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Guatemala’s largest photo festival Foto▸30 is a coordinated effort to have 30 days, the full month of September, dedicated to photography exhibits. As in previous years, Foto▸30 has a central theme, Nation for 2011. The photos shown here are for the set up of A 2 Caras photo exhibit at El Sitio Cultural.

This year I was invited to participate in the Alienation photo exhibit at N.O.A. art gallery in Guatemala City. I participated with two large format prints, 20″x30″, of photos previously shown here: Guatemalan Alienation and Virgin of Guadalupe Celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala.

Several of the photo exhibits will remain open for several weeks, so if you’re in Guatemala don’t miss the chance to visit them. Check out Foto▸30 website for dates, exhibit descriptions and galley addresses.

It’s been a while since I posted something in the Vegetarian category. I can honestly say that nowadays it is easier to be a vegetarian and dine out in La Antigua Guatemala. There are many restaurants that cater for the meat-free crowd. Sometimes it is only a few dishes like a miso soup or vegetarian roll at Ubi’s; other times it’s a whole section in the menu like in Sabe Rico where the photo of this delicious and fulfilling salad was taken.

The “green” salad pictured above has an assortment of deluxe organically grown lettuces, cherry tomatoes, watermelon dices, sliced olives, sesame and roasted pumpkin seeds. I recommend you give it a try even if you’re not vegetarian, you won’t miss the meat with such a rich and flavorful salad. I promise!

One of the most important goals of the Daily Photo community is to show how different or similar daily life can be through out the cities around the world. Trash collecting for instance is something that happens in most urban communities, but how they collect the trash is not. In Guatemala for instance, trash collectors use these close mid-size trucks as shown above and on the right. Nothing like the trash collecting trucks I’ve seen in the U.S. and Mexico.

What to trash collecting truck look like where you live?

Pantempters Steel Orchestra is Belize’s most dynamic and entertaining steel band and they played this past weekend at the stage next to the Cathedral.

The Pantempters Steel Orchestra first begun in 1992 as a university steel band at the University College of Belize, under the directorship of the then Dr. Colville Young (now Governor General of Belize). From a humble beginning with no more than ten members, the band rose in the entertainment circles becoming one of Belize’s premier steel orchestra. Today, Pantempters is one of the largest steel bands in the country performing both locally and internationally with a culturally dynamic repertoire of music including punta, brukdong, soca, reggae, bassa nova, sala, jazz, classical and many more.

The band is currently managed by Ms. Therese Martinez and directed by Mr. Herschel Armstrong. (source: Pantempters Steel Orchestra fanpage in Facebook)

Photo by guest contributor Darrin Brown

Los Bomberos Voluntarios (Voluntary Fire Deparment) were giving demonstration of equipment outside of the Capuchinas Ruins this weekend. It looks like the kids were having a blast with the water hose, although the little boy seemed a bit reluctant to take charge of the water hose all by himself.

By the way, in Guatemala there are two fire departments entities: Bomberos Municipales and Bomberos Voluntarios. Bomberos Municipales receive some of their funding from the municipal government while Bomberos Voluntarios receive their funding through “crowd sourcing”; that’s web talk euphemism for “donations from the people.”

Photo by guest contributor Darrin Brown

In La Antigua Guatemala there is an appreciation for rustic walls. If you visit the post Let me show you my guts, you can see a beautiful rustic and bared stone wall. If you then head over to New houses that look old to see how brand new walls are left exposed so that the rainy season can do its magic.

This is what I have called the “new” aesthetic values of an old town!

Oftentimes we do things driven by the unconscious mind and that’s why is very difficult to have the coherent answers for them. In photography as in art, the unconscious mind manifests itself often through imagery we only have vague feelings about; gut feelings really.

Unconscious
George Bernard Shaw wrote that the “unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it.” In this maxim, Shaw articulated the rationale behind the use of the word unconscious to describe, in basketball, a player whose every shot seems miraculously to go into the basket. (source: Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus)

The unconscious mind, which in Freud’s opinion is a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents do not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects—it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being “tapped” and “interpreted” by special methods and techniques such as meditation, random association, dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip), examined and conducted during psychoanalysis. Carl Jung developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed. (source: Wikipedia)

… as seen at Héctor’s restaurant, which by the way turned 4 years old this week. Congratulations Héctor for this extraordinary achievement and for four years of wonderful, delicious cuisine. Hey Héctor, don’t you think it’s about time you name your restaurant or should we continue calling it Dónde Héctor or El Sin Nombre?

