La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

La Antigua Guatemala is based on the time-tested Spanish grid of Streets and Avenues (see this map to get an idea). Streets are divided between oriente or east and poniente or west (although poniente means sun setting point). Avenues are divided as usual sur and norte. So you have all the basic elements for street names and numbers, the basis for addresses, yet if you ask for directions here, people will tell you: “it’s next door to Doña Luisa“, “Go to la Calle del Arco and ask there”, “it’s right across the street from where the Subway restaurant was located”, “go to Posada del Ángel, it’s on the same block.”

I can imagine the lady in the green shorts pointing to oriente and telling the other two: it’s over there! Just walk a few blocks until you get to Nicolas restaurant, what you are looking for is three house up.

How are directions give in your little niche of the world?

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / women / arch of panaderas portal / panaderas portal

The first time I published the arches reflected on the water tank at Tanque de la Unión Park in La Antigua Guatemala, there were many people who really liked the photo. There were even some Guatemalans who said the reflection was done in Photoshop. Now you can take the statement either way: you can feel proud to know that you’ve snapped a shot that people think you spent many hours in the digital lab of Photoshop or you can take it as a put down on your photo-taking ability. I am glad I am very competent in the Photoshop department, heck I could even argue that I excel in the skills of Photoshop since I started working in version 2 and I use the program in a daily basis.

However, I must admit, photos I publish in Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo are Photoshop-free. I do minor color-casting removal and I improve the contrast when needed in Apple iPhoto (my light photo library manager). I do not retouch the photos in Photoshop for two reasons: 1. I don’t have the time to do retouching (sometimes I barely have time to keep up with that blog as it is) 2. I cheat by taking many shots of the same subject at different angles and settings so I will have a better original to begin with (this is a time-honor procedure called bracketing).

So there you have it. Another water reflection at Tanque de La Unión. Other shots of the arches are: Palm Trees in Antigua and Public Washbasins at Tanque de la Unión.

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Tanque de la Unión / water reflections / water tank

A new roller-coaster ride has began in Guatemala: it is once again election year. Guatemala has election every four years. Normally people in office do very little or the bare minimum the first three years of their period and they do a lot visible in-your-face work the last year of their term. Do they this because they believe the electorate will only remember the last things they do. Horrible system, I know.

I will have more information about the election year in later entries. In the photo above, you see a voters registration campaign booth just outside the Muni, short for Municipalidad which is one of the terms used in Spanish for town/city hall.

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Voters Registration / arches / City Hall Building

In the Catholic realm the Holy Week Celebrations begin today with the Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Cuaresma, the Spanish term for the forty days of the Lent season. The Holy Week celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala end at this church: El Calvario. Back in January 18th, I showed you the El Calvario Church. El Calvario or Calvary (Golgotha) is the name of the mount on the outskirts of Jerusalem where it’s believe Jesus Christ was crucified (source Wikipedia).

Can you see the symbolism in the three arches with three crosses on top?

Ash Wednesday also marks the end of the carnival (goodbye to meat). So it was so fitting that yesterday’s photo was a charcoal-grilled meat selling stand.

The origin of the name “Carnival” is unclear. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the name comes from the Italian carne- or carnovale, from Latin carnem (meat) + levare (lighten or raise), literally “to remove the meat” or “stop eating meat”. (Carnival at Wikipedia)

So today marks the start the procession season as well. I will do my best to catch as many as possible for you.

Trompo is the Spanish word for spinning top. Here you can see the Guatemalan wooden handicraft version and one of them at full spin. Some of you who have been following the photos at this site might remember these arches from the Book Fair in Antigua, back in July 22nd, 2006. Also, there is a great perspective of the hallway and the arches back in May 1st, 2006. If you came recently, please take a look at the two photos from linked. Furthermore, you can see many of the arches around Antigua Guatemala by browsing the Arches category.

Photobloggies 2007 Award Finalist Side Note:
Yesterday, before shutting down I found a link to the 2007 Photobloggies Award in the referrer logs and today Karine and Santy made references to it, so I decided to take a look at it. Surprise, surprise, Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo is among the finalists for the Best of Latin American Photoblog even though I was not even aware it was nominated. I was happy to see AGDP and several others like San Francisco DP, Trujillo DP, Sochi DP, my friends Edwin’s Kuala Lumpur DP, Lisi’s Hong Kong DP, Santy’s Jakarta DP, Nathalie from Sydney Daily Snap, Beirut DP, Dubai DP and Accra DP. Good luck to all of you. I don’t really think AGDP has a chance since it’s competing against photoblogs from “real and professional” photographers. However, it is a great honor to be among the finalists. Do you know who nominated so many of the Daily Photo Blogs?

