I guess we can continue a mini series of signs… here’s the most common sign seen in La Antigua Guatemala. Sometimes you come across the lonely sign, but most often they gang up together on bulletin boards around Antigua. Bulletin board advertising is quite popular in La Antigua Guatemala as you can see in this picture.
Somethings or their absence, really, make the lifestyle of La Antigua Guatemala very pleasant. The absence of billboards, banners and large signs make the whole colonial experience more enjoyable and authentic.
Large advertising is another huge contrast between the ‘new’ Guatemala City and the ‘old’ Guatemala City (La Antigua Guatemala for you). As Manolo said to me a few days ago, the chaos and visual noise provided by the millions of signs, billboards, banners, flag signage with their vibrant-strong-in-your-face colors and messages can have an enormous impact on your stress levels to the point that you want to puke. I agree with him totally.
The unregulated ferocious business practices have made of Guatemala City a mammoth of billboards and advertising signs that can cause severe headaches and deadly accidents. I mean, only those with unchecked titanic avarice and greed would put gigantic television screens on top Calzada Roosevelt, the largest 8-lane artery of Guatemala City. Come on, like if anyone needs any more distractions in the wild-wild-west-traffic of Guatemala City.
The same aggressiveness and greed show up often in La Antigua Guatemala with businesses who don’t know, don’t care, and don’t give a damn about the laws and policies that prohibit billboards, large signs, banners, huge flags, and stick-out signs (known locally as letreros banderas) within 4 kilometers (2.48 miles) from the entrances of La Antigua Guatemala. Don’t get me wrong, I am pro businesses; I just happen to believe that there are so many more effective and creative ways to promote a business. I should know since I am graphic designer. 
And you know that I have an unchecked passion for signs, right?
If I started a series about the NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) headquartered in La Antigua Guatemala, one per day, I could probably go a full year without repeating once. Once I called this town the NGOs Capital of the World.
This is what I grabbed from the ninosdeguatemala.org web site:
The goal of Niños de Guatemala is to contribute to a better future for Guatemala and its population. The NGO (Non Governmental Organization) Niños de Guatemala (NDG) was founded in 2006 to initiate and support small-scale education projects for Guatemalan children. In starting these projects, community involvement is crucial.
The first project by NDG will be to build an elementary school in the community of Ciudad Vieja. From summer until autumn 2008 construction of the school building will take place. Per 1 January 2009 the classes in school will start. Naturally, the school is operated by local staff and within set time limits (latest in 2013) the school will be entirely self-sufficient and financially independent.
Source: ninosdeguatemala.org
Later this month, I will try to make some time to visit this project and others to do a week-long series. Stay tune!
Pues, what better way to explain one of the most confusing word-expressions in the Spanish language than to tell you about Manolo, alias El toronteco?
Pues, El toronteco (from Toronto), alias Manolo, was the famous commenter that began each comment with ‘Pues‘ before he decided to finally open up his own space, pues. Pues, like I was saying, Manolo use pues as his diving board into intelligent comments and to share his opinion, pues. If for any reason he was not able to put his name down, his initial pues-and-comma took the place of his name to fully identify the following words as his statement. Pues became his denomination of origin, pues. Va pues, I said to myself, I know where you are coming from now. Pues, when he finally opened the door to a room of his own, I thought his blog was going to be called Pues. Pues no, he hanged ‘El Toronteco‘ at the entrance door. Pues, however, was the main idea of his first paragraph.
Pues, as you can see, pues is one the most often used words in Guatemalan Spanish and often can mean many things according to the other words it dances with and the intonation of the speaker. I believe Francisco Goldman try to tackle some of its meaning in the following fragment of The Long Night of White Chickens, which Manolo shared with me and now I share with you:
“‘Pues sí’ he said, lightly… which somehow means the opposite of ‘sí pues’ though both mean ‘well yes’ and both can mean ‘Yes, well…’ But si pues is more affirmative, that’s right! of course! or it’s fatalistic, as in no kidding or you said it, and with a question mark it’s Am I right or what? But ‘Pues sí” is softer and has a short up-down melody, it’s an open-ended and ambiguous punctuation: Well yes, and that’s the least of it but just beginning too, it being Guatemala after all, which after all, doesn’t even exist. (-and with a question mark it’s a flirtatious little chirp, ‘Pues sí? mi amor?’)” p.238-9
Source: The Long Night of White Chickens (1999, The Atlantic Monthly Press, NY) by Francisco Goldman (The greatest American novelist of our generation, according to Junot Díaz)
Claro pues, there are many more variations, but I think this is a good start.
Are you going to tell us the story of the Pue-sí-tú sign, pues? Sí pues. The owner of this multi-branch cotton clothing store in La Antigua Guatemala found the Pues sí expression enchanting as she was taking Spanish classes. Pues, when the time came to open her first cotton-clothing store, she decided that the playful Pue-sí (contracted Pues sí) was a memorable choice. Success brought forward a dilemma when she was about to open its second store… yet she resolved it quite nicely with Pue-sí-tú (tú is pronounced like two; you get it?!). Well yes you, that’s the story behind today’s sign.
