La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

The best things in life are usually free… don’t you think so?

Well, you may be wondering what SAT office means. Behind this placid view of this government building hides one of the reason why Guatemala is so poor; a beggar really if we consider that Guatemala begs money for road repairing, road building, new modern national identification card, fertilizers, schools, libraries and the list goes on and on. The picture above is the local office of the Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria, SAT for short and the equivalent of the IRS.

The SAT is in charge of collecting the taxes and to funnel this money to fund all the government needs. The SAT does such a poor job at collecting taxes and thus the government is not autarkic and needs to beg for international funds. The reasons the SAT does a poor job at funding the government are complex and it would require huge and extensive entries to cover them. Suffice it to say that most Guatemalan earn their money in the informal economy, which does not pay income taxes, like town market vendors, street vendors, convenience stores, et-cetera. Then, we have the many small businesses who do not hand out facturas (invoices) for which they are charging sales tax, yet not passing this collected tax money to the SAT. Finally, we have the big businesses and wealthy Guatemalans who have very creative accounting departments to do every imaginable thing to withhold the taxes due on their accumulated fortunes; how fortunate for them! In the mean time, it is mostly the salaried workers, the independent service providers and the honest businesses who transfer the collected sales taxes and income taxes to the SAT. As you can see, tax evasion is a huge problem in Guatemala. I don’t have with me actual figures, but I am sure that less than 20% of the population pay their income taxes.

Perhaps Edgar or Mauricio can provide the actual figures and even expand on or clarify the subject.

One by one all the houses in La Antigua Guatemala are becoming business like cafes, spanish schools, offices, travel agencies, folk-art stores, et-cetera. Above you see the corridor at Café No Sé, which was converted into a dining area by placing a few tables and chairs.

This shot was taken from my car’s window, which I parked on the shoulder of the road that goes from La Antigua Guatemala to La Nueva Guatemala (Guatemala City) about three kilometers from La Antigua’s entrance or exit, depends which way you’re going. These houses belong to the community of San Juan Gascón, a small village just outside of Antigua Guatemala.

As beautiful, cosmopolitan, antique and modern as it is La Antigua Guatemala, many people choose to live in one of the surrounding villages that belong to the municipio (county) of La Antigua Guatemala. There are many reasons for this decision which range from the economics, ‘real guatemalan experience’, or simply to live in a more natural and greener environment.

To try to live in el casco histórico (downtown) of La Antigua Guatemala is the equivalent to try to live in Manhattan; very prohibitively expensive. Others feel that Antigua has lost its Guatemalanness (new word for you there) so they pick one of the villages where the slow pace of the lifestyle and traditions are more in check with the rest of the country. Many more opt for a bigger space where they can have a large garden, trees and lush surroundings. Finally, for some people all three reasons make perfect sense. Besides, all the villages belonging the La Antigua Guatemala are so near as to be 5 to 10 minutes away from Antigua. Nowadays, with Satellite TV, Direct TV, cellular telephones, and wireless internet access you can have it all.

With certainty I can declare that the lifestyle one can have in La Antigua Guatemala and its surroundings is among the very best available in Guatemala and the world. That is if you don’t mind the loud firecrackers, the processions, the church bells, the horrible city services, the common crime, the copious rainy season, and so on.

Post cards request update: Two new post cards were found in my post office box on Monday. Susie sent her post card from Iowa on October 9 and it only took three days to arrive in Guatemala City. Becky sent a post card of the Heublein Tower in Simsbury, Connecticut on October 2 and it was received by the postal service in Guatemala on October 9, but it did not make its way down to La Antigua until Monday 22nd. Please keep them coming! If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

Okay enough is enough. If you browse the Arches category you can find 22 entries and that is not counting all the arches that have appeared through the 535 consecutive days, but I have not tagged or classified as arches. Not once I have talked about the simple column that supports the arch; that is wrong if you consider that it takes two columns to support a single arch. My very dear friend JM Magaña, La Antigua Guatemala’s former conservator and the pen behind the architecture column in Recrearte magazine, could call me a near-sighted person or worst a discriminatory individual or architecture elements. We can not continue like that, no way José! We put an end to this discrimination today. There you have it above, a humble arch column close-up taken at the Municipalidad de Jocotenango.

