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The adjacent building to the right of Cathedral of La Antigua Guatemala goes by the name of Palacio Episcopal (Episcopal Palace). This time even this palace will get a new facelift just in time for the Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Guatemala.

Now the above photo seems quite frankly ordinary, but there is an very interesting detail that makes this photograph an extraordinary vista from Guatemala. Can you guess or point out what it is? You may need to zoom in.

Well, it looks like 2009 will be the year of the new paint jobs on all the major churches around Antigua Guatemala prior to the Holy Week celebrations, which, by the way will begin one week from today.

In the photo above, you can see new colors for La Antigua Guatemala’s Cathedral. This is the first time I have seen the Cathedral wearing different colors other than white. As I have stated before, during the Lent season, you see many houses, buildings and churches undergo façade makeover.

This photo was taken early last week and I believe they should be done with the new paint job of the façade of the Catedral de La Antigua Guatemala. I will do a follow up photo to show you the finished new look. Stay tune!

Comments and Feedback Whining Aside: The only way for me know if you like or hate the new photos and captions is through your comments. Please, do not underestimate the power of your comments. Even though sometimes I don’t respond right away, I DO READ every single comment and feedback. Please, leave your comments as often as possible; they are the fuel for new ideas and encouragement to continue with just one more daily page.

One of the benefits of having a Holy Week every year is the fact that La Antigua Guatemala gets a new facelift every year and thus even though the colonial town is over 500 years old, it looks brand new; newer than most places in Guatemala at least.

The vista above is quite common during Lent season. Stay tune for the upcoming new look of La Antigua Guatemala’s Cathedral.

Okay, we will finish the Zapote and other exotic tropical fruits from Guatemala week with the Chico Zapote or simply chico which in English is known as Sapodilla.

The flavor of Chico Zapote is exceptionally sweet and very tasty, with what can be described as a malty flavor. The unripe fruit is hard to the touch and contains high amounts of saponin, which has astringent properties similar to tannin, drying out the mouth.

The Chico Zapote is a large ellipsoid berry, 4-8 cm in diameter, very much resembling a smooth-skinned potato and containing 2-5 seeds. Inside, its flesh ranges from a pale yellow to an earthy brown color with a grainy texture akin to that of a well-ripened pear. The seeds are black and resemble beans, with a hook at one end that can catch in the throat if swallowed. (Source: Wikipedia)

Trivia: From the sap of Chico Zapote tree is produce the natural chewing gum known as chicle.

Photographic Aside: Never underestimate to power of the close-up shot. I took several shots of the chico zapote and then I realized I should cut one up so you can see the insides. Duh!, yes I know I should have done the same with all the other fruits. That’s how I got the shot of the sapodilla fruit you see below (click to see a larger version, as always) which is, all in all, a good enough photo of the chico zapote. Then, I decided to take a few macro shots for texture and wallpapers and that’s how I obtained the large photo above. Sure the close-up macro image above does not show the entire shape of the chico zapote, but who cares, as long I can inflict a nostalgic pinch to the Guatemalans living abroad!

Guatemalan produces several kinds of mangoes (dozens really), but by far mango de pashte (loofah mango) or mango de leche (milk mango) as it also known, is considered the best by the majority of Guatemalans. Interesting enough, I had never had mango de pashte outside the Guatemalan borders. I don’t know if the other mango-producing countries have them; does anybody know?

I am sure many Guatemalans living abroad, right about now, will be craving to have one or two of the mangoes you see in the photo above. Please, you know who you are, come forward and let us know about your cravings and desires and please don’t tell me mango no come mango!

Even though most people are familiar with cashew nuts (I think), I am almost sure many people do not have the slightest idea about the fruit that produces the cashew nuts.

Well there you have it, the jocote de marañón or cashew mombin or as Javier calls it, cashew apple. Although I think the word apple does not apply for the cashew mombin or for the caimito either, which, I recently learnt, is called in star apple in English; go figures! I think the English language needs more fruity words .

Last year we learnt that jocotes or red mombins are related to cashew mombins and thus both fruits are called jocotes. Can you say hawkōttes?

