AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

Tomorrow, August 1, the theme day for the City Daily Photo community will be Bright colours. I figured I get a head start with a bright coloured image of one of the guacamayas, macaws, found inside the patios and gardens of Casa Santo Domingo, which is, by the way, one of my favorites spots in La Antigua Guatemala. I love just walking around the gardens with all kinds of fountains and the hallways full with art.

Wait a minute, why don’t we take a little tour through the images we can find inside Casa Santo Domingo, a sort of mini series; do you want to come along?

There is new seismic activity in La Antigua Guatemala’s grapevine. For a while now, I’ve been hearing rumors about new closing times imposed by the Municipalidad, Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall for certain kind of businesses. Like everything in life, there are at least two sides to the story, but before I present you with details of the new city ordinances, a little background information is needed.

There are a lot of bars and some discotheques in La Antigua Guatemala which operate with Restaurant licenses. As a matter of fact, there’s only one Discotheque/Bar license that I know of, which is held by La Casbah on Calle del Arco. If you’ve visited Antigua Guatemala you would be wondering how is that possible since there are plenty of bars all over town?

Well, the disorder or mess has been caused by the very nature of the fast business life cycle in La Antigua Guatemala; in other words, how fast businesses open and fail and are bought again in La Antigua Guatemala. Foreign residents are also part of the mess equation since they fall in love with Antigua Guatemala and one sure way for them to stay and make a decent living in Guatemala is to become business owners; this also apply to Guatemalans. Furthermore, the lax regulation by previous City Hall administrations have caused the current mess. The combination of these factors and others created the unregulated bars, discotheques and restaurants environment present today.

Let’s explore one “over-simplified” scenario to get the general idea of the causes of the mess. A residential space is put on the rental market and soon enough the property is rented by a foreign resident looking for a steady income and a way to stay in Antigua Guatemala. She invests in the place and turns it into a high-end French bistro; she hires Guatemalan workers, then she gets a new or previously owned Restaurant license and opens the doors into the highly competitive restaurant market in La Antigua Guatemala. For one reason or another, she runs into economic trouble after six months and she’s forced to sell or close; with luck she finds another ex-pat who’s willing to take over her rental agreement, furniture, facturas (legal invoices), business license and Restaurant license for a small investment. This new business owner knows nothing about French sandwiches and doesn’t even care; he decides to turn this failed French bistro into the new hot bar for backpackers and salsa dancing students. After a month and a new paint job, he opens its door as a Bar-discotheque. Because of his cheap Guatemalan labor, cheap drinks and cheap DJ and a constant influx of backpackers and salsa dancers he manages to make a living. No one from the local government comes knocking at his door to let him know that his Restaurant license does not allow him to operate his business as a bar and/or discotheque. Repeat this over-simplified scenario with a few variations over five or ten years and you end up with lots of bars and discotheques all over town.

Fast forward to the present and all of sudden there is a new Municipal administration that wants to create a new city ordinances and close some of those troublesome noisy bars and bring some peace and quite nights to the still living in town Antigüeño residents. You have to remember that most Antigüeños are extremely conservative and church-going people with profound religious rituals and traditions. A quick review of all the extended licenses show that there’s actually only “one” license for a bar or discotheque, so they passed new closing time ordinances for cafeterias y comedores (cafes and diners), restaurants, cevicherías (ceviche vendors), abarroterías, depósitos, pulperías and the venerable tiendas (basically convenience stores), cantinas, bares and discotheques.

New opening and closing hours:
6 to 22 hours for Cafeterias y comedores
6 to 22 hours for Restaurants
6 to 18 hours for Cevicherías
6 to 21 hours for Abarroterías, depósitos, pulperías and tiendas
12 to 22 hours for Cantinas
12 to 24 hours for Bares
12 to 24 hours for Discotheques

Of course, if I inherited or bought a business with the wrong license and now I am being forced to close the doors so early I would be very mad. These new city ordinances put many businesses at risk in the already week economy. So a group of business owners took these new municipal ordinances to court and believe it or not, this lawsuit ended all the way up to Guatemala’s Corte de Constitucionalidad (Constitutional Court, Guatemala’s highest court) which resolved in favor of the Municipalidad of La Antigua Guatemala this past July 15. See El Metropolitano newspaper clips below. In short, the Corte de Constitucionalidad found the new ordinances to be within the legal jurisdiction of the Municipal government.

