La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

La Antigua Guatemala is so full of antique signs that you can find while strolling around the ruins, buildings and parks. Today’s picture is no exception. The sign can be found at the Captains’ Palace and it reads:

Palace of the General Captains of the Kingdom of Goathemala, which during 231 years this city served as Capital of Central America.

I am sure that most people that visit La Antigua Guatemala get to see the fountain at the Main Square; some might even seat around the benches to contemplate the artistic and erotic hidden messages revealed by the ancient wail of the sirens’ allure. But, I am almost sure, almost nobody comes across this little sign describing the name of the fountain and the details about its creator. Am I wrong?

The sign above reads:
Fountain of the Main Square
So called of the Mermaids (Sirens)
Commissioned by the City Hall
To Main Architect Diego de Porres

These little pre-primary school girls looked so cute with their uniforms for Independence Day Celebrations. I had to get the camera all the way on the floor to be able to catch them as they stride to find the position of their school in front of the Cathedral, in Central Park.

I really like the movement and angle in this picture; what do you think, does it work for you?

I was lucky to get some pictures of the representation of the Leaders of Guatemala’s Independence Movement (actually, to be fair, I should say Central America’s Independence).

There were about twelve or so young people dressed up like in colonial times, just about Guatemala’s Independence date of 1821, who represented the Próceres de la Independencia (leaders of the independence movement) who were being filmed by some local television channel.

Have a happy Guatemala’s Independence Day everyone!

Let me know what do you think of this photo; should I have done it in sepia?

Maybe we will get it right this election. —The Brunscheon, Oregon

We hope so. —The rest of the world

Well, as some of you may already know, my birthday falls on September 11th and like everyone else, I like to receive presents. I was very lucky to have received sweet and nice wishes from many of you. I was also fortunate to have spoken with my mom and sisters who lived in the United States. My beautiful, rich and famous sisters decided to give me an iPod Touch as present for my birthday (Thanks). Besides an ordinary day at work, the day progressed quite peacefully, which is to me, one of the best gifts from life. My wife and I had a lovely dinner and talk.

On my way to the office, I stopped to pick the mail at our post office box and there I received the very first present of the day. My very dear friends from Oregon sent me a hand-written post card and an Obama button. Interesting enough the card was sent on August 11th, but it was not in the p.o. box last time I checked on the last days of August.

I am going to take this opportunity to let you know why La Antigua Guatemala is Barack Obama’s territory. Regardless of their background or economic status, just about every expat I have spoken to, tells me that for the first time ever, they will make every effort to either go to the U.S. to cast their Obama vote for a positive change for the United States and for the rest of the world. Those who can not travel to U.S. for election time will be able to cast their vote at Doña Luisa Xicotencatl (I believe so).

That’s right, synchronicity is real and not just a The Police song. See, yesterday I posted a photo of Guatemalan Independence Day Bunting I photographed at the doorway entrance of Doña Luisa Xicotencatl. I know there’s a campaign in La Antigua Guatemala to provide voting information for U.S. citizens living in Guatemala through the www.VoteFromAbroad.org web site.

I do hope you guys living in the U.S. and those living abroad get it right this coming election; that would be the best birthday present ever!

Modernity has arrived to the quincentennial Antigua Guatemala.

Surely you remember all the talk about the cellular telephones available from Q100 with Q150 of air time and NO contracts or the sim cards (chips) available from Q25 that you can put in your flashed (liberated) cell phone to get a Guatemalan telephone number while in the country, right?

Well, my friends that was with old second generation (2G) cellular networks; that’s probably what you have now with your mobile phone in the U.S., Canada or Europe, unless you have a Blackberry or an iPhone.

Starting tomorrow, Friday 22nd of August, La Antigua Guatemala will be joining the cities of the world with third generation (3G) cellular networks and what better way to use this high-speed telephone networks than with an iPhone 3G in your hand. That’s right folks, two of three mayor mobile telephone companies will be selling the ubiquitous iPhone.

However, for now, only Claro (Telgua) will be sporting the 3G cellular network. But MoviStar (Telefónica) is said to be right behind it. Tigo (Comcel) is rumored to be in their last testing phase.

According to news published by Oscar Mota, a Guatemalan technology blogger, in DesdeGuate.com the iPhone 3G will be available from Q4500 without contract from Claro. That’s about three months of minimum wages. Nevertheless, I am sure the Guatemalan gadget and geek community will buy it like hot bread out of the oven. Other contractual plans will be available with both cellular carriers to bring down the price of this gadget.

