AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

Don’t you ever say I don’t take you deep into the most obscure holes of La Antigua Guatemala in search of the unexpected, the ugly and the sublime.

The above signs were captured into a single frame at La Casa de Las Mixtas, a diner serving the antigüeños and foreigners alike since 1901. Come back this weekend if you want to learn more about this unknown landmark of La Antigua Guatemala. Yes, I know, unknown landmark is an oxymoron, but don’t you just love when you get a chance to do that.

I don’t know how Barak Obama does it, but he shows up everywhere! Obama showed up in La Antigua Guatemala for my birthday. More recently, Obama appeared in billboards inside a video game for the iPhone/iPod Touch (remember I received one as my birthday present from my sisters). Now Obama showed up again in La Antigua Guatemala, right outside of my office; I even got one of those Obama button you see in the picture above. Thanks! you know who you are.

To quote a recent article on Reuters: “Unprecedented in US presidential politics” (or anywhere I may add). I have to tell you that Obama did pull an ace off his sleeve with the campaign advertisement inside the game. All the blogs and twitters in Spanish-speaking world were talking about it. The same for the English-speaking world of blogs and web sites.

I don’t know about the other guy running for president of the U.S.A., but I can tell you the general perception among young and not so young adults is that he looks very old, antiquated, outdated, too much of the same thing; kind of like he belongs the the past century. [UPDATE: And I am not taking about his age.] That’s what I perceive from all the buzz around the web in English and Spanish. What are your perceptions?

Oh the economy is hitting hard. People are trying to make ends meet. Some throw themselves to the streets to sell whatever they can. A ceviche stand is great option for generating additional income on the weekends since all you need is car or bicycle, a vinyl sign and a few stools.

Oh, how I wish there were golden parachutes for the rest of us.

How are you making ends meet?

We, graphic designers, are a weird bunch. We like thinks like patterns, textures, colors, signs, letter shapes, shapes, you name it; if it is visual we’re hooked. Since I am, after all, a graphic designer, please forgive my indulgences every once in a while.

Okay, let’s meet for lunch today, the meals are on me. But, the menu options are limited: Guatemalan Revolcado, Pepian, Hilachas, Subanik and Longanizas.

For some reason, Guatemalans enjoy going out on the weekend and dining on the streets. That’s right, many people set up tent and a few pots with traditional Guatemalan dishes. You can find street food stands like the one shown on September 16th, 2008 from restaurants like La Cuevita de los Urquizú. These stands or tents can be found near El Calvario Church, on the Manchén Park, in San Felipe village and in many villages around Antigua Guatemala.

Poll Aside: I plan to make some small modification to the layout of the web site soon. In case you haven’t noticed, when you visit La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo, you are presented with 15 days per screen. Now, I would like to know whether you prefer to see 15 days at once (like it is right now) or just one week per screen?

I caught this sampler of Guatemalan t-shirt motifs. I am glad to see new ideas being stamped onto t-shirts. By the way, which one would you buy from the selection above?

I am happy to report that slowly but surely Guatemalan women are moving into all the positions they deserve. Two good friends come to mind:

First of all, we have to congratulate Stephanie Falla {ñ} for winning the Best Future Project with Journalism 24/7 at Exponet, Prensa Libre’s initiative to promote best web practices and web excellency. Stephanie is a great example and a role model for anyone, but especially for women since she also leads one of the largest web communities in the Spanish speaking world: Maestros del Web. You may recall that a few days ago I mentioned her name in relation to new digital media projects in Guatemala.

Another great role model for me is Renata Avila {ñ}, the Guatemalan voice and correspondent for Global Voices, a blog community promoting all the different voices through out the world. Renata takes the time to surf and fish out the best content produced by the Guatemalan Bloggers, then translates it into English and puts it in perspective. On top of all that, she’s also the leader in the creation of jurisdiction-specific Creative Commons Licenses for Guatemala, which, by the way, will be presented and introduced by Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia in a couple of weeks in Guatemala.

I am very happy to know them both and to be inspired by their extraordinary work!

Below you click on the thumbnail to see the moment Stephanie Falla received the Q50,000 award as seed money to get her Periodismo 24/7 (Journalism 24/7).

