La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

A simple shot to commemorate the sunshine, the purple, the ever-present spring and to revive the Guateflora series. This photo was taken at my favorite green house: Vivero La Escalonia.

I wish everyone an easy starting week!

P.S. I forgot to mention that we went over 700 entries six days ago; Today’s photo is the 706 consecutive page posted at La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo. No wonder I’m so tired.

Come on, just because you’re dead it doesn’t mean you can not have access to good coffee. This coffee field is right behind the San Lázaro Cemetery in La Antigua Guatemala. This photo was taken from this crypts in San Lázaro cemetery.

You do remember the series about the San Lazaro Cemetery, right?.

So what makes La Antigua Guatemala the best coffee in the world? To get the best cup of coffee of the world, one must start with the right altitude; somewhere above 1,500 meters above the sea level; add lots of fertile volcanic soil; mix in plenty of rain (about six months); stable temperate weather (about 76º F / 25º C); once you have the above, make sure you plant the best possible Arabica coffee.

Below you can read a summary of the whole process by Eve Andersson and if you visit her web site you can also see pictures describing every single stage.

Growing
The plants start out in pots for the first couple years of their lives, then they’re transported to high-altitude fields where they grow in the shade of large [Gravilea] trees that let just the right amount of sunlight through.

Processing
The beans fruits are picked, pulped, washed, dried, sorted by size, sorted by density, hand sorted for defects, roasted, and packaged.

Tasting
This is the best part. It’s like a wine tasting; you take a sip and then spit it out. The high-altitude Arabica coffee grown in [La] Antigua [Guatemala] was by far the best coffee.

Come back tomorrow to see a coffee plantation for the dead!

Breaking News Side Note:
MiPeriódico supplement of the Guatemalan Newspaper elPeriódico [ñ] is covering the La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo in their Sunday edition for March 2nd, 2008. If you want to see what pictures they chose to highlight and to read the introductory text (if you can read Spanish), you can visit them online at MiPeriódico supplement or purchase the Sunday edition of elPeriódico.

Yesterday’s photo was a close-up of the coffee bush in the lower left corner of today’s photo. If you click on the image above you can the coffee bushes (the small trees) being harvested under the shadows of the Gravilea trees in San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala. Around La Antigua Guatemala you can find coffee bushes everywhere, including as part of the hedges of La Compañía de Jesús ruins.

Come back tomorrow to see a coffee plantation worker while collecting the cherry red coffee fruit.

The other day we heard many voices on the other side of the fence; voices of children and women just talking and laughing. We approached the windows on the second floor to see what was all the commotion; then we saw men, women and children harvesting the coffee. At this moment, you can see the turning point of coffee from green to golden yellow and finally cherry red.

Come back tomorrow to see the next door coffee plantation and the different colors of coffee.

This kind of tree with its orange flowers is very popular around La Antigua Guatemala. According to the Guateflora book its name is Llama del bosque (flame of the forest or Spathodea campanulata) which brings me to an interesting fact between the English and Spanish languages. Forest in Spanish is bosque, but deforestation is deforestación. Trees in Spanish is árboles and Arbor Day in Spanish is Día del Árbol. In English the root for the word bosque is still available as bosk for a thicket of bushes. Can you come up with other samples?

Do you know when is Arbor Day celebrated in your neck of the woods?

The hoja de falsa uva (false grape) or Parthenocisus inserta as it is known scientifically is a trepadora (climbing) plant. In the trepadoras category the most often used are the hiedra (ivy), uña de gato (cat’s claw), falsa uva (false grape), collar de la reina (queen’s collar), and of course the ever-present bugambilea (bougainvillea). The trepadoras (climbing) category in the Guateflora book has 34 different plants, so I have homework to do.

Obviously I am not going to cover consecutively the over 400 plants shown in the Guateflora book because it would take over a year to show the most often used plants in La Antigua Guatemala gardens. Nevertheless, all this flora is an important aspect of the antigüeño lifestyle, so I will come back the guateflora category often to do mini-series of flowers and plants. For now, I still have a few more shots to come (including our Guatemalan poison ivy known as chichicaste). So stay tune!

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Falsa manía or Maní forrajero (false peanut) as it is known in Guatemala the Arachis pintoi is a cubresuelos (ground-creeping) plant used often in the garden of La Antigua Guatemala. José, our gardener, told me that you can also use it a trepadora (climbing) plant if you guide it. I really like this evergreen plant which flowers all-year-round a tiny yellow flower. According to the Guateflora book, it can grow anywhere and handles well people walking over it.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Hiedras (Ivies/Hederas helix & H. canariensis) are very popular as well as all kinds of trepadoras (climbing) or cubresuelos (ground-creeping) siempreverdes (evergreen) plants in La Antigua Guatemala. Hiedras and trepadoras are found in many antigüeño homes covering the gardens’ walls. The picture above is not very good, but this is the only one I had in my photo archives at the moment to show you ivy plant (I promise I will take more sample shots of climbing and ground-creeping plants). This hiedra shot was taken as a continuation of the Burger King’s fountain shot; which by the way has all kinds Guateflora plants growing on the walls of the búcaro fountain. Right above the Burger King’s fountain the ivy plant begins to cover the wall and it goes all the way to the second floor wall.

