Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
How can simple instruments and uncomplicated and repetitive sounds create a profound, hauntingly, bewitching and fascinating musical experience? How can Guatemalans explain to other people the spiritual fibers that are touched by the fragile and high-pitched notes of the chirimilla flute and the heartbeat thumps emanating from the drums? How can two unpretentious and complementing sounds transport us through a mystical trip to pre-Columbian times? How?
Editorial Line Aside: I often tell Manolo and others that La Antigua Guatemala is not Guatemala. I claim such a counter-information based of the fact that La Antigua Guatemala is not the real world and as such it can not be Guatemala. Except, of course, for some isolated instances like La Antigua Guatemala sí es Guatemala.
Let me explain.
For instance, the entire country of Guatemala can be crumbling into pieces while in La Antigua Guatemala every thing is peaceful and calm. Such was the case of last week when Guatemala City was being buried by black volcanic sand thrown by Volcán de Pacaya, which is just a few kilometers from Antigua Guatemala and further away from Guatemala City, yet none of the black sand fell over Antigua Guatemala. The same could be said about the events of this week where San Miguel Escobar and Ciudad Vieja are being rescued from under tons of mud and debris caused by the lahar that came down from Volcán de Agua as a result of tropical storm Agatha, yet, once again, La Antigua Guatemala escaped pretty much unscratched, except for a few mudslides in certain villages. Many people from La Antigua are going every day to Ciudad Vieja and San Miguel Escobar to lend a hand with the mud clean up, but visitors to Antigua Guatemala will never know because around town we are experiencing sunshine and tranquility.
Why do I tell you this stuff? Well, I am sharing with you these news because I need to clarify my editorial line, which is, in a nutshell, to cover events when they are happening and before anybody covers them or when nobody else is covering them. Once something I have covered becomes the domain of the mainstream media, I try to cover something else that’s also happening at the same time or something else entirely different. Most of the time I try to be an alternative source of information, not a repeater.
Because I am also restricted by the ONE entry per DAY design of AntiguaDailyPhoto, I try to post additional relevant information through Twitter and Facebook updates. I recommend you follow those as well. The Twitter and Facebook updates show up on the left sidebar as well as in the following links: Twitter.com/AntiguaDP and Facebook.com/AntiguaDailyPhoto.
Furthermore, from the get go I try to provide you with the tools and feeds for you to continue getting the news and images, if you choose to do so. That’s why big popular sites like GlobalVoicesOnline and BoingBoing sometimes quote and share parts of AntiguaDailyPhoto posts.
This is from the GlobalVoicesOnline article Guatemala: State of Emergency Due to Tropical Storm Agatha:
Rudy Girón of the blog AntiguaDailyPhoto.com writes that Guatemala urgently needs a break from disasters:
Of course the tropical storm Agatha is the worst of all evils because it hit hard the entire country with a heavy downpour which caused floods and land slides in many places, including La Antigua Guatemala. Many people have lost their houses and many more have been evacuated and are now living in temporary shelters. A flood of tweets and Facebooks updates keep inundating the timelines with the hash tags #Pacaya, #AgathaGT,#CenizasGT, #ApagonGT, etc. You can look at all the photos from tropical storm Agatha that people are uploading at http://is.gd/cvbam andhttp://is.gd/cvbak. Don’t you agree that we need a break from Nature’s catastrophes?
And BoingBoing’s quote from Guatemala: First, volcanic eruption; then, devastating tropical storm.
Reading and photos, and a guide to Twitter accounts and hashtags: Antigua Daily Photo, “Stop, Agatha, Stop!”
I DO hope you understand my editorial line and that you become a fan and follower of the AntiguaDailyPhoto updates in Facebook and Twitter to keep on top of the additional information and news I share with you.
The music was life in every single breath, meaning the performance and the ambience of the place, was almost surreal. Some kilometers away I bet Nelo was taking photographs, and I thought that next time I’d photograph a procession, my ipod would make good company, so perhaps the music could help me get some cool shots like Nelo’s. 