I will post a second entry about ‘Pues’ with all the variations of the word you guys will share with me in the comments. Va pues!
La Antigua Guatemala’s sidewalks were not meant for walking. Sidewalks in La Antigua Guatemala are narrow and uneven, with so many 2 or 3-feet inclination ramps and potholes that you can easily fall down. On top of that, in the rainy season, you have be careful with the colonial house drains; both, the ground level drains and the roof drains spouts and Spanish-tile roofs which drain the rainfall right in the middle of the narrow sidewalks. Did I mention the sidewalks are narrow?
Initiatives like La Antigua Guatemala Without Barriers are a good start to make the sidewalks even enough, but do not solve the problem of the narrow width and rainfall drains. In my opinion, the best solution would be to make the entire Antigua Guatemala a pedestrian town, like it was in colonial times. This would be a win-win situation for just about everybody. Some exceptions could be made for horse-powered carriages and golf-type carts for carrying loads to businesses.
What do you think, should I run for the city mayor seat? Who knows, maybe I turn out to be the Barack Obama of La Antigua Guatemala. 
I wonder if the blue cap you see on top of the lamp’s pole is actually a sensor to turn on and off the lamp or if it is indeed a sun-powered cell to provide the electricity for the colonial-style lamp; what do you guys think?
As you can see, just because you are living in a quincentennial Spanish colonial town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes, it doesn’t mean you can not have some hi-tech comforts like WIFI, solar sensors/sun powered cells and Apple iPhones 3G.
Did I miss a fútbol (Soccer) game today, or what? I know Bistrot Cinq is a French bistro on 4a calle oriente in La Antigua Guatemala, but what’s with the French flag?
I am sure they left the ladder next to the flag so it is easier to put it down. No big signs or flags are allowed to hang from the walls of La Antigua Guatemala. That’s even true for Guatemalan flags, except for the Independence Month.
As much as I like to photograph arches, signs, churches, food, et-cetera; honest, my favorite subject is people. That’s it folks, I’ve said it aloud: I like to photograph people’s interactions like Kids Enjoying Ice Cream, Ice Cream Row, The Heigh Scale on Calle del Arco and Contemplating the Heavy Rain; just to name a few shots at random.
“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” —Pradip
“I love walking in the rain, ’cause then no-one knows I’m crying.” —Pradip
Rain brings other photo opportunities to La Antigua Guatemala; gotta love it!
The wooden texture from beam which appeared in Holding Up the Heavens. Sometimes you just need to let time do its magic.
An interesting find in La Antigua Guatemala, a town full of arches at every turn; but how often one comes across an arched door and doorway in arched building?
After more than 30 arches photographed in LAGDP, I ask: what are your feelings about arches, anyway/anyhow?
When I was eighteen I worked for a senile old man who had been a famous race driver in the 1940-70. Very often he was able to describe with crystal-clear detail events from those decades as it was yesterday morning. Seldom, he was able to tell you what he did that afternoon. However, in his in-and-out memory zapping, once in a while, he had his coherent moments and I remember in a crystal-clear way what he said to me in one of those moments, as it was yesterday morning: “When I was your age I used to go to weddings every month… Now at my age I go to funerals every month”
Do you know where this funeral motorcade is heading? Hint, the answer is a series in the archives.
Somethings are changing in the Guatemalan lifestyle. Others, luckily, remain the same, like hot-just-out-of-the-oven bread delivery in the rainy afternoons in La Antigua Guatemala.
Here we see an indigenous woman purchasing some pan frances and sweet bread to prepare the afternoon “refa” (short for refacción or snack break), the only refacción some people got in their childhood even though there is also a morning refacción.
The smell of the hot Guatemalan bread can make you stop for a bit from a busy schedule, like it did to me just the other day. I bought a cubilete and one champurrada to dunk in my cup of coffee.
What kind of bread would you buy from the panadero delivery?
I am the Walrus… I am Fofo… I am the Walrus.
Honest. Fofo is short in Guatemalan Spanish for Rodolfo, which is Rudolph in English and German (I think) and Rudy is diminutive for Rudolph. So there you have it I am Fofo… But Fofo is not me because I am the Walrus.
This portrait of Rodolfo “Fofo” de León was taken the same night as the portrait of The Violinist. I have shown two photos or maybe three photos of Rodolfo de León. Let’s see if you can find them in the LAGDP archives.
Below I leave you with I Am The Walrus from the MUST-SEE film Across the Universe:
On a total different tangent, if you are going to be in Guatemala tomorrow and for the rest of the month, I would like to invite you to the collective photo exhibit República Paraíso at Museo Miraflores (Miraflores Museum) where a bunch of Guatemalan photographers, including myself, will be showing why Guatemala could be considered a photographic paradise. Nevermind the Killer’s Paradise. 
Anyhow, below is the invitation in case you decide to go.
...it feels sooo good to know that I'll be back in one of my favorite cities in the world !! ( though for me it's more like a nice little village actually, cause people are so kind and open, everyone says hello, you can always find strangers to chat with in Parque Central and when you're there for two weeks, you always seem to meet the same people all over town almost every day. I so love Antigua and reading your blog every day makes the time till the next vacation shorter ;o) ! —Jeannine
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