Do you want to know which part of the jocote de marañón produces the cashew nut, do you? Well, just ask and we will be happy to give you the glory details of just how the cashew nuts are produced.

The Cashew Nut Origin Aside: As requested by several of the readers of AntiguaDailyPhoto, here is the recipe for turning the seeds of jocote marañón (cashew mombin) into cashew nuts. As Claudia pointed out, the nut comes out of the funny looking stem, which is actually the seed. Well, the seed, but with with a carapace. So you need to burn or toast the protective cover first (see picture 1 below) to get it to crack open and give you the already roasted nut (see picture 2 below). Things to keep in mind before you go burning the cashew armored seed: 1. The shield carapace produces a very strong smell as the oils and fats in it begin to burn. 2. The oils and fats inside the armored shield also produce a lot of smoke as they burn. 3. It’s best to roast the armored seeds in the left overs of slowly burning charcoal or wood logs. Last but not least, make sure you don’t over burn them as it happened to me.

I tell you, those Costa Ricans have no shame. First they made the entire world believe that Central America was them. Then, they passed some funky and colorful looking bird as Guatemala’s own Quetzal. Costa Ricans are now working in their coffee campaign and trying very hard to convince the world about the high quality of their coffee. Come on, have some shame, everybody knows the best coffee in the entire world is from Guatemala.

Last Saturday I received three notes via email from the New York Times in which they implied that Costa Rica was the only ecological, cloud and tropical forest vacation destination in Central America. Come on, I am sure the entire country of Costa Rica fits inside our exuberant-lush-green El Petén department, in northern Guatemala. Anyone can have the same adventures in the jungles of Costa Rica as in the jungles of El Petén, except in El Petén they can also have the majestic and awe-inspiring experience of visiting the lost world and the birth cradle of the Maya Civilization. That’s right folks, the same jungle adventures plus the Mayan ruins of the most powerful and advance civilization of the American Continent.

I can understand how people can be confused with all the money the Costa Ricans spend in promoting their country.

However, I draw the line when they want to pass the caimito zapote (star apple) as a Costa Rican tropical fruit. Come on, have some shame… that’s it, we have to draw the line somewhere.

Everybody knows the caimito is from Guatemala, right?

Many were the contributions of Meso-America to the world in terms of brand-new dietary crops; so long is the list that one can not imagine a world without such staples like maize (corn), tomatoes, avocados, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, tomatillo, beans, red hot chili peppers [not the rock band ], et-cetera.

Some crops from Meso-America, however, fair better in the world than others, like jocotes (red mombin), jocotes de marañón (cashew mombin), zapotes. I am not sure how well sapotes are known beyond the borders of Meso-America. I know some people would not know what jocote cashew looks like even though they might be very familiar with the cashew nuts.

You are going to have to come if you want to look at one of the stranger-looking tropical fruits from the Guatemala: Jocote de Marañón.

Well, looking at a photograph helps in learning the shape and colors of the Guatemalan tropical fruits, but describing its taste is another matter altogether. How do describe the taste of zapotes (sapote mamey)?

My part of the equation goes as far as showing the Guatemalan tropical fruits and providing some context background information. I am going to request the help of the AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com visitors and friends in describing the taste of zapotes, caimitos and jocotes de marañón and mangos de pashte. Please, help!

Okay everyone, I solemnly declare this week as the Zapotes (sapotes) and other such exotic tropical fruits week.

Sapote or tzapotl is a Nahuatl language word for a soft, edible fruit. The word is incorporated into the common names of several unrelated fruit-bearing plants native to Mexico, Central America and northern parts of South America. (source: Wikipedia)

We will begin our ride with Mamey, also known as the South American sapote (Quararibea cordata = Matisia cordata), family Malvaceae, a species of tree native to the Amazon Rainforests of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; according to Wikipedia.

Next in line, we will have the what’s normally known as zapote in Guatemala or sapote mamey in Mexico. After that, we will take a look at the purple caimito, another kind of zapote. There are jocotes de marañon and mangos de pashte on our plate this week. Quick, go hide the scale because we are going to have a fruity tropical mystery tour.