The Amazon Wish List Side note:
I want to publicly thank Carolyn from Minnesota for being the first person to donate towards the operations cost of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo through the Amazon Wish List for LAGDP. Like many of you already know, this web site is maintained economically through your donations towards the hosting bills and my own economic resources to pay for the rest, which includes internet access, batteries, memory cards, cameras, tripods, blank discs for backups, external hard drives, computer equipment, Flickr account, books, entrance fees, restaurant bills, parking lot fees, et-cetera. I even placed some adsense ads to help unload some of the cost from my personal budget; I hope the adsense ads are not too distracting. Still, LAGDP is an economic burden, so I REALLY appreciate any help you guys send this way. Many thanks to Carolyn from Minnesota and to all the people that have donated thus far. The Amazon Wish List for LAGDP ships whatever you guys donate from the list to a P.O. Box in Miami and from there the item is taken via airborne to Guatemala City. Once there, I receive a phone call to let me know about the package. I am still responsible for the shipping charges from Miami-Guatemala City, import duties and sales tax. I know it sounds complicated, but it all works out somehow.

Here is another shot taken at the Municipalidad de Jocotenango (city hall) which shows its yellow façade and abundance of arches. Jocotenango was the community where workers and artisans (indians) lived in colonial times. Nowadays, Jocotenango still provides residence to many of the workers of La Antigua Guatemala.

Does anyone care to tell us a little more about Jocotenango?

The building of the municipalidad (city hall) is a yellow building with simple arches, lots of them. The arches provide great photo opportunities, like in this case where two women were caught by the viewfinder in one of those fleeting moments.

This is very simple image will allow us to play a creative game. Taking the two women as our characters we will write up one of many conceivable dialogues as the interaction between them. This would be similar to what we did in Opposite Ends of Life #2, which you should look at and read to get an idea. The apparent age difference could be used to set the pair as mother and daughter or sisters or simply co-workers of the newly opened Subway; it is up to you. I will submit the first plausible dialogue.

Backpacker girl

Mami, Jhon Daniel is not answering his cel phone…

Skeptic mother

Ay mija! I’m telling you I don’t like this boy. What kind of name is Jhon anyway?

Backpacker girl

Má… I told you already, we kids don’t have a saying about what kind of names you parents chose for us.

Skeptic mother

Mija, still Jhon is so pretentious and foreign… Juan Daniel sounds better to me. Anyway try to call him again.

Backpacker girl

For sure I will not name my first son Jhon, I rather use Cristhian Jeovani. Gosh! he doesn’t answer.

Skeptic mother

See, Cristhian Jeovani is más bonito (prettier) and sounds better too.

Backpacker girl

Okay mami… Jhon Daniel just answered and he said that he couldn’t respond his phone before because he got the job at the new pizza stand on the drive thru of Pollo Campero.

Skeptic mother

Va pues, at least he’s good enough to get a job!

What is your reading of the photograph above? What sort of story can you invent for the scene above?

I am not too fond of post cards shots, but I do get them too every once in a while. So, please tell me you will come back tomorrow; I promise to stay away from post card images. I promise!

POST CARDS UPDATE: I want to thank Gerard, Carolyn and Alan for having sent a post card from their home town as I requested in the Postscript entry. If you don’t know what I am talking about, please, do read the Postscript for details. But, in short, I am requesting a hand-written note on a post card, with stamps if at all possible, from all the visitors to La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo so I can learn a little about you and your hometown as well as to test the Guatemalan postal service. I encourage you to participate.

Well, who knows really. I know there’s legislation which describes to the T what a Guatemalan flag is supposed to look like, but like always in Guatemala, laws are beautiful abstract texts that live inside very dusty books. Reality dictates that the Guatemalan flag can be blue, any blue really, with or without the emblem or coat of arms.

