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Flying through the air you can see all through the valley at Antigua Canopy Tours which is located at Finca Filadelfia. Seven zip-lines, and the longest being 715 ft on the Cannon tour. The view is breath taking. It is a great way to experience the vast scenery.

If you want see everything that is available at Antigua Canopy Tours, please, read all the posts published about the subject by Laura McNamara in AntiguaDailyPhoto.com. There are over 12 posts covering the Antigua Canopy Tours from every possible angle.

What is your favorite viewing spot of the Antigua Guatemala area?

text and photo by Zach Olson.

Every Saturday and Sunday the city closes 5a avenida norte, better known as Calle del Arco, to all traffic. Only allowing people to walk through the street. This group of a father and his sons made the experience very festive and lively. Throughout the whole street you can hear the soul of this city flowing through this music.

Do you have a local spot where you like to hear music?

text and photo by Zach Olson.

As I was walking I could hear the sounds of a drum line. To my surprise it was an all girl school parading through the streets showing off their skills. Honestly they were good! Coming from a former drummer’s perspective I am picky about my drum lines. It was fun to watch and listen as they marched through the streets of Antigua Guatemala.

text and photo by Zach Olson.

As this priest walked through the streets of Antigua you could see him praying as he went. It was a refreshing feeling to see a man of faith do this loving action. It is harder and harder to find people who are truly genuine in their faith in our society today.

text and photo by Zach Olson.

On sundays there is a restaurant open on the top of the mountain within Finca Filadelfia. The food is delicious, and the majestic view will captivate you for hours. If you haven’t taken the time to visit this restaurant you need to schedule it for this sunday! Your life isn’t complete until you’ve visited this restaurant. All the food is wood fire cooked, and tastes as fresh as if you grew it yourself. The ride up and down is bumpy, but worth it. I wish we could go there everyday, it is that breathtaking.

text and photo by Zach Olson.

About Guest Contributor: Zach Olson is a Photographer from the Dallas Texas area. He enjoys shooting all types of photography, capturing a single moment that explains and entire event or emotion.

I can’t believe it has taken me over 5 years to share with you a plate of carne adobada. Shame on me. Although, I believe I’ve shown carne adobada before with other meats at a charbroiler.

Carne adobada is basically adobo marinated pork loin. The adobo marinate includes achiote, garlic, oregano, thyme, a little bit of vinegar, and pepper as shared with us by Joanne a while back. I am sure there other ingredients that can be included in the adobo marinate, but I don’t know what they are.

Can anybody share a adobo marinate recipe with the rest of us?

The Plaza del Apóstol Santiago is located a few hundred meters from the Cerro de la Cruz mirador (look out point). It is easy to miss it if you don’t know it is there. In the middle of the plaza you’ll find the monument to Saint James Apostle.

On July 25 La Antigua Guatemala celebrates the Saint James Apostle Day with all kinds of festivities.

Why is Saint James the patron saint of La Antigua Guatemala? Well, the previous name for Antigua Guatemala was La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, or The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala.

Santiago was a very popular name for the conquistadors to use as they rechristen the new lands of the American continent. If you check the entry for Santiago in Wikipedia, you will there are over 60 cities and towns throught the world that carry that name and that is a very short list since you could probably find about 60 towns with the Santiago name, just in Guatemala. But why was Santiago such a popular name for the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors?

The remains of Saint James the Greater are said to be buried in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain). Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and is related to the reconquista in the role of moor-slayer. His burial town, Santiago de Compostela, is considered the third most holy town of Catholicism (after Jerusalem and Rome). The pilgrimage to the grave of the Saint has become the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the early middle ages onwards; making him one of the patron saints of pilgrimage. (source Wikipedia)

The Saint James Trivia Side Note:

The name “James” in English comes from “Iacobus” (Jacob) in Latin. In eastern Spain, Jacobus became “Jacome” or “Jaime”; in Catalunya, it became Jaume, in western Iberia it became “Sant’Iago”, which developed into Tiago in Portugal and Galicia; Tiago developed into Diego, which is also the Spanish name of Saint Didacus of Alcalá. James’s emblem was the scallop shell (or “cockle shell”), and pilgrims to his shrine often wore that symbol on their hats or clothes. The French for a scallop is coquille St. Jacques, which means “cockle (or mollusk) of St James”. The German word for a scallop is Jakobsmuschel, which means “mussel (or clam) of St James”; the Dutch word is Jacobsschelp, meaning “shell of St James”. (source Wikipedia)

C’est la canicule !

¡Es la canícula!

It’s the dog days!

Call it what you want, but canícula even though elsewhere it is used for referring to a heatwave or the dog days, in Guatemala, or even in Central America perhaps, it’s used to mean an extended break in rainy season where we have dry days with lots heat, although the heat is not a requirement, but since we are in the Summer season, the heat is expected.