So now these are some of connectivity options available in La Antigua Guatemala: ADSL Access, Cable Internet Access, Satellite Internet Access, WIFI, Edge, 2G, and 3G cellular networks. Am I missing something? Not too bad for a nearly-500-year-old colonial town.

Acknowledgements: I want to thank my good friend Nelo for agreeing to model with his iPhone in front of the San Francisco El Grande Church.

If you have been following La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo (LAGDP) for at least a year, you would know that the patron’s day celebrations fall on 25th of July for La Antigua Guatemala, also known as Santiago de Guatemala (Saint James of Guatemala), short for its original name La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for, go read last year’s gigantic entry on Saint James Celebration, Santiago de Guatemala and the zillion variations on Santiago/James name in the different languages and time periods.

Now, in the picture above, there are two flags waving over the Municipalidad (City Hall) building, can you find the background information on each flag in the archives of LAGDP; I will send the Tecolotes photo as a post card to the first person that comes with both answers. Let the games begin!

Day one of year three. Are you ready for the new tour of 365 days around La Antigua Guatemala? If you do please, bring your pasaje en mano, dónde caben tres caben más.

Every time humans arrive at a milestone, we tend to review what we have traveled thus far. Two years of consecutive blogging is not much or even important in the big scale of things. Nonetheless, it is a big achievement for me since I have never done anything like this before. I am very happy to have reached this time mark and to have helped others in the process. I thank all my regular visitors for your support, comments, feedback and donations.

Now let see the La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo in numbers (like Edgar would put it): In the last 731 consecutive days, there have been 744 entries, 6 pages, 13 drafts, 5037 comments, over 1,000 emails with feedback or questions, 624,604 visits (80,099 in 2006, 371,172 in 2007 and 173,333 so far in 2008), 120,616 spam comments. The website began its life with Blogger under a sub-domain and in less than three months moved to its present home of antiguadailyphoto.com and platform of Wordpress 1.2 (now version 2.5.1). All in all there have been over a thousand photos published here in the last two years.

More Numbers Updates: About 1,300 sites linking to antiguadailyphoto.com according to Google, 1,442 blog reactions according to Technorati, over 1600 hours invested in maintaining this website, 4 plagiarized photos that I know of, over 100 photos used with permission or proper photo credit by other websites, 2 newspaper articles, several photos found its way into magazines and 1 photo found its way as a book cover. Not too bad, don’t you think so?

What other numbers do you guys think I should shared with you?

It was Patsy Poor who requested photos of Guatemala chickens. Well Patsy, you are served. These garden chickens are known locally as gallinas criollas (creole hens) or gallinas del país (native hens) as opposed to the chicken grown in farms.

The cobblestone streets of La Antigua Guatemala were originally designed for horses and horse-carriages. So, it is no wonder that even light vehicles, like cars, create a lot of damage to the streets which, therefore, need constant repairing. Now you can imagine that huge and heavy trucks like the ones pictured above not only damage the streets, but the foundation of the houses and the city itself.

It is sad to see a city like La Antigua Guatemala go through a daily process not because its enchanting beauty, but because a living monument, patrimony to humanity, will for sure disappear. Does anyone care? you may ask yourself, like I do.

Yes Manolo, the weather gods are on LAG side. Above you see a group of tourists having the Sun for lunch and enjoying it too. Yes the temperate weather gods have been given La Antigua Guatemala temperatures between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit in the harshest Winter month. Oh boy, life is wonderful in La Antigua Guatemala…

Don’t you wish you could be in La Antigua Guatemala having a bath of this wonderful sunshine?

Even though the new Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom Caballeros, a 57-year-old industrial engineer and textile businessman, was sworn in for a 4-year term in Guatemala City in a ceremony at the Miguel Ángel Asturias National Theater, ceremonies and celebrations were held in the rest of the country too.

In La Antigua Guatemala, for instance, a big television was broadcasting the swearing in ceremony of the new Guatemalan President while music was being played in front of the Palacio de los Capitanes and people began to gather around to see and hear the speeches. The live music coming out from the loudspeakers was bait enough to bring Guatemalans and foreigners alike towards the stage.