To compensate you for this horrible picture, I am sharing a link sent to me by my dear friend and commentator of LAGDP, Manolo, to a slide show of Vivero La Escalonia (La . Manolo took this photos back in August when he visited La Antigua Guatemala. Enjoy!

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Post cards request update: Four new post cards were found in my post office box on Monday. We received one from Downtown Minneapolis sent on October 1; another from Historic Romeo, Michigan sent on October 3; one more from Owego, New York mailed on October 2; and the last one from Grand Junction, Colorado. The four post cards arrived in GuateCity “La Nueva” on October 9 and it took almost a week to get to “La Antigua”. It is incredible that is takes almost the same time to travel the thousands of miles to get to Guatemala City as it takes to travel the 30 miles that separates La Antigua Guatemala from the capital; no wonder my bills are always late. By the way, my wife and I are enjoying your post cards very much, especially the many different stamps. Please keep them coming! If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

Believe it or not, the land around La Antigua Guatemala was a very ‘fertile’ arid zone before the introduction of the coffee bush as a crop in 1875. I know fertile and arid sound like two mutually exclusive words, but they were not in Guatemala before 18th century where the Nopal and Maguey cactuses were grown in plantations. I’ve even seen photographs of the nopal plantations around La Antigua Guatemala in the CIRMA Fototeca (The Photo Archives at The Center for Mesoamerican Research). CIRMA is the local think-tank.

The gardens at Parque Central are the very best example of the diversity of plants that can grow side-by-side in La Antigua Guatemala. You can find anything from jacaranda trees, palm trees, flowers, avocado trees, cactus, et-cetera. I promise I will do a mini-series about the great plant nursery that is the Central Park of La Antigua Guatemala.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

You know you are in a Guatemalan home the moment you see the Colas de Quetzal (nephorlepsis spp.) or Quetzal’s tails (ferns) hanging in the corridors. The Colas de Quetzal bracken has to be one of the favorite ornamental plants used in the Guatemalan home. Some of these ferns or brackens are native to Guatemala, but they are considered cosmopolitan because they can grow anywhere. Colas de Quetzal can grown in hanging baskets, pots or in the ground, but they need some shadow to maintain the evergreen colors. The above photo of Colas de Quetzal was taken at Vivero La Escalonia (5a av. sur final), a very popular nursery in La Antigua Guatemala. Vivero La Escalonia is a great place to have breakfast or lunch.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

We continue our Guateflora series with the omnipresent coffee bush or tree, which has manage to leave the coffee plantation to become a hedge. The coffee bush is one the most often seen plants around La Antigua Guatemala, but not often I’ve seen it used as hedge. The above photograph was taken at the Compañía de Jesús building, with the ruins in the background. The coffee bush is not included in the Guateflora book, but I am sure it should be included since it is found often in gardens in La Antigua Guatemala. If you don’t know what the Guateflora book is, please read the paragraph below.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Gerberas (gerbera jamesonii) are a very popular flowers in the gardens of La Antigua Guatemala. Gerberas are found in yellow, white, red (like the picture above), orange, purple and pink. Gerberas grow in temperate-cold climate and give their beautiful flowers throughout the year. This particular shot was taken at the nursery Vivero La Escalonia in the south part of La Antigua (5a av. sur final). (source for technical information: Guate Flora)

With this entry we will begin a series of flowers and plants that are available around La Antigua Guatemala. This series will not be in consecutive order so you will have to browse the Guateflora category or search for Guateflora: in the search form on the sidebar.

The Guateflora category takes its name on a wonderful compilation book by the name of Guate Flora: Plantas ornamentales más utilizadas en jardínes guatemaltecos (Guate Flora: Ornamental Plants Most Often Used in Guatemalan Gardens). The books compiles more than 400 photos of the plants most often used in Guatemalan gardens along with technical description about the plants’ categories, and how to grow them. Many of the photographs in the book were taken from gardens in private homes, hotels, restaurants, parks, green houses, mini-malls or on the streets around La Antigua Guatemala; this fact is what prompted me to try to take shots of the ornamental plants as I encounter them in my comings-and-goings.

Please, would let me know that you think of this new series?