However, I am glad the Guatemala’s/Central America’s Independence is celebrated in September because with all that different shades of blue in the million flags out there, it does compensate, a little, for all the white/gray skies in my photographs.

Could any Guatemalan come in and fill in the exact color blue that the Guatemalan flag should be? Any Guatemalan really, even gringos chapines or Canadians chapines.

Back to the Compañía de Jesús building to see the photo exhibit Punto de fuga by some of my favorite photo journalists: Sandra Sebastián, Moisés Castillo and Andrea Aragón. Since I had promised to come back to this magnificent example of antigüeño architecture and show it to you, I took a few more shots. This window ‘National Geographic’ frame is the first of this mini-series or the continuation of the Compañía de Jesús building series. Either way, let me know what you think of it. Boy, La Antigua Guatemala is so full of these wonderful vistas.

This corner building became one of the branches of Banco Industrial, Guatemala’s largest baking corporation, when this baking corporation acquired one of its rivals Banco de Occidente. This corner is prime location because it is one the corners of Parque Central, the main plaza, between the portal del ayuntamiento (city hall) the portal de las panaderas in La Antigua Guatemala. The jacarandas shot shown in Jacarandas at Antigua’s Central Park was taken from the corner window in the second floor.

The photo above was taken on August 31st, which was a payday and that is why you see all those people were queuing to get their salary from the banks. Tomorrow, Guatemalans will be queuing again to cast their vote. Also, this was the first time (this year) I noticed the Guatemalan flags that will adorn the buildings through September, which is the independence month. Guatemala’s so called independence from Spain is celebrated on September 15th. Check out the Independence Day Slideshow from last year.

I read recently (I don’t recall where at the moment) that to be truly independent a country must have sufficient wealth as to not have to depend on an outsider (duh!); well, let me break it to you guys, Guatemala has not been an independent country for the last 500 years or so. When I was teenager, I remember reading a Mafalda anthology where Mafalda was reading a history book and all of sudden she screams: You mean we were part of Spain, who the hell had the bright idea of independizarnos (freed us from Spain)! Back then, I laughed so hard at the comic strip, but just now I get the joke. Thanks Quino.

Remember, tomorrow Guatemala will be holding its general elections lottery (as Pamela calls it). Come back tomorrow night for an overview of the process and a link farm from all the blogs and sites covering the event.

When I decided to enter the cemetery of San Lázaro I was expecting a very chaotic cemetery full of the antigüeño color palette with many crypts and above grounds burial chambers and perhaps some mausoleums. Surprise, surprise! The only color was provided by the many flower arrangements, there were mostly mausoleums, some nichos (above grounds crypts) and just a few crypts.

Because there are so many mausoleums, the style varies a lot. I will show just a few samples to get the idea. Today’s picture shows a mausoleum with many column as its façade and with its white stucco it could probably pass as an original Greek mausoleum. This is a tribute from La Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall to the Teachers’ Union of La Antigua Guatemala.

Too bad this is the main exit street for La Antigua Guatemala if you are going to Guatemala City, also known as 4a calle oriente. If this was the main entrance, you could see the Fire and Acatenago volcanoes right above the Spanish-tile rooftops. This is the last thing you see also as you wave goodbye to La Antigua Guatemala.

I am almost sure, some of you would rather say hasta la vista, baby.

A quick search for the name Posada del Ángel in this site can reveal how much I enjoy photographing the gorgeous bed and breakfast inn. Every time I go there I found a new photo op. Today’s entry shows the living room, right next to the lap pool. My two other favorite shots of Posada del Ángel are Really green garden and Guatemala sells light and color. You can browse all the other photos taken at Posada del Ángel by following this link.

My best wishes to you guys for the coming weekend!

Nothing much to say. We all need a break after all those photos from a typical Guatemalan Fair.

The photo above was taken at Palacio de los Capitanes building and in a late lazy afternoon. Let’s enjoy the break.

Have a great weekend everyone!