You know what I mean! 
Okay, let’s review the recent events of the last four days:
1. Fast jolt by an earthquake
2. Pacaya volcano erupted
3. Tropical storm Agatha drowns Guatemala
4. Floods and landslides
5. Massive sinkhole in Guatemala City
6. Guatemala soccer teams loses 5-0 against South Africa (Well, this one might not be a surprise at all)
7. … Are these 2012 signs? 
As the new figures and images keep pouring in it becomes obvious that the tropical storm Agatha has caused more damages in Guatemala than Hurricane Stan in 2005 or Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
By the end of Sunday, May 30, these were the figures 82 dead, 111,964 evacuees, 29,245 in shelters, 13 bridges collapsed, [many] roads blocked by landslides or floods (via webO_o). Climaya calls Guatemala the country most affected but also Honduras and El Salvador were affected by the storm Agatha in Muerte y destrucción causa Agatha en Centroamérica. HablaGuate reported about 15 houses that were destroyed in San Pedro Las Huertas (the village I live in) and all the houses lost in Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez. The list of damages caused by tropical storm Agatha just in Guatemala is an endless river of updates in Twitter and Facebook.
Below I share with you just a few samples so you can get an idea of the current state of Guatemala; not a terra firma country any more but an archipelago of isolated communities.
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Guatemalans urgently need a break!
First we experience a short but strong jolt cause by an earthquake. Right after Pacaya volcano began erupting and spewing black volcanic sand and ash over Guatemala City, which cause the closing of the main international airport of Guatemala. People were still cleaning up the black sand and ash when we got hit by tropical storm Agatha, which behaves pretty much like a hurricane.
We urgently need a break!
Of course the tropical storm Agatha is the worst of all evils because it hit hard the entire country with a heavy downpour which caused floods and land slides in many places, including La Antigua Guatemala. Many people have lost their houses and many more have been evacuated and are now living in temporary shelters. A flood of tweets and Facebooks updates keep inundating the timelines with the hash tags #Pacaya, #AgathaGT, #CenizasGT, #ApagonGT, etc. You can look at all the photos from tropical storm Agatha that people are uploading at http://is.gd/cvbam and http://is.gd/cvbak.
Don’t you agree that we need a break from Nature’s catastrophes?
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I can easily hear a lot of Guatemalans asking just that: Stop Pacaya, Stop!
For those who don’t know, Pacaya is the name of the active volcano south of Guatemala City. Most of the time the volcanic activity of Pacaya is predictable enough that the tourism industry has created tours and added the climb of Volcán de Pacaya as one of the top five things to do in Guatemala. Yesterday, however, Pacaya decided to be naughty and played havoc with Guatemala City, the largest city in Central America. Volcán de Pacaya erupted abruptly, throwing ash and black sand onto Guatemala City and surrounding communities. Here you can see a series of photographs by Eny Roland depicting the damage and chaos created by Pacaya volcano in Guatemala City.
To make matters worse, there was an earthquake and heavy storms began falling yesterday over Guatemala and will continue to fall for the next couple of days. So earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, black sand rains and heavy storms, no wonder Guatemala has become a trending topic in Twitter.
I have shown you the typical Guatemalan breakfast at least three times and each time has been somehow different, how so? Well, what can I say, there are a series of ingredients that can be assorted to make breakfast taste very Guatemalan. The typical Guatemalan breakfast must include, however, black beans, fried plantain slices, fresh cheese, and eggs. Other ingredients that can be present in the desayuno chapín are cream, bread, tortillas, chirmol (tomato sauce), salsa verde (green tomatillo sauce), fresh fruits, panqueques (pancakes), longaniza (white sausage), chorizo (red sausage), salchichas (wiener sausage, like in hot dogs), carne asada (charchoal-grilled beef steak), coffee, mosh (oatmeal) or avena (the correct word in Spanish), hot chocolate, orange juice, et cetera.
What other ingredients have you found in your typical Guatemalan breakfast?
Believe it or not, after 500 years, the Plaza Mayor, also known as Parque Central, still is the most popular venue to meet with friends in La Antigua Guatemala.
While I had my shoes shined, I watched this group of friends laughing and having a good time until I realized that the friendly gathering looked like the Guatemalan version of the sitcom Friends. Only then, I decided to capture a few laughs and smiles and I was so lucky because at the very moment another friend showed up and one of the girls was pointing and shouting something to her as she approached them.
A creative framing on a quiet afternoon with just the right amount and kind of people and we get a post card from the past. Of course I could Photoshop out a couple things to make even more convincing, but I am sure most people will not notice them anyway.
What do you think? Do you feel as if you were looking into the past? Do you like this perspective of all the arches of Palacio de los Capitanes?
Below you can browse additional posts of Palacio de los Capitanes:
What a creative way to distribute volantes, flyers, don’t you think?
By the way, I believe it’s time to go out at night to listen to Buena Vista de Corazón. Hopefully I will come back with good night photos of the Cuban musicians. You know how much I love to photograph music events at night.
On a totally unrelated subject, I will not talk about the Philadelphia Flyers who are playing against the Montreal Canadiens, as Manolo suggested; I refuse!
Instead, I will share with you that I just renewed the yearly subscription to my Flickr account; that’s where I stash all the photos so I can keep the hosting and bandwidth bills low. Also, on my recent trip to the U.S., I bought a new camera with a very powerful zoom so I can bring you more close-ups of people; you already have seen some of these close-up photos in the past two weeks. Finally, I also got another one-terabyte hard drive to keep up with thousands of new photos and a GPS photo tagger so it’s easier to place the images on a map. Like I always say, this is possible thanks to the premium sponsors and the donations from readers and Antigua lovers like you. Thank you all for your support, comments and feedback!