These are some of the gourmet dishes from Héctor’s that I have highlighted before in AntiguaDailyPhoto.

Needless to say Héctor’s restaurant is one of my favorite dining spots in La Antigua Guatemala. Here’s Héctor’s business card for those wondering where is the restaurant located: (more…)

You may or may not know this: Guatemala is divided politically in Departamentos which are the equivalent of States or Provinces in other parts of the world. La Antigua Guatemala is the capital for the Departamento de Sacatepéquez. I share this fact with you so you can have an idea of the relevance of La Antigua Guatemala.

Nevertheless, I still consider La Antigua Guatemala no more than an enchanting little town with a 10×10-block grid. So small, in fact, that if it wasn’t for the fact that La Antigua Guatemala also happens to be the tourism capital for Central America it wouldn’t as cosmopolitan as it actually is. Take a culinary tour through some of the cosmopolitan gastronomic options available in La Antigua Guatemala.

Sushi, for instance, happens to be very popular. I know of three or four sushi bars in La Antigua Guatemala. The sushi bars that I know by name are Akai Sushi, Nokiate and Ubi’s Sushi; this last one being my favorite one and where I took the photo above. Also, I consider the sushi bars in Antigua Guatemala to be much more authentic than the sushi restaurants found in Guatemala City.

What other cosmopolitan gastronomic option available in Antigua Guatemala do you think I should visit and profile?

So, what would you like for postre (dessert) today?

Here are two choices based on fruits very popular in Guatemala: Bananas and Peaches. Bananas, of course, can be found in Guatemala all year long; that’s just one of the benefits of having been a Banana Republic. By the way, the bananas are tempura banana slices.

Peaches, on the other hand, are seasonal and now it’s the season. Both desserts have vanilla ice cream and yerba buena (Guatemalan mint) with a touch of strawberry mermelada.

Real estate development is moving so fast that it seems that every time I blink there’s a new colonia (neighborhood), house, building or even entire commercial centers like the one pictured above. Panorama is short for San Pedro El Panorama, a village about 2 km from Antigua Guatemala on the road to Ciudad Vieja.

How many Antigua Guatemala villages have you visited?

Because I am a politically correct person I will say that Guatemala is one of major recycling centers for things discarded in the good old U.S.A. I will say that Guatemalans give a second life to things dumped by estadounidenses (Unitedstatians) and Canadians to a lesser degree.

I have talked about this “recycling” in the following entries:

• Haves and Have-Nots: Recycling the World Over
• Chicken Buses are The Second Life of School Buses
• From Blue Bird to Green Quetzal

By the way, Paca is the term used in Guatemala for bale or large package normally shipped in a palette, which is the way these second hand or discard clothes make their way into Guatemala and other countries in Central America. Paca is also the name used for stores that sell paca clothing.

Awakening

The morning of your first life:

You arise, awestruck by the dream.

The air is poignant with mystery and promise.

Golden Light floods your heart.

You are

Awakening.

Source: Poetry for Bubble Photographs by John Searles

There is a lot of activity around Parque Central even when it’s raining. If you pay attention while having a cup of coffee at Café Barista you can even spot a Belgian car on the street or other unexpected things. This was interesting, as it is every once in a while when unexpected things show up while reviewing your photos. I only noticed the Belgians after going over the photographs, but does anybody know these Belgians?

Guatemala has many traditions that have remained until now and will hopefully remain for centuries to come. One, as you already know are the rich colors found in foods, landscapes, nature, textiles, walls, etc., and even in ideas.

Have you heard of Incaparina? It was invented by a Guatemalan to fight malnutrition. The words that make up the name Incaparina come from “INCAP” and “harina” (flour), as the Guatemalan researcher was working at INCAP. Incaparina still exists, and other nutritional foods have been invented as well, but no one like its Incaparina.

In different ways, even politics are involved in different levels in what I tried to convey above. Yesterday was Guatemala’s Independence Day. Do you know what other countries celebrate their Independence on this same day? Which countries do you know that have other dates to be considered as their “true” Independence Day? When do you think should Guatemala’s true Independence be celebrated?

Anyway, do you consider your home country to be truly independent?