Wooden Cayuco Flower pot
Cayucos are small indigenous hand-made vessels, sort like kayaks, that can be found around Lake Atitlán, about two hours from La Antigua …
Cayucos are small indigenous hand-made vessels, sort like kayaks, that can be found around Lake Atitlán, about two hours from La Antigua …
This year as part of my Day of the Dead Photography Workshop I carried an instant camera/printer so I can give prints …
These particular marigold flowers are known as cempasuchil in Mexico or simply as flor de muerto, flowers for the dead, in Guatemala …
Once again I am sharing exotic flowers and an antique stove as part of this week mini series of beautiful spots in …
We continue this week mini series of beautiful spots in Antigua Guatemala with niche which always has exotic flowers on display. Interesting …
So far in these milpa fields I have found beans, squash, red onions, fruit trees, and flowers. However, as explained before, in …
Incredible the things that can be made with simple things like huge large pot and several dozen fountain spouts. I can’t say …
Guatemala does not have a Spring season, nor Summer, Autumn, nor Winter, yet it is known as the Land of the Eternal …
Believe it or not, the land around La Antigua Guatemala was a very ‘fertile’ arid zone before the introduction of the coffee bush as a crop in 1875. I know fertile and arid sound like two mutually exclusive words, but they were not in Guatemala before 18th century where the Nopal and Maguey cactuses were grown in plantations. I’ve even seen photographs of the nopal plantations around La Antigua Guatemala in the CIRMA Fototeca (The Photo Archives at The Center for Mesoamerican Research).
Live flowers for the innocent, originally uploaded by rudygiron. Today’s photo is dedicated to the dead and the innocent victims of the …
La Calle del Arco is La Antigua Guatemala’s most popular strip any day of the week, but on weekends is even more …
Today is observed and celebrated the Día de la Santa Cruz, Day of the Holy Cross,in the Catholic world. As in previous …
As I mentioned yesterday, up in the hills located in the villages on the north side of Antigua Guatemala you can find …
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Sibarita is a combination of sybarite, epicure, gourmet and foodie plus a taste of the …
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Micro cervecería for microbrewery. As I mentioned earlier this month, we are very fortunate to …
What better way to show you the colors of the Eternal Spring of Antigua Guatemala than with the vibrant hues of the …
Plants and flowers pots inside the windows are common sight in Antigua Guatemala as well as yellow walls with white windows.⠀ By …
You can never go wrong with the vibrant and exotic orchids of Guatemala. By the way, in case you didn’t know, Guatemala …
As I have shared with you before, these vibrant yellow or maroon spotted with yellow strange-looking flowers are the gift of a …
This week has been phenomenal in Antigua Guatemala, with a pedestrian town for three days, new spotlights at the Compañía de Jesús …
Mayan girl Rosa Guadalupe and her siblings play around the family tombstones by throwing into the air “flores de muerto,” marigolds or …
We finish this week’s mini series of beautiful spots in Antigua Guatemala with picture of a colorful bar adorned with exotic flowers. …
The passion and devotion that goes into making the processional carpets is incredible. Often we only mention how long it takes to …
This is iguashte, a vegetable salad made with ground pumpkin or squash seeds. This is quite possibly a pre-Columbian Mayan dish. This …
Loroco are small, green, unopened flower buds, used as a flavoring agent in Central American cuisine. They are cultivated in Guatemala and …
Don Alejandro, 78, has four cuerdas [1/6 of block equals 1 cuerda] on communal or municipal land where he grows maize and …
When you get close enough, everything turns interesting, don’t think? Now imagine if we apply the same approach of macro photography to …
Pots and flowers are so typical of the rooftop terraces of Antigua Guatemala, present as often as you cupolas. Chayes are also …
I love walking around our garden at night. There’s something enchanting about looking at all the different flowers illuminated by spot lights. …
On the weekends Calle del Arco is turn into a pedestrian strip and several business bring out benches, carts and flowers and …
Back in January Rudy marked his 1000th post with a pic of pacaya cooked in egg batter and duly polled readers for …
La Antigua Guatemala, LAG, draws a large part of its identity from its grid rows of picture-perfect edifices that line the calles …
Visitors can easily spot the Maya people dressed in rainbow colors weaving their way throughout the renowned colonial architecture of La Antigua …
Colorful Guatemala, I tell you, colorful Guatemala! Si ni los mismos guatemaltecos logramos entender la complejidad cultural en la que vivimos… —Ale …
Finding romantic spots in La Antigua Guatemala is not difficult at all, but if you want to really impress your loved one, …
As more houses of La Antigua Guatemala are turned into business, the old architectonic spaces are converted for new uses. Here for …
Today, for a mere random act, I ended up in Jocotenango and because we’ve talking and learning about jocotes, I remember to …
Dobladas (turned over) is our last meal at the Virgen of Guadalupe Celebrations. Dobladas are made from nixtamalized masa (maize dough) like tortillas, but other ingredients are added before the masa dish is folded over itself and cooked. The ingredients that are added to the doblada are normally ground pork rinds, cheese, mashed potatoes, whole beans, et-cetera, but could be anything really. For instance I would like to find dobladas with cheese and loroco flowers; that would be very tasteful. Dobladas are normally fried or cooked over a comal (griddle made from cooked clay); just like tortillas. Dobladas are very similar to pupusas, except they are turned over. Check out the giant pupusas or Mayan pizza photos. Once dobladas ared cooked they are top with repollo salad (cabbage salad or coleslaw), tomato sauce and/or chile sauce (hot and spicy sauce).
What about the Guatemalan Sweet Bread?
Oh yeah, I am rambling again. In the photo above you see one of things Guatemalans abroad miss the most: Sweet Guatemalan Bread. I have talked about cutting a cake for this anniversary, but then I decided to shared the poor Guatemalans alternative: La Torta, this huge sweet bread, takes the place of the cake for many Guatemalan families. Also, as suggested by some friends, I decided to include other pieces of the Guatemalan sweet bread repertoire for all those chapines abroad. In Guatemala, we dip the bread in the coffee, as described by Manolo in LD’s entry about Miss Manners International. Since Manolo can not find champurradas (the flat tortilla-like bread in the picture) in Toronto, he dips his cookies in the coffee. I hope you don’t get grossed out by my dipping the bread in the coffee; I am doing it for the full impact on those Guatemalans who live abroad and visit this site infrequently.
The sweet Guatemalan bread in this picture comes from a very popular bakery in La Antigua Guatemala by the name of San Antonio, which stills uses brick ovens and wooden logs. The bread is baked freshly twice a day and with the best recipes from La Antigua Guatemala, the culinary capital of Guatemala. Sweet bread dipped in a cup of the best coffee in the world (from Antigua, of course), what else can you ask from life?
The making of carpets from sawdust, pine-needles, flowers, vegetables is a community-forming tradition. People get together by block or near-by neighbors to create the carpets on which the processions will pass by. Sometimes the making of the carpets is done at night, all night so they are ready for next day’s procession.
In November 1st and 2nd Guatemala, like many other catholic countries, celebrates the Day of the Dead (Día de los Difuntos) and the All Saints Day (Día de los Santos). The cemeteries, from the most exclusive to the most modest and humble, become overwhelmed with people bringing flowers, crosses, food and even music (sometimes Mariachi music) to their dead relatives.