But before we continue, please tell me if you ever had mamey (South American sapote) and if not, why not?

Yesterday I showed you a close-up of the coffee fruit being dry by the warm rays of the sun in the eternal Spring weather of Guatemala. Today, you get to see an overview of the coffee fruit piles and in the background the buildings belonging to the Finca Filadelfia Coffee Plantation.

Below you can read a summary of the whole process by Eve Andersson and if you visit her web site you can also see pictures describing every single stage.

Growing
The plants start out in pots for the first couple years of their lives, then they’re transported to high-altitude fields where they grow in the shade of large [Gravilea] trees that let just the right amount of sunlight through.

Processing
The beans fruits are picked, pulped, washed, dried, sorted by size, sorted by density, hand sorted for defects, roasted, and packaged.

Tasting
This is the best part. It’s like a wine tasting; you take a sip and then spit it out. The high-altitude Arabica coffee grown in [La] Antigua [Guatemala] was by far the best coffee.

These delightful fruit you see above are coffee fruits being dry after they have been hand picked from the coffee bushes. You might remember mini series I run last year of the coffee harvest:

1. The coffee colors, which showed the coffee in its different colors green, golden yellow and cherry red.
2. Coffee harvest time in Guatemala showed an overview of the coffee bushes and the Gravileas trees used to create the shadows to protect the delicate coffee bushes in La Antigua Guatemala.
3. Time to harvest the coffee showed a coffee plantation worker harvesting the cherry red coffee fruits.

Today’s entry would be the immediate step right after harvesting.

I don’t know how it happened, but I had lost this vista of the Jacaranda trees in bloom at La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park among the other 15,000 photos of my fototeca (photo library). Shame on me!

With this image of the jacaranda trees adding the subtle violet color to Antigua Guatemala main plaza we wave goodbye to the jacaranda photos. Come on, enough is enough, you can only see so many jacaranda photos; right?

Have a wonderful weekend and please start making your bags if you don’t want to miss the Eternal Spring weather, the heart touching violet color of the jacaranda trees and the processions and decorations of the awesome Lent season in La Antigua Guatemala. If you are already in Antigua, don’t forget that tomorrow there will be the last FREE Jazz concert at the atrium of the Compañí­a de Jesús Ruins as part of the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala. The free jazz concert by Lalsax Quartet from Italy will start at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday the 21st, 2009.

What better way to welcome the Spring Season, really, that with a free jazz concert at night?

Besides the Canopy Zip Lines tours you can find at Finca Filadelfia, in Antigua Guatemala, there are all kinds of activities to do there. For one, you can take a coffee tour to learn all the processes that take the coffee bean from the tree all the way to the cup.

You can also dine inside the premises of Finca Filadelfia coffee plantations, one of the original coffee plantations of Guatemala, established the 1800s. I heard very good things about the weekend brunch they serve at the Cafetenango restaurant and, of course, the Finca Filadelfia coffee is superb.

They also offer mountain tours, mountain biking, mule riding, birdwatching, tennis courts, canopy zip line tours and a few other activities. Of course, my favorite activity inside Finca Filadelfia is to take photos of the unprecedented access one gets to all the premises of an original, authentic, still in operations coffee plantation.

I wish this was my house, don’t you wish this was your house?

Come back the day after tomorrow if you want to see how the coffee beans are dry with nothing but the sun over the terraces.

It seems like even Jacaranda trees want to be seen wearing the ever-present violet and purple color found over doorways, windows and cucuruchos during Lent.

Do you know why purple or violet is worn during Lent? The answer can be found in the AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com archives. Go happy hunting!

Next time you are strolling around Antigua Guatemala and you come across street vending carts, like the ones you see above, you’ll know you can order a Chevere hot dog or the world-famous-wikipedia-entry Guatemalan shuco hot dog.

Can you tell me what’s the difference between a chevere hot dog and a shuco hot dog? He or she who can tell the difference before anybody else will receive a shuco photo in the mail.

Let the games begin.

While we wait for the comments and feedback, please, let me have another chevere por favor.