Eveyone needs a break every once in a while. Today will be my break. However, before I head for the beach, I will share with you this simple image of doves taking a break or perhaps holding a staff meeting before the storm’s arrival; you decide.
Did you know the Pacific Ocean shores are only 45 to 60 minutes away from La Antigua Guatemala?
We street photographers are like hunters; often we roam the streets, stalking the city for candid, naturally looking, images. Other times, we seat or stand in a corner until we become invisible or at least until the people around us become oblivious about us. We set the light, aperture, and shutter speed ahead of time so we are ready to capture the fleeting images into our camera oscura. Of course, the hunter can also become game!
The best thing about street photography: serendipity
—Philip Greenspun (source: Photo.Net)
“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” —Walker Evans (source: Photo.Net)
A few years back LD ranted about all the people she came across wearing earbuds while riding the public transit buses in Toronto after having spent a few years in Guatemala where the practice was rare, if not, nonexistent in the chicken bus rides. I remember her rant because at the time I hadn’t noticed it.
Now, however, very often I see people wearing earphones or the omnipresent “white earbuds” of the iPhones and iPods. This evident increase in earbuds usage has different reasons other than to shut the world out; which is a valid reason on my book.
The more obvious reason for the increase of headphones is the music players, iPods and the generic clones, are so much cheaper now in Guatemala. Entry level portable music players can be had for as little as $25 to $50 for the iPod generic clones.
Another reason for the increase in earphone usage is actually cellphones, many of which now come with hands-free earbuds, as in the picture above, for the making and receiving calls as well as for listening to the radio. That’s right, many cheap mobile phones now come with AM/FM radio and Guatemalans love listening to the radio.
Since we are now talking about mobile phones, I like the opportunity to share with you some great hindsights about cellphones and their transformative power in Guatemala written by our guest author Kara Andrade for Americas Quarterly and Ashoka. Below I will quote some thoughts that I consider relevant, but I suggest you read the entire articles.
Cell phones are ubiquitous and becoming more widely adopted each day in a country where there more cellphones than citizens…
The reality of Guatemala’s Telecom advantage is starting to influence the way people, organizations and government institutions get and provide information. News organizations like Emisoras Unidas, Radio Sonora, El Periódico, and others provide breaking news via text or SMS alerts and ask listeners to contribute news, comments and traffic reports that are often read out on-air.
Technology in the shape of cellphones that are cheap, accessible and ubiquitous is becoming transformative for Guatemala. While cellphones are not the only tool in Guatemala’s development, their role is vital in the country’s gradual process of democratization… (source: Above the clouds, five bars — and more)
The fact that Android is free and open source and now available in places like Guatemala is important because many people in developing countries use mobile [phones] as their primary or only source for Web access…
In Guatemala, long after the asphalt and pavement ends, cell phone networks extend deep into the mountains, and coverage is almost universally accessible. Much to the surprise of its Central American neighbors, Guatemala’s telecom sector is in the top four in Latin America…
The municipality of Guatemala City sends out traffic alerts throughout the day to Twitter and users also contribute development about protests, blockades and construction…
Access is not just for the wealthy or for those with good credit. Anyone can buy a cell phone [internet access] in Guatemala by texting 805 “wap”. Under Tigo’s plan, $.60 per day allows for unlimited access browsing the Internet. That’s cheaper than texting. (source: Androids Land in Guatemala)
I have mentioned some of these facts before, however, it is a pleasure to read them in a well rounded article written by a Guatemalan professional journalist like Kara Andrade.
It’s incredible how long it takes me to show you the most common vistas from La Antigua Guatemala. See, one of the most common images one sees while walking around the Parque Central is people having textile braids put on their head and I just realized that in four years of daily photos I have never shown it. We have to fix that.
I hope you like the human interaction in today’s image as much as I do. This photo is going into my «Je ne sais quoi» album.
The weekend is the perfect time to catch the classic automobiles in La Antigua Guatemala. You can catch classic automobiles near churches and hotels because they are used for weddings and other celebrations, including quinceañeras.
In the picture above, I captured two classic German automobiles; where is the second one and what color and brand name is it?
Update: Here’s the a rear view of the classic Mercedes Benz 300 from 1955.
Update 2: Okay, finally I have some time to share with you the theme song for the white cucarachita or escarabajo, the nickname in Guatemalan Spanish for the VW Beetle. I hope you enjoy it. For those who want to try it in their next Karaoke session, follow the white rabbit! 
It is impossible to think the Guatemalan, Mexican and Mesoamerican diet without maize. From the Popul Vuh (Popol Wuj in modern spelling), the Mayan equivalent of the Bible, which states that humans were literally created from maize, to Miguel Ángel Asturias‘ novel Hombres de maíz (Men of Maize) which is one of the best novels to understand Mesoamerica and its people. Guatemala and Mexico share the birth place of maize, which was and is the most important crop in human history. The richest diversity of maize can be found in Mesoamerica! (… continue reading)
So, it is only understandable that seek tortillas as often as possible; especially at lunch time. Now you know what the señoras with baskets are selling, right?
Tortillas with frijoles
Tortillas with guacamol
Tortillas with sal y limón
Tortillas with chile
Tortillas with queso crema
Tortillas with chirmol
Tortillas with mantequilla
Tortillas with pollo
Tortillas with carne
Tortillas with chicharrón
Tortillas with anything…
Because I have travelled to Antigua twice from the United States and because I have left my heart in Guate, I look forward to your photos. I enjoy the food & recipes; I love the landscapes and the faces of the people of the country; I look forward to the history and even a single breathless photo without words. Thank you. —Charlene
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