Antigua Abstractions: Plants Inside Windows
Plants and flowers pots inside the windows are common sight in Antigua Guatemala as well as yellow walls with white windows.⠀ By …
Creeper Plants Over Walls of Antigua Guatemala
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Cubre muros for wall creeper plant. As I mentioned yesterday, rustic walls and …
Quotidian Vistas of Antigua Guatemala — Pour over walls plants and flowers
It’s been a while since our last post on the Guateflora series. Our daily life vista is framed by the plant called …
Strange-looking plants seen at the nursery
Guatemala is certainly rich when it comes to flora and fauna. Here’s a really strange-looking plant that I found at Vivero La …
Air plants are known as Gallitos in Guatemala
Gallitos, air plants, are found everywhere in Guatemala, especially so around Antigua Guatemala because the large tree population surrounding our enchanting and …
Preparing a wall for climbing plants
Climber plants are very popular to cover walls around La Antigua Guatemala as shown in Guateflora: hiedras. As you can see in …
Exotic flowers and plants for you!
I posted a photo on June 6th with some of these exotic flowers in a truck. Now, I get the chance to …
Who waters all those plants?
It is very common to see plants above the walls and doors in Antigua. The Land of the Eternal Spring is Guatemala’s …
Happy Holidays Wishes from Antigua Daily Photo
The color red is the official color of Nochebuena and Navidad in Guatemala and nothing exemplifies this better than the Pascua plants, poinsettia flowers… TAP to read the entire post and see the full size photo.
Rainy Season Vista of Volcán de Agua
The rainy season is bringing lots clouds in the mornings and throughout the day as well as lots vibrant green in all …
Poinsettias Flowers: A Gift from Guatemala to the World
Poinsettias are autochthonous to Guatemala and Mesoamerica so they can be grown in gardens either by design or as wild intruders as well as in the fields as wild plants. In Guatemala poinsettias are known as Flor de Pascua, or simply as…
Antigua Guatemala’s Flower Festival 2021
This past weekend Antigua Guatemala dressed up many of its façades, fountains and parks with flower arrangements. The photograph above show the …
Foodie Fridays — Artista de Café
The new location of Artista de Café on 5a avenida sur, only a few steps from Ruinas de San José El Viejo …
Organic Guatemalan Christmas Decorations: Chichitas de Esquipulas
Chichitas amarillas, yellow nipples or nipple fruit, or Chichitas de Esquipulas are two popular name for this organic Guatemalan decoration found around …
Organic Guatemalan Christmas Decorations: Gallitos
Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Gallitos for air plants. Another popular organic Guatemalan Christmas Decoration are Gallitos. As …
The Architectonic Aesthetics of Antigua Guatemala
One of the most sought after aesthetics of Antigua Guatemala is bare walls of ruins with rustic textures. Pair this aesthetic with …
Antigua Autumn Colors Are Coming to Antigua
Take a photographic tour to see some plants blooming now: Dry Season Blossoms in Antigua Guatemala Blossoms From The Land of the …
Guateflora: Albahaca
Here’s your illustrated Spanish word of the day: Albahaca for basil. Believe it or not, basil is actually quite popular in the …
Cempasuchil are the Flowers of the Dead
These particular marigold flowers are known as cempasuchil in Mexico or simply as flor de muerto, flowers for the dead, in Guatemala …
Exotic Flowers Are Us
We are so fortunate in Antigua Guatemala to have affordable exotic flowers all year long; so we often encounter decorative striking flower …
Antigua Gardens: Verdant Walls
Verdurous walls covered with lush wall creepers or bougainvillea plants are quite common in the gardens of Antigua Guatemala. Take a photographic …
Wild flower blooms all year long
We are fortunate to have a wonderful temperate weather in and around Antigua Guatemala that provides flower blooms all year long whether …
Lenten Aromas: Corozo and Pine needles
Today I share a photo of a little boy picking up pine needle and corozo palms from processional carpet; these two plants …
Quotidian Vistas from Antigua Guatemala — Flower Blooms
The slogan for Guatemala is the “El país de la eterna primavera,” the land of the eternal Spring which is quite appropriate because our weather is always temperate Spring and flowers and plants are always blooming…
Quotidian Vistas from Antigua Guatemala — Windows with Flowers
By the way, I just read this coming week will be one of the coldest in decades in the U.S. and Canada and here now we walk around like it were Summer. So, I wonder what are you still suffering, come on down to enjoy our warm Winter season…
Guatemalan Christmas Syncretism
Gabriela Orozco García, 19 years old, puts the final touches on a figure of a Mayan-inspired Nativity scene. The Orozco García family from Antigua Guatemala are renown artisans who produce ceramic Nativity scenes with Mayan attires from all regions of Guatemala.