Wow, my kid does look with the sousaphone; I am glad he’s not a piano or guitar player like everyone else; he’s a real sousaphone player.

I will give a penny for your thoughts!

Honest.

I want to know what are your thoughts now. How are you taken all the recent events and economic calamities? Who’s responsible? Do you have hopes for the immediate future? Will you be voting in the upcoming election?

Don’t vote! is great video clip I came across just yesterday; I like to share it with you.

Please, let me know your thoughts!

Or why didn’t my parents had me take classes of piano, guitar or saxophone? Something more sexier and less heavy, come on who wants to date a sousaphone player?

The more I see things through the camera lens, the more I realize how little I know and how ignorant I am. For instance, I took the shot of this musical instrument and only until I have to name it, I was aware of my ignorance regarding musical instruments. By the way, the name of the instrument is tuba Sousaphone.

Today’s front cover for the mayor Guatemalan newspapers (Prensa Libre, elPeriódico and Siglo XXI) will have the news about a man who walked into call center last night and held hostage 50 people for a little over 4 hours under the threat of C4 explosives and weapons. At 11:50 all hostages were released and the man was taken into custody.

As big as this tragic episode was, I did not learn about it, however, through the traditional media, no, no, no. Thanks to my sisters who sent me an iPod Touch for my birthday a couple weeks, I was made aware of the bomb threat and hostage situation through a twit from Oscar Mota who during four hours kept the information flowing in a punctual and concise manner. For those who don’t know, a twit is an up-to-140-characters text message, quite similar to SMS (short message service) available through telephones, but taken to the next level as a social media or community bulletin board thanks to Twitter and similar competitors. (I use Twitterrific on the iPod Touch to receive the twits of the people I follow.) Oscar kept up-to-the-minute updates of the situation by listening to the radio, browsing the web and watching television. At the end, he concluded that the traditional Guatemalan media (except for radio) had failed in keeping the general public informed; he even posted his conclusions about the failed coverage in his blog {ñ} DesdeGuate. For instance, all mayor Guatemalan newspapers were sleeping or not updating their websites with any information; he found the news note posted in El Universal de México and from there other mayor Latin American rags repeated the note. My wife and I checked the Guatemalan television channels and except for Canal 3, nobody was covering the situation. Five hours after the initial twit from Oscar, he updated his blog to let us know that no mayor newspaper (except for a tiny note at elPeriódico) had updates on their websites.

I am glad to know there are people like Stephanie Falla with future projects like Periodismo 24/7, a proposed digital newspaper online (according to her twits); which by the way is a finalist on Exponet, the upcoming event about web excellency in Guatemala.

Back to you Manolo in our overseas studio in Toronto, Canada. Perhaps you can have LD, our field correspondent on site, do follow up story; what do you think?

If you only browse the Indigenous category you will find 58 photos and hundreds more if you browse all 901 consecutive days since May 1st, 2006, but I am almost sure this is the first photo I shown of an indigenous man wearing the traditional pants around Antigua Guatemala.

I wonder why the Guatemalan indigenous men clothing is disappearing; can anyone provide some answers?

Here’s the scoop and the ice cream, vanilla flavored and once it gets put on the cone they top it with acid-sweet syrup that ice cream men called chirmol. Chirmol is the Guatemalan name for a tomato-based sauce with peppermint, onions and hot chiles; so this is not what they put on the ice cream. They use the word chirmol to mean the colored syrup they use as topping.

Well, you know I have shown the traditional Guatemalan ice cream carts before, but this is a first look inside the cart. The Helados La Favorita cart is made from wood, with a few hands of oil-based paint, a drawing of the ever-present Disney characters. Inside there is a metal bucket which holds the ice cream, a ring of large ice pieces and a larger outer bucket that holds the hold thing. Don’t forget the ice cream cone holder, the purified water bottle and we are ready to hit the streets. May God allow us a great sale today!

Whether the climate is cold, windy, rainy, or sunny, the ice cream carts go out to satisfy the needs of the ice cream lovers everywhere around Antigua Guatemala.

In the picture above, you can see three Guatemalan traditional ice cream carts from La Favorita (the favorite) being prepared for sunny day. Come back tomorrow if you want to have an inside look at the guts of traditional Guatemalan ice cream cart.