Now, please don’t get me started with Verano and Invierno since in Guatemala people use these terms in the wrong season. For instance, almost everyone in Guatemala will tell you that we’re in Winter (Invierno) right now, even though we are actually in the Summer season since Guatemala happens to be located in the Northern hemisphere. The reason for the confusion is that people equate the rainy season with Winter.

Anyway, since we have been enjoying a few dry dog days, I figure I go up to Cerro de la Cruz (another incorrection) and take a few panoramic shots to share with you.

Tomorrow is the Día de Santiago Apostol (Saint James Apostle Day) which means La Antigua Guatemala will be celebrating its patron saint day.

Enjoy!

In other places of the world, windows are just windows. In La Antigua Guatemala windows are shop displays, gardens, pet spots, plant pot spots, convenience stores, flag poles, decoration holders, bus stop benches, green houses, Christmas trees, et cetera.

What other uses you have for windows in your city?

Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz Retiring Home is one of the two retiring home that I know about in La Antigua Guatemala. Cabecitas de algodón, Little cotton heads, is the other one.

On Friday as I was going into the office I noticed that all the horse carriages that circulate in La Antigua Guatemala were parked in front of Hogar de Ancianos Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz (Elderly home) and had decorations all over. I approached one of the ladies helping the elderly and asked what was the event. She told me it was the anniversary of the nursing home Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz and they made accommodations for horse carriage rides for the elders.

I was happy to see that the elders are being cared for and that many businesses in La Antigua Guatemala sponsored many of the rides. This is a positive vista that gives me hope for this troubled country of mine.

Can anybody help me understand why a country with a +55% population of indigenous Maya hires European-looking models to dress as Maya indigenous women?

Please help me comprehend what’s wrong with our indigenous women that Guatemala’s Tourism Board hires light-skin ladinas and white women to represent our women?

I need help understanding what’s wrong with the other 45% of the population? Don’t mestizos, ladinos, blacks and whites fit the “Guatemalan profile”?

Please, do not get the wrong idea, not all Guatemalan women wear the colorful Mayan textiles and the Guatemalan society is so much more complex than this cartoonish image which is being promoted by the Tourism board. If you don’t believe, take a trip through the Guatemalan Women category to see the full rainbow of possibilities.

This sign can be found in the hallway of the SAT building in La Antigua Guatemala. By the way, SAT is the Guatemalan equivalent of IRS. SAT stands for Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria. Honest, I didn’t know the SAT offices were part of the Casa de la Moneda complex.

Don’t you wish all houses and buildings had a sign like this one that highlighted the major events of the site?

I am a lucky guy!

As I shared with you before, I am so lucky to have among my friends and acquaintances, movers and shakers of the Guatemalan society. Last year I introduced to Christian Van Der Henst, @cvander as his world-famously known, a Guatemalan who fourteen years ago decided to create a website, a resource really, to help others learn about the web and the Internet in general in in Latin America and Spain. MaestrosDelWeb has become a must-see reference in in the Spanish-speaking world.

Today they celebrate their 14th anniversary and I congratulate Christian and his team for helping and sharing everything they know. Believe or not, AntiguaDailyPhoto is what it is today in part to the ton of advice I have receive from MaestrosDelWeb through the many talks I have had with Christian over the years. Today’s picture serves as my public acknowledgment of @cvander supports for AntiguaDailyPhoto. By the way, that’s my iPhone case which was designed by another good friend, Norman Ávila from ClimaYa.

Let’s all thank Christian for his invaluable support and constant advice to always keep improving AntiguaDailyPhoto!

This is a follow up to the Pearls and Pans and Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket posts where I mentioned that “the wisdom of idioms do not escape the Guatemalan typical small business owner. That’s why it’s commonplace to find a zaguán shop selling disparate items. For a long time I’ve been wanting to show this with just one image; I believe today’s photo works, don’t you think so?” So, Las Conchas Jewelry and Bistro is the high end equivalente of the zaguán business where you have two disparate business under one roof. And this is quite common in La Antigua Guatemala and the rest of the country.

Is this practice commonplace where you live?

The Sunday prior to July 25 (Saint James Day) is the date for the Medio Maratón Las Rosas and in 2011 that was today. Once again, my dear friend Nelo provided the background information and photos which I believe were taken with his camera by a friend of his. Anyway, one thing I haven’t mentioned in previous years is that the half marathon Las Rosas is a running party. Looking at the video and photos from last year and the photos from year, I noticed the big smiles and the happy atmosphere all around this event. Just look at the smiling faces below!

According to Nelo, this year the running route was modified because there were complains that the half marathon was not 21 kilometers exactly. Nelo created a GPS track and his result was 20.98 km. As soon as he uploads the GPS track, I will link to it from here. The old man on the first picture below is over 75 years old and even though he runs slow, he always finishes his races. To me that’s the most important goal of a marathon.

photos by Lester Marroquín

The starting line from Medio Maratón Las Rosas 2010