The Dry Season Is Coming To Guatemala
Welcome to the land of the eternal Spring where flowers are always in bloom even during the dry season that spans from …
Typical Vistas from Antigua Guatemala
People walking in front protruding windows with forged metal crate that enclosed pots with evergreen plants is as typical vista of Antigua …
Disguising antennas in Antigua Guatemala
In Antigua Guatemala there is an effort to disguise antennas, cellular towers and other such artifacts of modernity by camouflage them into …
The Rafael Landívar Monument at Night in Antigua Guatemala
Guatemalan poet Rafael Landívar, a Jesuit, was suffering in exile in Italy when he wrote Rusticatio mexicana, a Latin poem that owes …
Keeping Antigua Guatemala Green
This year we have been getting lots of rain, except for the last two days. So, it’s time again to water the …
Inauguration of Parque Central Facelift
After months of work repairing benches, replacing garden areas with new plants and flowers and fences, installing new water pumps and adding …
New Look of Parque Central
The new garden areas, plants, flowers and fences of Parque Central, the main square, of Antigua Guatemala have given the central park …
Things To Do in Antigua Guatemala — A Different Coffee Tour
De La Gente NGO has put together a different and more down-to-earth coffee tour by involving the small plot farmers who belong …
Antigua Coffee Workshops Are Coming Up Soon!
At the Antigua Coffee Workshops you will get a chance to visit a coffee plantation to learn everything there’s to know about …
Poinsettias Deliveries
For being such a tiny country Guatemala, it tops some lists, not all bad either. For instance, Guatemala is a top producer …
Ciudad Vieja’s New Square
Over two years ago, I shared with you the new look of the square right across from the temple of Ciudad Vieja. …
Guatemalan Fruits: Banana passionfruit
I wonder how many variations of the passion fruit we have in Guatemala. Let’s count the obvious ones: Granadilla, Chirimoya, Maracuyá, and …
Dry Season Blossoms in Antigua Guatemala
Okay folks, this is the deal. In Guatemala for some strange reason, many plants bloom during the dry season. As a matter …
Did you know that Antigua Guatemala is the birthplace for the California/Hass Avocado?
The chief agronomist of The United Fruit Company, Wilson Popenoe, took the local avocado variant to California and from it the California …
Corn and Bean Harvest Time is Coming
Within two weeks the harvest time will commence around Antigua Guatemala for corn. Normally, maize is harvested from the end of October …
Guatemalan Summer’s Shades of Green
Fact #1: Right now we are in what Guatemalans call the Winter season, although in reality, we are in the middle of …
Antigua Guatemala Milpa Fields Panoramic Vista
Once again, we can blame NYChapin for today’s photo of panoramic vista of corn fields around Antigua Guatemala. This is about 2.5 …
Real Guatemala: Milpa Fields with Flowers and Squash
So far in these milpa fields I have found beans, squash, red onions, fruit trees, and flowers. However, as explained before, in …
Antigua Guatemala’s Magic Ingredients
Warm light, textures, rich colors and always blooming flowers and plants are part of the magic of Antigua Guatemala. Of course, the …
Meet Photographer Juan José de Jesús Yas
Japanese-born photographer Juan José de Jesús Yas (1844-1917), was one of the most renowned photographers of the late 1800, early 1900. Below …
Portrait of Gonzalo de Cordova, Guatemala 1886
Today we are inaugurating the Antique Photographs thanks to a kind soul in Texas who donate a batch of photos taking between …
Flora Photo Stories Expo
The Círculo Floral de Guatemala, Filial Antigua Guatemala, which is affiliated to the National Garden Club, set up an exposition to show …
Inside Finca Filadelfia Coffee Plantation
I have said it before and I am repeating again here, both Panchoy and Almolonga valleys are surrounded by three volcanoes and …
Café Barista Recycles Used Coffee Grounds
Café Barista is the Guatemalan coffee house chain equivalent to what Starbucks is in the U.S. more or less. I don’t visit …
Guatemalan Flower Growers
As mentioned before, if you’re looking for flower and plant nurseries, then head over to San Miguel Dueñas where it seems as …
Green Houses Around Antigua Guatemala
There are many green house around Antigua Guatemala, but by far, Vivero Escalonia is the most popular and largest nursery. There’s even …
Black and white of the Izote tree or yucca guatemalensis
