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Here’s a marimba sculpture found in Santo Domingo del Cerro representing Guatemala’s national musical instrument. How you like it?

He aquí una foto de la escultura de la marimba que se encuentra en Santo Domingo del Cerro; una representación artística del la marimba, el instrumento nacional de Guatemala. ¿Qué les parece?

Often enough I have heard “take art to the streets, to the people” from my artist friends and acquaintances. I believe that with the photo exhibit “Agua, Ríos y Pueblos” or “Water, Rivers and People” as it’s known in English, EspacioCE have achieved such slippery aspiration. EspacioCE is the name for the cultural proyects of Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (AECID) in La Antigua Guatemala.

For information on other cultural events, visit AgendaCulturalAntigua.com, our other cultural project.

A menudo he escucha a mis amigos artistas y conocidos decir: «hay que llevar el arte a las calles dónde está el pueblo». Considero que con la exhibición «Agua, Ríos y Pueblos» EspacioCE ha logrado tan resbaladiza aspiración. EspacioCE es el nombre que reúne todos los proyectos culturales del Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (AECID) en La Antigua Guatemala.

Para información sobre otros eventos culturales, visiten AgendaCulturalAntigua.com, nuestro proyecto de cartelera cultural.

Masks are beautiful, of course. It is said that people wear masks, depending on how they live on a daily basis. Simple make-up can be a mask; or just even hiding yourself behind sunglasses.

How about wearing a hat? Let’s leave such definitions on the side, but can you believe there are institutions/corporations/NGOs/etc. that wear masks? If so, would you share your insights with us?

I go first. Here’s a simple event. Not too long there was a gossip started in a social network saying that the Mayor of La Antigua Guatemala was going to pave all the streets of Antigua Guatemala with asphalt. Gossip does travel faster than light in the social networks sometimes and a commotion began to happen. Nevertheless, some reasonable people remembered the reality of the work done by the Mayor in combination with the National Council for The Protection and Conservation of Antigua Guatemala. Oops, yes, it was one of those oops. In this case a company that produces travel books was involved, plus the owner of a bar. What were their intentions?

Such things involving the masking of oneself or one’s true intentions do happen quite often in La Antigua Guatemala and in Guatemala in general. Oh, I could tell you so many such stories involving NGOs and other institutions; but now it’s your turn. So, please, don’t be shy, what experiences and anecdotes will you share with us?

Perhaps it is the fact that La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by so many coffee plantations and fincas (farms) as well as protected areas that birdwatching does not require far away trips. In fact, just go to a park or restaurant with trees to be able to watch birds. The bird above was capture from the window of the Duane Carter Library, La Biblioteca as we call it, located on Portal de las Panaderas, above G&T bank, right across from Parque Central.

Of course, if you want to watch birds as well as enjoy the quiet and peace of the highland forest around Antigua Guatemala, contact Filadelfia Resort and Tours where you can do birdwatching and canopy tours as well as coffee tours. Filadelfia Resort and Tours is located in San Felipe de Jesús, a village about three kilometers from La Antigua Guatemala, but with access to protected forest land with lots of bird tweeting.

By the way, does anybody know the name and species of the bird in the picture above?

This is an election year in Guatemala and the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) is rushing to get all potential voters registered and updated. This election year there will be an overlap on the national identification documents that will be allowed to use: The old, retired cédula and the spanking brand-new DPI (Documento Persona de Identificación). The booth above is located right in front of the Municipalidad (City Hall).

Nothing is sacred in the kitchen and fusion is the tendency in vogue. So it comes as no surprise to find new ingredients as part of the Pupusas repertoire such as chipilín and mushrooms.

Pupusas are tortilla-like dish, about the size of CD and made from a mixture of maize dough, cheese and some typical ingreditients like loroco, beans, chicharon, chirozo, et cetera. Pizza Maya is what I called a giant pupusa the first time I introduced them. We can even find black or blue pupusas in Antigua Guatemala.

It’s quite common to find pupusas with cheese and loroco, an exotic herb from Central America in El Salvador and sometimes in La Antigua Guatemala, but I had never had pupusas with cheese and mushrooms or cheese and chipilín, another exotic herb/weed from Guatemala.

What’s next? Pupusas with cheese and flor de izote, queso y flor de ayote, maybe bledo, espinacas could also work or even quiletes weeds sauté with onions? What do you think?

If you want to learn about Guatemala’s editable weeds, flowers and herbs, follow the white rabbit!

By the way, these two pupusas and a licuado from fresh tropical fruits and milk will set you back Q26/$3.25 at Pupusas Cheros, located half a block from Central Park on 5a calle poniente. RWOrange are you reading this?

Police patrol trucks, really? I am sure that’s a normal question asked when people are told that all police patrol units in Guatemala are actually trucks; well most of them for sure. I believe police trucks are used in Mexico and Central America, but I am not sure if they use trucks anywhere else as police patrol vehicles.

Have you seen police trucks in other countries outside of Central America and Mexico?