Slowly, but surely we progress in our own unique way.

Just before we leave Ciudad Vieja, I wanted to share with a follow up post to Having Ice Cream in Antigua Guatemala where I tried to explain that despite the crime and violence that is shown in the news, most people in our Latin America find the time and love to spend quality time with friends and family. We can not negate the violence, it’s all there in the statistics, but most of it happens in Guatemala City, sadly. Take a look at the picture above, this is not the violent country you see on the news all the time.

But don’t believe just my words, let’s hear from a group of students from Northeastern Illinois University who took an alternative Spring Break:

… This weeklong trip was a combination of cultural immersion and community service. During the first full day in Guatemala, we were given a first hand look at coffee farming, from seed to cup. Who would’ve thought that the coffee you drink in the morning starts as a pebble sized fruit similar to a cranberry…

One of the most rewarding experiences of the trip was helping Timoteo, a local craftsman, build a middle school for his community. Prior to this, middle school students in San Miguel Escobar attended classes outside of the primary school. Knowing that a small group of farmers took it upon themselves to fund and build a school for future students is inspiring. Overall, this was an experience of a lifetime and the lessons learned about community, collaboration, and sustainability will not be forgotten. Read the entire story about the Alternative Spring Break at The NEIU Independent.

If Antigua Guatemala means the Former Guatemala City, then Ciudad Vieja (Old City) would mean the former former Guatemala City.

For a while now I wanted to do a backlit fountain shot and the opportunity appeared the other day when I paid a visit to Ciudad Vieja, the former former Guatemala City. I was also able to include a couple kissing on the same frame to make the photo more interesting.

As always, I feel lucky to be able to share with you quotidian vistas from Antigua Guatemala and its surroundings. Next Tuesday AntiguaDailyPhoto will be celebrating its 6th year anniversary of everyday life images, stories, art and news from Antigua Guatemala.

A búcaro fountain is half fountain normally embedded in a wall, normally near an inside patio, but it can be anywhere. I’ve photographed búcaro fountains for a while now and there are plenty of designs in the archives of Antigua Guatemala. Here’s a short list of some of the búcaro fountains found in the archives:

1. Casa Antigüeña: The Búcaro
2. Colonial Búcaro Fountain
3. Corner Búcaro Fountain
4. What in the World is a Búcaro?
5. The búcaro inside the Burger King restaurant

Guatemala on the news Aside: The Big Picture of The Boston Globe published a photographic essay entitled Dangerous work: “The Mine” in Guatemala City where Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd documented how every day, dozens of residents salvage a living by scouring the massive dump for scrap metal. Facing the threat of mudslides, collapses, and disease, they can potentially earn twice the daily minimum wage. Also, closer to home, The world famous Carrera de las Charolas of La Antigua Guatemala appeared in the Framework section of Los Angeles Times, where each week Los Angeles Times compiles the very best in visual journalism.

I have mentioned it a few times, but let me repeat it again. There’s are aesthetic principles which are used and apply to design and architecture to make then look and fit harmoniously and coherently into the Antigua Guatemala enchanting environment. Take this water tank and washbasins for instance, which I am not sure it’s an original piece or if it was built to look old and worn. This is what I call the antigüeño aesthetic values: colonial styles and designs, built to look worn, old and even abandoned; normally with part of the plaster removed as to show the guts. Sometimes, they even give new uses to objects, like in the picture above where the water tank and washbasins are used as decorative fountain. Other examples that I’ve seen are colonial style cooking pot used for a regular plant pot, a door or window turned into a coffee table, an old carriage wheels used as decorative elements, et cetera.

Other recent examples of the antigüeño aesthetic values:

• Garden Wall at Sabe Rico
• Rustic brick wall
• New houses that look old
• Old and rusted metal wheels

It’s nice to see colonial pilas and lavaderos (water tanks + washbasins) being used now as fountains and as decoration. If you want to see a pila as decoration follow the white rabbit to The Venerable Colonial Pila is Now Used as Decoration. If you want to see colonial pila being used as a fountain check out Finca Washbasins and Water Tanks. Of course, you can simply come back tomorrow to see the entire water tank and washbasins of this fountain.

Business owners take note, how do you take something as mundane as a parking lot and turn it into a delightful experience? Put art there and everywhere!

This is the last of the mini series about artistic sculptures found in the green areas surrounding the parking lot at Santo Domingo del Cerro.

I hope you have enjoyed some of the art found in Antigua Guatemala. Let me know either way!

By the way, here are two mosaic mural art pieces by Shelley Rozell inspired by a couple of photographs taken by me. What an honor it is to me that Shelley Rozell had chosen two of my photos as the starting point for her gorgeous mosaic mural art. I promise I will take photos of the entire mosaic mural once it’s installed this coming November in La Antigua Guatemala. In the mean time, my best wishes for Shelley and all the other artists participating this mosaic mural.

I really like these ceramic sculptures found in the green areas of Santo Domingo del Cerro. I especially like this rabbit.