The izote tree, yucca guatemalensis, is the Mesoamerican cousin of the yucca tree or Joshua tree and one of my favorite plants …
Firewood fuel delivery Around Antigua Guatemala
After having covered the Ecoleña fuel briquette as an alternative for the leña (firewood) I decided to ask around what kind of …
The south end of 5a avenida sur in Antigua Guatemala
Here is your Spanish word of the day: Alameda, a tree-lined avenue or boulevard. La Antigua Guatemala has three official alamedas, Alameda …
Installing the Christmas Lights
The installation crew for the Christmas lights is hard at work to have all 600 series installed before December 3 and that’s …
Avocado Trivia: Things To Know About The Avocado
Guatemala and Mexico are the birth places for the delicious avocado fruit. Avocado Trivia 1: The word avocado comes from the the …
Launching Antigua Guatemala As A City Brand
This is not the first time I shared with you a photograph of fountain adorned with flowers. As a matter of fact, …
Theme day: Favorite Part of Town
It’s been a while since AntiguaDailyPhoto participates in the Theme day of the City Daily Photo community; since the theme bright colors …
Inside Patio and Fountain
Here’s an interesting idea, cover the patio with transparent laminas plus a pergola framework where one can hang the Colas de Quetzal …
Nature-inspired Beauty Pageant Floats
Here’s a lesson to be learned. Even though San Pedro Las Huertas was one of the villages that was hit the hardest …
Colonial Corridor
Historically, colonial corridors have always been long and wide, and have always faced out onto a central patio, garden or fountain. Often …
Pruning the Gravileas Trees Again
Exactly two years ago I shared with you the biannual procedure of pruning the gravileas trees to keep a balance between shade …
Here, Take My Photo
On the weekends Calle del Arco is turn into a pedestrian strip and several business bring out benches, carts and flowers and …
Flowers Are Us
Believe it or not, in La Antigua Guatemala we have flowers in our gardens year around. We also are lucky to have …
Guatemalan Christmas Colors: Poinsettia Red
Pascuas (Guatemala) and Flor de Noche Buena (Mexico) are how poinsettias are known in Spanish. Poinsettias are native to Guatemala and Mexico …
The Gatekeeper
Sometimes the ride from Guate city (la capital) to LAG takes a bit longer than expected and then there is not enough …
Wandering around Mesón Panza Verde
I spent four months in La Antigua before I finally ventured to Mesón Panza Verde, one of the most renowned restaurants in …
Birds-Eye View of Nature
Antigua Canopy Tours isn’t just about the unique experience of gliding… it’s about gliding through a tropical rainforest or cloud forest canopy. …
The UNIMOG Hog
What a beast. The journey of “flying through the forest” with Antigua Canopy Tours begins with a ride in the unique UNIMOG, …
Jardín Antigüeño: Hortensias
Sometimes you live so fast that before you know it, life is over. Life is not a race that you want to …
Selling Heliconias on the Streets
It seems like this corner is good for the sale of exotic flowers, such as heliconias. Last time I reported on the sale …
Abundant Water for Fountains Around Antigua
The Panchoy Valley, where La Antigua Guatemala is located, used to be a lake at the time the Conquistadores arrived and when …
Framing Balconies…
La Antigua Guatemala, LAG, draws a large part of its identity from its grid rows of picture-perfect edifices that line the calles …
Little Charms of LAG
Visitors can easily spot the Maya people dressed in rainbow colors weaving their way throughout the renowned colonial architecture of La Antigua …
Gravilea Trees Wallpaper
As mentioned before the Gravilea trees are planted next to coffee bushes to provide the necessary shade for the coffee plants. Once …
Jardín Antigüeño: Bugambileas
La Antigua Guatemala is known as the Ciudad de las perpetuas rosas, the city of the perpetual roses. Well, surely you can …
Jardín Antigüeño: Geranios
Geranio is the Guatemalan name for Geranium, which is also known in Spanish as Pelargonio. Geranios or Pelargonios can be found with …
Jardín Antigüeño: Camarón Amarillo
Oh life, you blink and it’s gone. A while back I read in the New York Times Sunday edition of the Prensa …
Jardín Antigüeño: Pentas Rosadas
Pentas are among the most beautiful and prolific flowers in jardín antigüeño. In the gardens of La Antigua Guatemala you can be …
Jardín Antigüeño: Julias
Julias are flowers that blossom all year long. Julias scientific name is Salvias spendens and normally can be found dress in salmon, …
