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Once again the May sompopos ants actually arrived in May and on time!

Are you ready to drop your jaw and say, “ah… I did not know that”?

Fact #1: May’s Sompopos Ants are edible
Yes, May’s sompopo queens are collected by some Guatemalans who remove the belly bottom and roast them on a comal (baked clay griddle), add salt and lime juice. Those who have tried them say that sompopos taste like butter or chicharrones (pork rinds).

Actually, May’s Sompopo Queen Ants could be considered the “Mayan Caviar” since the part removed from them is loaded with ants eggs. In other words, the belly bottom of the sompopo queen ant is the equivalent of the roe of fish.

Fact #2: May’s Sompopos Ants are used in fights
Yes, May’s sompopo queens are collected by some Guatemalans kids and taken to school to fight other sompopo ants. Since these sompopo ants are queens in search of new dwellings to build their own colonies, they are highly ferocious and territorial. Kids are ignorant of the sompopo ants processes and life cycles and thus they use them as fighters; similar to cockfights.

Fact #3: May’s Sompopos Ants are disappearing
Yes, May’s sompopo queens are disappearing and are completely non-existant in many parts of Guatemala that used to have them not too long ago. The less May’s sompopo queens you see, the less colonies they will build. If the sompopo ant disappears, who knows what the ecological catastrophe this will ensue.

Myth #1: May’s Sompopos Ants are males
No. May’s Sompopos, the winged kind you see in the picture above, are actually queen sompopo ants and they come out and fly away from the ground to fund new sompopo colonies.

Myth #2: May’s Sompopos Ants fall from the sky
No. They actually come out the ground and because these are queens; they need to find new fertile territories to build new sompopo colonies. In nature wisdom, these sompopo queens were provided with wings so they can fly as far away as possible.

Myth #3: Sompopos Ants are only available in May
No. Sompopo ants are actually available throughout the year. Sompopo ants are 4 to 5 times bigger than ordinary ants. Sompopo ants are red and devilish furious. Sompopo ants do not have wings. Sompopo ants are smaller in size than the “Sompopo queen ants” which have wings and come out in May to build new colonies. The sompopo queens are known as “sompopos de mayo” while the sompopo ants are just called “sompopos comunes” (ordinary sompopo ants). Sompopos are hormigas (ants). May’s sompopo queens are only seen in May; thus their name (duh!). They remained underground the rest of the year, as any good ant queen should do.

Please, if you have any other myths, facts or anecdotes to share with the rest of us, feel free to add them to the comments.

I am afraid the paraphrasing of the title might scape most people since it is a nerd thing that only the most geeky from the olden days would understand. Anyhow, here’s a worker for hire with a mule and fumigator that can travel to you parcel and get rid of those pesky pets. I wonder if charges by the day or by the land covered by his fumigation; what do you think?

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. —Mahatma Ghandi

One can be in fashion or one can be in style. If given the choice, I rather be in style, but if I could I would also like to make a fashion statement. Let me explain. I remember I few year ago I posted a reference to an article in the New York Times which claimed that the latest fashion statement was to go around with a Latin American adopted chucho. I will share the post below.

Believe it or not, I read recently in an article in the New York Times (printed edition, so no link) that the latest fashion statement in the U.S. was to adopt Latin American street dogs, mutts, commonly known here as “chuchos”. Well, maybe this should be the type of Guatemalan adoptions that should make the headlines. There is an abundance of chuchos or street dogs available for adoption in La Antigua Guatemala and throughout Guatemala.

So if you want to be in fashion this upcoming season, head down to Guatemala for your own chucho. You can start at Animal Welfare Association Rescue/Education (www.animalaware.org) or at Asociación de Amigos de los Animales (www.amigosdelosanimales.org.gt) for details on how to adopt your own personal chucho friend. You will never regret this fashion tip!

¡Nunca falta un chucho! or A mutt is never missing!

The same can be said of the bicycles in the Guatemalan landscape. In this picture I was able to capture the mutt and the bicycle while taking a walk through Ciudad Vieja.

Honest, for better or for worse, I can not imagine the streets of Guatemala without the omnipresent chucho, can you?

Honestly, I can not think of the Guatemalan landscape without the omnipresent chucho; that’s what we call the mutt or street dog in Guatemala and in Mesoamerica in general.

Tell me, if you have visited Guatemala in the past, could you imagine the landscape without the mutts roaming the streets of every little town?

Can you guess where was this photograph taken?

Whenever you come across people riding horses or donkeys over the cobblestone streets of La Antigua Guatemala you feel like you are for real in the 16th and 17th Centuries. One of things I love about living in Antigua Guatemala is the fact that one gets to experience different eras and lifestyles juxtaposed at the same time plane. Am I making any sense?

Alone and lonely are two things that first came to my mind when I took this photo and especially so after I turned into black and white; not that there were too much color to begin with. What about you, what’s the first feeling or thought that this photo evokes in you?