There are many questions I would like to get answered. How difficult will it be for the current bars and discotheques to obtain the proper licenses? Will the Municipalidad be willing to compromise and allow restaurants, bars and discotheques to close a little later as to not hurt current businesses? As a tourist or traveler, how do you feel about the closing hours, will they affect your travel plans?

What’s your opinion now that you have a general overview of the situation? What other questions would like to ask?

Acknowledgments: I thank Antonio Palomo for providing the official Municipal position. Several business owners for providing me with their opinion and position. El Metropolitano newspaper for providing the photo opportunity and specific details of the lawsuit and the final court’s decision. Renata Avila, my epistolary Guatemalan lawyer friend, for explaining the differences between Corte Suprema de Justicia and Corte de Constitucionalidad and other background details which I will use in future posts.

An earthquake struck Guatemala on July 29, 1773 and had an estimated epicentral intensity magnitude of 7.5 Mi. It was followed by numerous aftershocks which lasted until December 1773. The series of all these earthquakes is also referred to as the Santa Marta earthquakes as it had started on the feast day of Saint Martha. With an intensity of approximately 7.5 the Santa Marta earthquakes destroyed much of Antigua Guatemala, at that time the colonial capital of Central America. About 500 – 600 people died immediately and at least another 600 died from starvation and disease as a result of the earthquake.

Spanish authorities had already considered moving the capital to a safer area after the devastation of the 1717 earthquake and decided after the 1773 event not to rebuild the city again. Thus in 1776 the capital was moved to the new city of Guatemala of Asuncion, known today as today Guatemala City. (source: Wikipedia)

Las ruinas de La Recolección still stand as they were left after the earthquake of July 29, 1773, thus the ruins served as testimony and document of the powerful forces the quakes of Santa Marta. It’s sort of Antigua Guatemala’s time capsule.

Have you visited the ruins of La Recolección?

The things one must do to earn a living.

So what’s the guy doing all the way up there? Good question my dear friends. Well, there’s something fishy going on there and in many other street light poles. Let me explain. As I drove by the two trucks shown in the bottom pictures I noticed they had replaced the stylish trash bins with metal containers that look exactly like the trash bins, except there was no place to put the trash and inside the metal containers had what appear to be expensive electronics.

Of course, it could simply be a new energy-saver lamps or new cellular towers disguised as public street lamps. Or, it could be something even more sinister. Stay tune as your exclusive reporter from La Antigua Guatemala uncovers the truth behind the Daredevil’s work and leaks his findings to the entire world, Wikileaks style!

What do you think is going on?

Ah hah, I am very close to discover exactly what turns any meal into a typical Guatemalan dish. I believe that you can have a series of ingredients that can be group together like longaniza (white sausage), chorizo (red sausage), salchichas (wiener sausage, like in hot dogs), carne asada (charchoal-grilled beef steak), chicken, guacamol, chirmol, rice, salad, cheese, tortillas, bread, vegetables, etc., but you can’t call it typical until you also put black beans and fried plantain slices; only then you can call it a typical Guatemalan dish.

Wha do you guys think? Am I right or I don’t know what I’m talking about?

The typical lunch above is from Travel Menu, a tiny diner, which has a small menu with very good food which can be prepared with chicken, beef or tofu. Travel Menu was the first place my wife and I ate when we moved to La Antigua Guatemala in 2002 and still among our favorites. Travel Menu is a good choice if you’re vegetarian and one of the few places where you can eat tofu.

As always, if you click on the links for Travel Menu, you will be taken to the Foursquare entry I created for you with address, phone number and map.

I am sure you were already thinking of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Gotcha!

Well, this is really a literal snapshot or think of it more like a tickler vista so you revisit Whitman’s poetry. I know I will read a few poems of Hojas de Hierba this week; if you do the same, please share with us which poems you read. Deal?

Do you believe this couple will also record their names interlocked inside a heart as proof their present love?

For as long as there’s love, couples will feel the desire to record their names, interlocked, as proof that at one point they were in love. There’s even a famous and popular Mexican corrido song which describes one such love story in which the lovers recorded their names on a penca (nopal pad).

Who wants to write the lyrics of La ley del monte into English? Any takers?