Jardín Antigüeño: Nazareno
Throughout the archives of AntiguaDailyPhoto.com you can find many of the plants and flowers available in and around the Antigua Guatemala gardens. …
Guateflora: Orejas de Elefante
These mammoth green leaves are known as Quequeshque or Orejas de Elefante, Elephant Ears, in Guatemala because of its gigantic size. The …
Costumbrism Photographs From Antigua
Okay, here is my contribution to the Costumbrism Photographs From La Antigua Guatemala. What better specimen for the costumbrism photography of Antigua …
Flowers-R-Us
Guatemala does not have a Spring season, nor Summer, Autumn, nor Winter, yet it is known as the Land of the Eternal …
Guatemalan Fruit: Mamey
Okay everyone, I solemnly declare this week as the Zapotes (sapotes) and other such exotic tropical fruits week. Sapote or tzapotl is …
Sun-drying Coffee at Finca Filadelfia
Yesterday I showed you a close-up of the coffee fruit being dry by the warm rays of the sun in the eternal …
Corner Window in Antigua Guatemala
Detalles, details, detalles. Take a corner window, add a forged iron crate and a few plants and you have transformed a boring …
Guatemalan Cuisine: Pacayas
Today’s entry marks the 1000 consecutive daily pages of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo. And I thought I wasn’t going to last …
Guatemalan Christmas Decorations: Pajilla
Paja (straw) or pajilla (little straw) are also found in the nativity scenes in the Guatemalan homes known as nacimientos in Spanish. …
The Kite Runner
Those of you, who have followed the daily updates of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo for a while, would know already how …
Sompopo: The Giant Guatemalan Ant
Enough about pondering the big questions! Sompopos are now here and thus we are now “officially” in the rainy season. Sompopos arrived …
Pruning the Gravileas Trees
There is nothing like rain water to make all the flora grow and in Guatemala we have a very copious rainy season …
Time to harvest the coffee in La Antigua Guatemala
So what makes La Antigua Guatemala the best coffee in the world? To get the best cup of coffee of the world, one must start with the right altitude; somewhere above 1,500 meters above the sea level; add lots of fertile volcanic soil; mix in plenty of rain (about six months); stable temperate weather (about 75˚ F / 25˚ C); once you have the above, make sure you plant the best possible Arabica coffee.
Guateflora: Falsa Uva (False Grape)
The hoja de falsa uva (false grape) or Parthenocisus inserta as it is known scientifically is a trepadora (climbing) plant. In the trepadoras category the most often used are the hiedra (ivy), uña de gato (cat’s claw), falsa uva (false grape), collar de la reina (queen’s collar), and of course the ever-present bugambilea (bougainvillea). The trepadoras (climbing) category in the Guateflora book has 34 different plants, so I have homework to do. 😉
Guateflora: Falsa Manía (False Peanut)
Falsa manía or Maní forrajero (false peanut) as it is known in Guatemala the Arachis pintoi is a cubresuelos (ground-creeping) plant used often in the garden of La Antigua Guatemala. José, our gardener, told me that you can also use it a trepadora (climbing) plant if you guide it. I really like this evergreen plant which flowers all-year-round a tiny yellow flower. According to the Guateflora book, it can grow anywhere and handles well people walking over it.
Guateflora: Hiedras (Hedera/Ivies)
Hiedras (Ivies/Hederas helix & H. canariensis) are very popular as well as all kinds of trepadoras (climbing) or cubresuelos (ground-creeping) siempreverdes (evergreen) plants in La Antigua Guatemala. Hiedras and trepadoras are found in many antigüeño homes covering the gardens’ walls.
Guateflora: Cactus Pot
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).
Guateflora: Colas de Quetzal
You know you are in a Guatemalan home the moment you see the Colas de Quetzal (nephorlepsis spp.) or Quetzal’s tails (ferns) hanging in the corridors. The Colas de Quetzal bracken has to be one of the favorite ornamental plants used in the Guatemalan home. Some of these ferns or brackens are native to Guatemala, but they are considered cosmopolitan because they can grow anywhere. Colas de Quetzal can grown in hanging baskets, pots or in the ground, but they need some shadow to maintain the evergreen colors. The above photo of Colas de Quetzal was taken at Vivero La Escalonia (5a av. sur final), a very popular nursery in La Antigua Guatemala. Vivero La Escalonia is a great place to have breakfast or lunch.