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How many people can you fit inside a bus?

The chicken bus Guinness World Record of how many people you can fit in a bus was broken today at Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez, Guatemala with 221 people inside the chicken bus, two chickens and lots of Gallos (beer). The previous record of 209 people was held by Poland.

The activity was organized by the Municipality of Jocotenango, a community just outside Antigua Guatemala. The very young mayor of Jocotenango declared to be very happy because Guatemala had obtained its first Guinness World Record and because it was his humble town of Jocotenango who broke the previous record of the most people inside a bus. The first activity was to fill the chicken bus with as many children as possible; 100 showed up and each kid was given a participation diploma. Later, the adults entered the bus until there was no room to walk in, then, some people decided to enter the bus through the windows since there was still space inside the bus because some people had climbed to luggage racks inside the bus. At this point the previous Guatemalan record of 180 people were passed as the counting showed 190 people were inside the bus. This was not good enough for the world record of 209 people. A second try was organized, but this time in a orderly manner 10 by 10 people entered the chicken bus making sure to leave no free space available. After 210 people were inside everybody became excited because the previous record had been broken, but there was still space for another 11 people.

El joven alcalde de Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez declaró estar muy contento de que Guatemala tuviera su primera marca Guinness y que fuera el pueblo de Jocotenango el que haya roto el récord de más gente en un autobús. Primero subieron los niños quienes llegaron hasta la cifra de 100 dentro de la camioneta; cada niño recibió un diploma de participación a la salida de la camioneta. Luego subieron las personas adultas, poco a poco, hasta que ya no se podía ingresar al bus. Fue entonces que algunos empezaron a subir por las ventas y otros a acomodarse en las parrillas interiores del equipaje para hacer más espacio. Aún así sólo cupieron 190 personas, que era suficiente para romper la marca de 180 personas que existe en Guatemala, pero no la marca mundial de 209 que posía Polonia. En el segundo conteo, ingresaron de 10 en 10 hasta llegar a 210 personas dentro del autobús con lo que se rompió el récord Guinness, pero aún había espacio por lo que ingresaron otras 11 personas y así se llego a la cifra de 221 personas dentro de la camioneta «chicken bus». El alcalde manifestó sentirse satisfecho del logro alcanzado por el pueblo de Jocotenango y por todos aquellos que participaron en el evento. También ofreció que las puertas de Jocotenango estaban abiertas para todos los extranjeros.

Here’s a slide show which gives you a general idea of the breaking of the previous Guinness Record.

Of course this page would not be complete without a contribution from my dear friend Nelo Mijangos who has prepared a time lapse video of the loading and unloading of the chicken bus. Enjoy!

This is crap!

The four basic principles of graphic design are: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. It was Robin Williams, the graphic designer and teacher, who came up with the memorable acronym to help people remember these basic principles.

I believe this photo embodies the basic principles of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity (crap); don’t you agree?

Those darn electrical wires! There they are again… getting in the way. ¡Son tan metiches! —MO

I agree, but what can I do? I could edit them out in Photoshop, but then the photos would not be true document of the place. Also, next time you come to La Antigua Guatemala and take the same shot, you’re going to notice your photos have those darn electrical wires and think: damn it, those wires were not there before!

I would never do that to you. Instead, I try to present the beauty of the wire webs we humans create. Don’t believe me? Well, check the following past entries:

• Antigua’s Electric Wires
• Electric Wire Grid and Volcanoes Wallpaper
• The Catcher of the Kites

By the way, in case you haven’t notice, Jocotenango’s Cathedral also received a new paint job since last time I showed you BMXing in Jocotenango.

Today, for a mere random act, I ended up in Jocotenango and because we’ve talking and learning about jocotes, I remember to take a snapshot of the jocote monument at the entrance plaza in Jocotenango. The jocote monument is the giant jocote on top of the white pedestal, right after the flowers.

I am sure I was also influenced by all my recent readings of Rex’s presidential decrees. Rex, alias Rafael Romero, is the democratically elected president of Mulamala who also claims Jocotesburg (Jocotenango) as his birth place. Warning: before you head over the Mula que es uno (Mulamala) to read all the official presidential press releases, be aware of three things: (1) you need to have a great command of the Spanish language. (2) you need to have a large Guatemalan Spanish vocabulary at your disposal. (3) you need to have a lot of patience or understanding of the Guatemalan culture. (4) you need a handle on Guatemalan slang. (5) Rex’s language can be as colorfully offensive as the script for Pulp Fiction (that’s if you understand Spanish fairly well.) End of warning.

By the way, I have no idea why my minds tends to remember the most obscure trivia; like the fact the Rafael Romero was born in Jocotenango. Do you know why our memory works that way?

Crea fama y acuéstate a dormir. —anónimo (Create fame, then sleep. —Anonymous)

The first time I ever heard about La Naranja Pelada (The Peeled Orange) was at Inner Diablog, a blog published from London but filled with hindsight and hard-to-find information about Guatemala. On top of all, Guy writes so eloquently that it is a pleasure to read his entries. Honest, Guy’s blog and his writing is an inspiration to me. Check it out!

In the area around Antigua the best ceviches are to be found in a small seafood restaurant on a backstreet of Jocotenango called La Naranja Pelada. The dining room is wood-panelled and decorated with specimens of local ‘game’ such as snakes, turtles and armadilloes. (source: Inner Diablog)

The second time I read about La Naranja Pelada was about a meeting of Guatemalan writers that took place there. Then I read a recommendation by Pepe Zarco, one of the columnist of Prensa Libre.

This was enough to pique my curiosity. I have to find the La Naranja Pelada… To be continued

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?

Here is a vertical shot of a biker doing a jump in the atrium of the Jocotenango church. Jocotenago is one of the communities very near La Antigua Guatemala. Jocotenango is so close to La Antigua that you might walk and cross over the municipal borders without realizing it. Jocotenango and Ciudad Vieja are the two municipios (counties) where most of the antigüeños moved after they sold their houses in La Antigua Guatemala. Some antigüeños sold their house under pressure from buyers and because the incredible prices buyers were willing to pay. Ciudad Vieja and Jocotenango is where most of the workers of La Antigua Guatemala businesses live. Jocotenango and Ciudad Vieja are ‘REAL’ Guatemalan communities, unlike La Antigua Guatemala. Soon I will post an entry with the following title: La Antigua Guatemala is not Guatemala (which I’ve been saving for a long while now). Stay tune!

In La Antigua Guatemala and surrounded areas, church atriums and basket ball courts are used for many activities ranging from town fairs all the way to BMX bike competitions like the one above where I was lucky to catch a few shots. Believe it or not, the kid on the frame above landed with his feet on the pedals. Awesome dude!

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. My mailing address is on the Contact the author page.