The Convento de Las Capuchinas is among the best preserved ruins in La Antigua Guatemala. Every nook and cranny of Las Capuchinas presents a photo opportunity. If I was a professional fashion photographer, I would often use Las Capuchinas as backdrop.

Guatemala is a tiny little country with a tremendous wealth of things to do and see.

From La Antigua Guatemala, you can travel to any part of the country in a day (more or less). You can visit the hundreds of pyramids of the ancient Maya in Petén. You can swim in the Caribbean sea and the Pacific Ocean on the same day. You can take daily trips to many villages in the high lands and be back on the same day. There are 33 volcanoes to hike: rivers, lakes and lagoons to take with you as memories or photographs.

However, Guatemala is not an easy country to travel, the geography of the country is up-and-downs, zig-zagging roads with lots of curves that make interesting road trips, but at the end of the day or before if given the chance, you want to take a nap on the nearest couch or bed to recoup the energy for another fascinating trip through the land of the eternal spring.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. —Ernest Hemingway

Often I think I belong to the last generation that will have an appreciation and enchantment about paper books and notebooks. Even though I belong to the overlap generation; meaning we can as easily keep a travel blog but have no problem and even enjoy keeping a paper travel log. I mean there’s something irresistible and enchanting about a Moleskine journal with drawings, clips, post cards and real handwriting entries «- Click the link to see what I described.

Oversharing Aside: I don’t overshare often, but what the heck. Even though I am proud member of the La Antigua and Guatemala Geek Squads and I own lots of gadgets, I still keep a weekly paper agenda and I use college ruled notebooks to write my ideas and sketch possible designs and photos. Furthermore, I still read paper books. Please, do not tell anyone because these secrets might be grounds for expulsion from the Geek Squads.

What about you, what’s your relationship with paper? Do you still use paper notebooks?

In my never-ending quest to bring you the cosmopolitan dining options available in La Antigua Guatemala. Ubi’s Sushi, managed by chef Jeremías, is the new sushi venue in Antigua Guatemala. I have tweeted a few photos from Ubi’s Sushi, including their delicious ceviche.

Also, like all the new places I am profiling here, I also created a Foursquare venue so that the address, phone number and map is available to you in case you want to check it out for yourself [without inviting me ].

If you’re vegetarian or would like to try some tasty vegetarian dishes, Ubi’s Sushi is the place to go; try their miso soup and a vegetarian roll.

On the other hand, if you just want to try a few different options of sushi, sashimi, jemaki, etc., try their Titanic Mix, which is good enough for two people.

Bon appetite my friends!

The Antigua Guatemala’s Half Marathon Las Rosas consists of a route of 21 kilometers through La Antigua Guatemala, Jocotenango, Ciudad Vieja and back to Antigua Guatemala. The half marathon Las Rosas begins and ends at the Plaza Mayor, Main Square of La Antigua Guatemala. The half marathon Las Rosas is held one Sunday before the Santiago (St James) festivities which are celebrated on July 25. The half marathon Las Rosas is among the most popular long distances running competitions in Guatemala. The winners were Elisha Korir with a lapsed time of 1:02:52 for the men category and Judy Jesire with a lapsed of 1:13:20 for the women category.

Here’s my slide show of the half marathon Las Rosas 2010 in La Antigua Guatemala. I hope you like it!
(more…)

This past Sunday I covered the Half Marathon Las Rosas 2010 with two cameras and the iPhone.

I was tweeting and sending images and video to the social media networks in real time. Needless to say I accumulated lots of material, which I haven’t got the chance to process yet. This is why I am only sharing with you three photographs today so you can at least get a feel for the most famous marathon in La Antigua Guatemala.

I promise I will do a complete follow-up with photos, video and slideshow and, of course, lots of information. Stay tune, but in the mean time, please let me know your comments and feedback.

Like I declared yesterday, I am a lucky guy!

I am so fortunate to have among my friends and acquaintances movers and shakers of the Guatemalan society. One such person is Christian Van Der Henst, a Guatemalan who thirteen years ago, 13 that’s right, setup one of the first websites in Latin America to help other learn about the web and the Internet in general in Spanish. MaestrosDelWeb has become a must-see reference in in the Spanish-speaking world.

I congratulate Christian and his team for helping and sharing everything they know about the web and the Internet every day for the past thirteen years in the language of Cervantes. Cvander, as we know him in the interwebs, is another fine example and inspiration of the things one can do to help others.