Below I leave you with short video clip so you can get a feel for the event held in La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park:

1. Antigua’s Cathedral and Central Park Illuminated, 2. Partners in Adversity, 3. Public Water Distribution System, 4. Desfile nocturno del Día de la Independencia, 5. Street Lamp and Street Sign, 6. Grafito de Rigorberta Menchú, 7. San Cristobal El Bajo Church, 8. Guatemalan Sweet Bread Sampler, 9. Monk in San Francisco Church In Antigua, 10. Children Procession, 11. Jacarandas at Central Park, 12. Volcanes de Fuego y Acatenango Wallpaper

Any top list is bound to be subjective and there can be as many top list as there are people to make them. So with this in mind, I present you: my Top 12 Photos of 2007. Why a top 12 and not a top 10? Simple, I just pick my favorite photo for each month of 2007 and so that is how I arrived to these top 12 photos of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo of 2007.

I am sure YOU can come up with a different list of photos or entries as your to 12; there are plenty of entries to choose from for 2007 (365 to exact). Please, share with us which photos or entries were in your top 12 and let us know what was your criteria to arrive at your Top 12 Entries of LAGDP. Thanks everyone for sharing your top 12 with us.

New Year’s Eve Celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala:
For starters there are many things that make New Year’s Eve similar and different than Christmas’ Eve. If Christmas’ Eve is celebrated with the family at home at your parents’ home; New Year’s Eve can be celebrated anywhere: a discotheque, a park, the beach or La Calle del Arco, a popular venue in La Antigua Guatemala. At Calle del Arco, two fireworks signs are put on each sign of the clock at the arch: one for 2007 and the other for 2008 and fireworks are burnt right at midnight to celebrate the arrival of the new year. As Christmas’ Eve, everybody stays up all night long (or mostly all night) awaiting the turning of a new year at 12 o’clock. There is plenty of hugs, food, partying and dancing. New Year’s Eve is less religious than Christmas’ Eve and there are many more parties to go to. There is a particular song which is played at every single party and danced to… El Año Viejo. I leave you below a section of the song which is sang by everybody as reminder of the good things in life. Further down, I leave you a awesome version of El Año Viejo by Los Socios del Ritmo. I am sure this song most be the most-often-played music throughout Latin America on New Year’s Eve. Please, if you are Guatemalan, I don’t want to hear you cry… better sing …Ay yo no olvido el año viejo with your friends and family. Enjoy pues!

My best wishes to everyone and please have the happiest New Year Ever!

For a more detail explanation of the New Year’s Eve celebration, check out last year’s entry which describe with luxury of detail all the stuff that happens at New Year’s Eve.

Yo no olvido al año viejo (I don’t forget the old year)
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas: (Because it left behind good things for me:)
Me dejó una chiva, (It left me a goat,)
Una burra negra, (a black donkey)
Una yegua blanca (a white female horse)
Y una buena suegra… (And a good mother-in-law…)

Buñuelos are also a fried bread served with syrup. If you need it put plainly, buñuelos would be the Guatemalan equivalent of French toast.

This dessert will also set you back Q10/US$1.25 and at this pace we will be gaining about two to three pounds per week. Go hurry, hide the scale.

By the way, although I have not mentioned it yet, every night as I write the daily entry I can hear the bombas (bombs) firecracker, the cohetes (firecrackers) being burnt, the church bells tolling, the canchinflines (whistle) firecracker and all kinds of unknown (to me) firecracker being burnt and creating a loud bang which I can hear as echoes through the far away streets. In additions to the smells and scents, the Christmas season in Guatemala has a soundtrack of its own.

Nacimientos are Nativity (Navidad in Spanish) scenes shrines made to celebrate during the December until Christmas or Navidad in Spanish. On December 8th, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated and with this the ‘Religious Christmas Season’ is officially started. Last year, I showed you the Nacimiento in the barrio de la Virgen Inmaculada de la Concepción.

Today, I rather show you the Nacimiento niche at the Capilla de Belén (Bethlehem chapel) located right across the house that belonged to Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt (Saint Brother Peter of Betancourt). You can see the Nacimiento shrine niche in context if you follow the white rabbit to Façade of Belén Church in Antigua Guatemala.

One important aspect of this particular Nacimiento is the fact that Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt managed to get himself in the picture of the Nativity shrine. For those who are not well verse in Catholic imagery, myself included, normally the Nativity scene shows Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus along with a few animals. No, Santo Hermano Pedro could not be present there since he was born about 1600 years later, give or take a few moons. Rather, the inclusion of his image, on the right, is to celebrate and to remember that it was Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt who introduced the Nacimiento and Posadas to the American Continent, to La Antigua Guatemala if you want to be precise, and from this old town, this celebration was taken to the rest of the continent. (Thanks to JM Magaña for pointing it out to me.)