On the north side of Parque Central (Central Park) stands the Antigua Guatemala’s Town Hall, Municipalidad in Spanish or Muni for short. Here is a shot of the arches during the day.

My best wishes for the season and a Prosperous New Year to all the visitors of Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo!

Since several of the Daily Photo Cities are publishing images with low-light or taken at night, I decided to continue with other photos I’ve taken around Parque Central at night. Just a few days ago I posted Lit branches at Parque Central and Illuminated Central Park.

Today I bring to you a shot of another building that is photographed a lot. Palacio de los Capitanes, or Captains’ Palace caught the eye of Meg on the Guatemalan Choppers in Antigua post, back in August 17th. Nowadays the building is used by The Police and the State Department as their headquarters. Here is a view of the building during the day.

Here are other Daily Photos Cities with night shots recently

• Alexandria Daily Photo
• Kuala Lumpur Daily Photo
• Paris Daily Photo
• Shanghai Daily Snap
• Hong Kong Daily Photo

No MarieMcc, this is not the façade of my house. This façade belongs to the Capilla de Belén (Bethlehem Chapel) located right across the street from the house that belonged to Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt (Saint Brother Peter of Betancourt). More about him and his house tomorrow.

It looks like Daily Photo Family is in a church photos frenzy: first was Nuno, then Zsolt22, followed by Edulabbe. Have you came across other church photos lately?

Under normal circumstances you build a new house and you expect it to look new. Here in Antigua the opposite is true. You want your spanking-brand-new house to look old and aged. If you can find them, you buy used and old doors, window frames, lamps and locks. Maybe even expose some of the wall and hope that the rainy season will eat up your brand-new paint job.

Welcome to the “new” aesthetic values of an old town!

What’s your take on this subject? what is your preference new-looking or old-looking houses?

As soon as you enter the doorway to Hotel Centro Colonial Antigua you are presented with this winding stairway that takes you to heaven, or at least to second floor . Back when I did the doorways series, Marie Mcc asked where do the open doors take you to? Well, the open doors take you to a zaguán, or hallway, which in the old days was used as a waiting area for workers or servants and their animals. Nowdays, they are spaces to have plants and flowers or to park your car, or both since they quite large.

Back on July 9th I told you that Guatemala sells light and color when I showed you an open door that leads to a garden at Posada del Ángel. I still believe sunshine is one the best reasons to visit Antigua, but not the only one. As you can see on this photo, you can have access to beautiful fountains, gardens, and architectonic delicacies. This scene belongs to another house turned into a Bed-n-Breakfast hotel. In the next few days I will bring to you other details from this wonderful place called Hotel Centro Colonial Antigua which is only a half of block away from Parque Central.

Here is the other side of the Tanque de la Unión.

La Antigua Guatemala was founded as Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (Saint James of the Lords of Guatemala) on July 25th, 1524 at a location now known as Ciudad Vieja and then moved to its present location in 1543 (about 2 miles to the north from the founding site). I tell you this, so you know why July is the town’s fair and why as part of the fair activities there is a book fair. Books are a luxury in Guatemala and the levels of readership are probably among the lowest in America.

Nonetheless, here are some interesting figures: there are 69 book publishers in Guatemala, 29 are big industrial businesses. There are only 450 points of sale for the whole country, 50% of those outlets are pharmacies. 70% of the editorial market comes from Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Guatemala is the only country in the region that taxes books (12% is the tax at the register). These figures came from a recent interview with Cecilia Baily, president of the Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (book publishers association) in the July 2006 issue of Recrearte magazine (available as PDF download in Spanish). There are two international book fairs that will start on 28th of July in Guatemala City. FILGUA, International Book Fair in Guatemala and FILCEN, International Book Fair in Central America merged on a single huge event; if you can read Spanish you can hop over to my other blog for a longer description of Filgua and Filcen.

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Saint James Celebrations / book fair / Filgua and Filcen

Another shot of the arches in the City Hall (Municipalidad) building. As you can see this was photographed near the end of 2003; not much has changed since, except for the City Mayor.

Arches in the Police and Government Building. This is in the south side of the Central Park. In the north side of the park is the City Hall building.