I am always writing “Follow the white rabbit” in the posts as a way of saying follow the links. Now, I have some questions that I need you to answer:

• Do you ever follow the links (follow the white rabbit)?
• Is it obvious to you that if you click on the photos, you get to see a larger version of them?

These beautiful and playful sculptures can be found in the green areas of Santo Domingo del Cerro, one of my favorite destinations around Antigua Guatemala for a side trip full of art, peace and delicious food. Make sure you include a trip to Santo Domingo del Cerro; they provide free shuttles which you can take at the entrance of Casa Santo Domingo.

Here’s a rainy season vista from A Room With A View. Believe it or not, La Antigua Guatemala always shows its most beautiful face even when the heavens cry incessantly. Don’t you agree?

Oftentimes we do things driven by the unconscious mind and that’s why is very difficult to have the coherent answers for them. In photography as in art, the unconscious mind manifests itself often through imagery we only have vague feelings about; gut feelings really.

Unconscious
George Bernard Shaw wrote that the “unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it.” In this maxim, Shaw articulated the rationale behind the use of the word unconscious to describe, in basketball, a player whose every shot seems miraculously to go into the basket. (source: Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus)

The unconscious mind, which in Freud’s opinion is a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents do not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects—it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being “tapped” and “interpreted” by special methods and techniques such as meditation, random association, dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip), examined and conducted during psychoanalysis. Carl Jung developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed. (source: Wikipedia)

A couple of weeks ago as I checked in at the Plaza Mayor (Main Square) with Foursquare, I mentioned that everyone was missing the relaxing murmur of the Mermaids fountain. At the time I made the commentary in Foursquare and Facebook I didn’t know that the water pump was broken. Luckily, Elizabeth Bell from Antigua Tours read the Foursquare comment in Facebook and shared that the reason was that the water pump was broken. A few days after that, I happened to walk by the Mermaids fountain when they were repairing the pump. I quickly pulled my omnipresent camera to take a few shots and document what I saw. These are some of the photos I took.

One thing I really love about photography is the fact that only through the camera I get a chance to REALLY observe my surroundings and the day-to-day stuff that otherwise would go unnoticed. I have must’ve published at least a dozen photos about the Mermaids fountain and this was the first time I noticed where the pump was and the electrical wiring that controls it.

As every fist of the month, the Daily Photo community has a theme day and the color green is what was chosen for July 1, 2011. I have to admit that green is the easiest color to photograph in La Antigua Guatemala since green is the color of the official flag; green bellies (panzas verdes) is the official nickname for antigüeños; green is also the color of the avocados and guacamol (avocado sauce); green is the most prominent color in the gardens and in all the mountains surrounding the colonial town. Every where you, green is there. I chose this photo because it has some unusual green chairs around the patio dining area and vegetation of the garden and wall.

By the way, green is also the theme for this AntiguaDailyPhoto, inspired by the green-white-green official flag of Sacatepéquez and La Antigua Guatemala.

Follow the white rabbit to see what is green in other cities around the world!

This is wider view of the patio (courtyard really), garden and fountain shown in Skyping from the Garden published last month. As mentioned before, patios, garden and fountains are architectonic elements often in the typical Casa Antigüeña. By the way, if you want to look and learn about all the different elements often found in the Spanish colonial architecture from Antigua Guatemala, follow the white rabbit to the Casa Antigüeña series.

Esta es una vista más abierta del patio, jardín y fuente que aparecieron en Skyping from the Garden publicado el mes pasado. Como lo hemos mencionado antes, patios, jardines y fuentes son elementos arquitectónicos encontrados con frecuencia en la típica Casa Antigüeña. Por cierto, si quieren ver y aprender sobre los diferentes elementos encontrados en la arquitectura colonial española de La Antigua Guatemala, sigan la liebre hacia la serie Casa Antigüeña.

Since there are so many wireless Internet access points (Wi-Fi) available in La Antigua Guatemala, it’s not unusual to see people calling back home via Skype from gardens and patios. Of course, a headset is still needed if you want to keep your Skype-conversations semi-private.

Have you used Skype while in Guatemala to call back home?

Debido al hecho de que hay un sinnúmero de puntos de acceso al Internet inalámbricos en La Antigua Guatemala no es extraño toparse con viajeros llamando a sus casas a través de Skype desde jardines, patios y restaurantes. Por supuesto que los auriculares son obligatorios si se desea mantener la conversación medio privada.

This fountain is located on the parallel path of Alameda El Calvario. At sunset you can find teenagers and students having atol or just talking and hanging out. I believe this fountain would be a great location to take the fantasma photos some of you having requesting for a while now. Let’s hope we can take some portrait photos of La Llorona or La Siguanaba at this fountain one this nights. I will be on the look out, I promise.

Esta fuente está ubicada en el espacio paralelo a Alameda El Calvario. Después del crepúsculo uno puede encontrar adolescentes y estudiantes tomando el atol o simplemente platicando. Considero que esta ubicación es el lugar perfecto para tomar las fotos de fantasmas que muchos aún siguen pidiendo. Esperemos que pronto podamos retratar a La Llorona o La Siguanaba en esta fuente alguna de estas noches. Estaremos atentos, lo prometemos.