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For a while now I wanted to an image where I was zooming in or out of the spot lights. After several tries I believe I managed to get a decent enough image.

I hope you like it and please let me know your honest thoughts about it.

In La Antigua Guatemala you get so used to certain things, or rather the absence of certain things. For instance, only when we go to Guatemala City I realized how visually contaminated other cities are in comparison to Antigua Guatemala. I am talking about billboards and ugly signage everywhere in just about any major city in Guatemala. Neon signs are another thing I have grown unaccustomed to while living in La Antigua Guatemala. So, tonight while driving back home I had to stop to document the first neon sign I have encountered in Antigua Guatemala.

As Manolo said to me before, the chaos and visual noise provided by the millions of signs, billboards, banners, flag signage with their vibrant-strong-in-your-face colors and messages can have an enormous impact on your stress levels to the point that you want to puke. I agree with him totally.

I wonder how long it will take for the City government or Preservation council to take down this sign. La Antigua Guatemala has a strict signage regulation code, as I have reported before.. Make a guess and I will come back with the answer as soon as I see the sign go down.

An hour for the Planet…

An hour of no light for the planet; it was celebrated worldwide. Antigua Guatemala did its share, as a city. Some, of course didn’t. Nonetheless the care for our planet should be done 24×7, and not just an hour per year. Of course, I understand all the difficulties of going “green” completely because it also depends on where you are living in the world. However, given all difficulties “going green” full time then perhaps initiatives like this one are a seed of change of conscientiousness.

Antigua Guatemala did its share on a seed of change. Things are getting better; it’s getting better all the time…

text and photos by Arturo Godoy. Check out Arturo’s portfolio to purchase photos from his massive photographic bank.

This is a follow up image to Luna de Antigua to ease you up at the start of a new week. I hope you like it and appreciate the things I do for you.

«Luna de Xelajú», “Moon of Xelajú”, has to be the most popular Guatemalan waltz played on marimba and quite possibly the most famous Guatemalan marimba song. “Xelajú” (pronounced shay-lah-HOO) is the old Mayan name for the Guatemalan city Quetzaltenango, still often popularly called “Xelajú” or “Xela”.

Now, I wonder why nobody has made such a song about La Antigua Guatemala’s moon; which is, if I may say so myself, just as enchanting and inspiring. Since Xe-la-jú is a three syllable word, the same as An-ti-gua, could we pretend the song also applies to the beautiful and enchanting Antigua Guatemala, right?

Anyway, in my never ending quest of bringing you the contrast of the ‘Old’ Guatemala versus the ‘New’ Guatemala, I share with you two new versions of Luna de Xelajú. The first rendition of Luna de Xelajú is by Malacates Trebol Shop. The second version of Luna de Xelajú is performed by the group Abracadabra. Next, you will find the lyrics for Luna de Xelajú in Spanish and English right below. Last but not least, you can watch and hear the Marimba of Bellas Artes performed Luna de Xelajú. Enjoy!

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in Spanish:

Luna gardenia de plata,
Que en mi serenata,
Te vuelves canción,
Tú que me viste cantando, me ves hoy llorando,
Mi desilusión,

Calles bañadas de luna,
Que fueron la cuna de mi juventud,
Vengo a cantarle a mi amada,
La luna plateada de mi Xelajú,

Luna de Xelajú,
Que supiste alumbrar,
En mis noches de pena,
Por una morena de dulce mirar,

Luna de Xelajú,
Me diste inspiración,
La canción que hoy te canto,
Regada con llanto de mi corazón,

En mi vida no habrá,
Más cariño que tú,
Mi amor,

Porque no eres ingrata,
Mi luna de plata,
Luna de Xelajú,

Luna que me alumbró,
En mis noches de amor,
Y hoy consuelas mi pena,
Por una morena que me abandonó…

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in English:

Moon, silver gardenia,
In my serenade,
You turn into song,
You who saw me singing, now see me crying,
My disillusionment,

Streets bathed in moonlight,
That were the cradle of my youth,
I come to sing to my beloved,
The silver moon of my Xelajú,

Moon of Xelajú,
You knew how to shine,
In my nights of grief,
For a sweet looking dark-haired girl

Moon of Xelajú,
You gave me inspiration,
The song that I now sing,
Watered with the tears from my heart,

In my life there will not be,
More love than you,
My love,

Because you were not ungrateful,
My moon of silver,
Moon of Xelajú,

Moon that shone,
In my nights of love,
Now you console my grief,
For a dark-haired girl who abandoned me…

(source: Wikipedia)

Last Friday night at 7 p.m. AntiguaDailyPhoto guest contributor and professional photographer Arturo Godoy, Kara Andrade from HablaGuate and I attended the conference La verdadera estructura del Calendario Maya, or The True Structure of the Mayan Calendar, given by Mayanist David Stuart. Dr. David Stuart refuted the modern visions of the end of the world of the 2012 Mayan Calendar as false and lacking any base in the old Maya civilization. The conference was centered around the Mayan Calendar from a new perspective based on the latest research done by Dr. Stuart of the true internal structure of the Mayan Calendar. This was the first time Dr. Stuart gave this conference. In other words, the 2012 Mayan Prophecy is a hoax!

Luckily, Kara Andrade, a new media journalist, took notes and broadcasted them in real time at the new citizen-based and contributed journalism HablaGuate web site as Demystifying 2012; follow the white rabbit if you want to read her notes of the conference. Arturo Godoy and I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to document the conference through photographs. Okay, I will you guys in a little secret, the entire conference was video-taped and the audio recorded by both Arturo and Kara; hint, hint, if you bug them long enough, they will provide links for the video and audio.

