by Richard B. Wright and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood thanks to Pues sí tú Manolo.

If you are in Antigua right now, don’t let this opportunity to buy some great Guatemalan literature go by; bookmark a stroll to Central Park.

Chamusca is the Guatemalan-Spanish word for an informal football match. All you need is a few friends, a dirt field and a fútbol ball to build life-long relationships.

Less is more is one of my rules in graphic design and it looks like it holds true for life too.

There’s so much to learn from the have-nots… don’t you think so?

That’s my opinion; what’s yours?

Everybody has a lucky number, which one is yours?

If you have been following La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo (LAGDP) for at least a year, you would know that the patron’s day celebrations fall on 25th of July for La Antigua Guatemala, also known as Santiago de Guatemala (Saint James of Guatemala), short for its original name La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for, go read last year’s gigantic entry on Saint James Celebration, Santiago de Guatemala and the zillion variations on Santiago/James name in the different languages and time periods.

Now, in the picture above, there are two flags waving over the Municipalidad (City Hall) building, can you find the background information on each flag in the archives of LAGDP; I will send the Tecolotes photo as a post card to the first person that comes with both answers. Let the games begin!

During the rainy season (May thru October), every hill around La Antigua Guatemala gets a new emerald green dress. In the picture above, we see the hill near La Ermita de La Santa Cruz ruins, right across from the Pensativo River, with a verdant dress made from coffee bushes and gravileas shadow trees in the lower half and all kinds of trees in the upper half. Like I said in A Million Shades of Green: “Fact #3: The rainy season last well over six months, thus it provides enough water to keep the whole country with a million shades of green year round.” You should read the other facts about Guatemala.

Back in May 11th, 2007 I showed a picture of the Río Pensativo which was nothing more than a dry river bed. Back then I said that soon enough there was going to be running water in this river and now a year later I can show the water. The Río Pensativo (pensive river) is really a canal drainage for all the accumulated water that comes down from the mountains in the rainy season.

A simple photo of the doorway to Licuados Claudia in La Antigua Guatemala generates over 15 comments; I take one as the diving board for this entry.

Coltrane_lives commented: “… In my photo, out front of the store, there is a little type of grill with three legs welded to what looks to be a wheel from a car…”

Carolyn commented that we live in an Upside Down World, a reference to Eduardo Galeano’s book, and how North Americans and Europeans feel less guilty about the over-consumption which directly corresponds to what Central Americans don’t have.

There you have it: The haves and have-nots and recycling.

I remember a scene in the Mahatma Gandhi film in which Gandhi and the British administration are negotiating their exit out of India and the British said to Gandhi something like: “All we want is for India to be civilized, like England” and Gandhi responded that if a small island with a small population on the north Atlantic Ocean needed to have an empire made up of colonies throughout the world to be civilized and to maintain their lifestyle, how many planets would be necessary to keep a large nation with a large population like India with the same lifestyle as England? I don’t know if Mahatma Gandhi ever uttered such words as I did not find such passage in his autobiography book. However, just last week a woman from India, nonetheless, said the westerners’ lifestyle is harmful for earth and that if the whole world opted for such a lifestyle, we would need four or five planets to barely keep up. What an inconvenient truth! For the foreseeable future, having a few planets to spare is out of the question (I think); no third world or even a second world here, you know.

There you have it: The have-nots can not have what the haves have.

Thus, the have-nots have to recycle as much as possible; more out necessity than conscientiousness. So, old wheels become charcoal grills, cans become pots, retired school buses become colorful public transit chicken buses, vehicles considered junk in the U.S. are driven 6,000 kilometers for an extended life in Central America. And so on, the list is so long I would need a few months just to highlight all the things we recycle from the U.S. and Canada. All of this recycling takes away from the embellishment and beauty of the “third world”; or perhaps it adds the exotic flare of these little poor countries. But, somebody has to take recycling seriously; let the “third world” do it, right?!

There you have it: The have-nots are recycling the world over.

Oh man! this guy Eduardo Galeano has it all right: we live in an Upside Down World. Maybe, we ought to read some of his other books like Las venas abiertas de América Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America); for starters.

Besides reading and watching the avalanche of material about recycling, being eco-friendly, et-cetera, what do you think are solid and fair solutions to end this vicious circle of haves and have-nots without destroying our only planet in the process?

… Where do they all come from?

It’s 10 in the morning, perhaps, MO can explain to us what all these people are doing?

You already know that tecolotes (owls) represent Luck, Prosperity and Abundance in Guatemala. You also know that in Guatemala you get ceramic owl banks instead of piggy banks; although you can also get piggy banks. Furthermore, you know can take a look at a huge collection of 100-hundred-year-old owls at Doña María Gordillo Candy Store. Owls even come as garden ornaments.

But, did you know you can take the good luck, prosperity and abundance home in the shape of these tiny 3″x1.5″ owls for about Q7 a piece if you visit the main plaza in San Felipe, a village about 1 kilometer away from La Antigua Guatemala. That’s what we did today and now these fellas are home with us. Now, if you get in touch with Damara, a Guatemalan industrial designer, you can take home some original owls wooden designs (Tecolote tableware collection).

This is another tradition which is disappearing from the façades of La Antigua Guatemala. Having a tiled-sign with the family names on the wall next to the main doorway is something that is rapidly going away for different reason, safety among the most important of all.

What do you think are the other reasons?

The Marimba Orquesta Ave Lira Sign is so small that you may have trouble finding their home-base. I have published a photo from the Ave Lira chicken bus; let’s see if you can give us the exact date and what the photo looks like. The hunt is on!

To see the above sign in context click the thumbnail below:

Okay, I need your help translating the word “licuados” into English? What do you think would be a good option?