This was also my first time at Casa Herrera, a wonderfully restored colonial house. I was delighted with the results of the restoration and I promise I will make the time come back and photograph the entire house and so a series about it.

For now I bring three snapshots taken with the aid of the fish eye attachment donated by Michele and Eddie from Toronto through my Amazon Wish List. Let’s thank them both for their continued support!

Here’s a little overview about Casa Herrera:

The Casa Herrera is a research, conference and teaching facility located in the heart of La Antigua Guatemala that focuses on the varied and inter-related disciplines that contribute to the study of Pre-Columbian art, archaeology, history and culture.

Since 1977, The Maya Meetings at Texas have been at the cutting edge of research into the culture of the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America. This annual conference draws scholars from a wide spectrum. (source: Facebook Casa Herrera page)

Basically Casa Herrera is The Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin.

David Stuart speaks about the myth of 2012 by hablaguate

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Split a life in two; then in decades; the decades in years; the years in days and so on. Life is just a string of fleeting moments; like a necklace of beads strung together. Life is good the moment one begins appreciating the brief instants that occur everyday; that bring happiness, peace or perhaps a tear. Short lapses of time like a sunset can bring good feelings if one is ready to accept them. Break often to smell the coffee, to hear the fountain, to appreciate the falling leaves; a passing cloud over a lit park.

If we were the least as Funes the Memorious, we could perceive everything in full detail and remember it all. If we were the least as Funes el memorioso, we could feel, shiver really, with the form of a constantly changing flame. Instead, most us have poor memory like René from the film Wintersleepers, so we need take advantage of every opportunity to capture those distant instants. Life pues!

That’s what I do; I take pictures of the quotidian life of La Antigua Guatemala to share with you. In the process, I focus on the fleeting moments and sometimes I am able to capture some of them. Like René, one picture at a time I build my life puzzle, my memory, my good life.

To close this incoherent entry, I would like to share with you this tender and thought-provoking melody by Rockdrigo González entitled Distante instante. I would love to hear your impressions, your pondering, your feelings pues.

Who said New York is the only city that never sleeps?

The New Year celebrations is one of the occasions in which Antigua Guatemala does not sleep! I didn’t get much opportunity to take many photographs of the crowds, as it was indeed crowded. It was fun, activities all over, lights all over, people all over, every one having a great time, even the sky (check out the moon while the sun was rising).

Enjoy the starting of the New Year!

text and photos by Arturo Godoy

¡Adiós dos mil nueve!

This is also goodbye to a decade.

That’s it. At the closing of the 31st of December, we’ll be saying our goodbyes to 2009 and looking forward to a new tiger. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people who have left comments or sent feedback. I want to send a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported my efforts through donations towards the hosting bills, gifts from my Amazon wish list or purchases of high quality prints from the over 2000 photos available in the archives of AntiguaDailyPhoto. A very SPECIAL THANK YOU to all the guest contributors who made AntiguaDailyPhoto a richer, polyphonic resource for all things Guatemala.

We close the year 2009 with 1368 pages, 9691 comments and 1,408,105 visits (at the time of writing).

Please, let us know what were your favorite entries, your favorite series, or your favorite photos of the year. THANKS!

Christmas Eve or Noche Buena in La Antigua Guatemala is celebrated by staying up all night burning firecrackers and fireworks, eating tamales, turkey, or roasted pork leg, and drinking real fruit punch or hot real chocolate, visiting family, friends and neighbors for the respective abrazo de Noche Buena and buenos deseos (Christmas Eve hugs and best wishes); many even go to midnight mass. At midnight the presents under the Christmas tree, around the nacimiento (nativity scene), are opened and everyone laughs and hugs indiscriminately everyone around.

These celebrations rate the highest on the nostalgic memory scale; everyone who is living abroad wishes to be in Guatemala for this season and for this night in particular.

A todos los chapines en el extranjero, y en especial a mi familia, les envío mis más sinceros abrazos de Noche Buena y mis mejores deseos. Les prometo que por ustedes, este día no haré dieta alguna. ¡Qué tengan unas felices fiestas!

Best wishes and Noche Buena hugs to all the visitors to La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo.

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Believe it or not Santa Claus paid a surprise visit to La Antigua Guatemala two days before Christmas. No wonder we have been experiencing unusual weather and really low temperatures (almost 45F) in La Antigua Guatemala.

It is uncertain if the snow seen over Volcán Tajumulco just the other day fell off Santa’s new sleigh.

What we do know is that Santa Claus has new more attractive personnel and now brings a spectacle of Ranchero music dancers and mobile DJ to entertain adults while his team hands plastic balls to children.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Often during December or the Christmas season, there are several free concerts around La Antigua Guatemala. For instance, the photo above was taken on December 11, the eve of Virgen de Guadalupe Celebrations and there is another concert programmed for December 12.

Often La Antigua Guatemala’s cathedral is use as backdrop for concerts and recitals. By looking at the larger version of today’s photo one can agree at the excellent choice.

I really like the dramatic façades of the spot illuminated churches and ruins around La Antigua Guatemala.

Can you tell me what are those white dots on the top right corner?

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What’s the relationship between Guatemalan filmmaker Diego Combi, Carlos Fuentes’ Constancia and Other Stories for Virgins and Clint Eastwood’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?

The answer is one word. The first person that comes up with the right answer will receive one of the following LAGDP’s Christmas cards via regular snail-mail with postage stamps from Guatemala. The game is on!

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Night is the subject for the Theme Day of the City Daily Photo community, which every first of the month synchronizes over a hundred cities around the world over a single theme.

An enchanting night photo of La Antigua Guatemala must have a number of required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; which, in my humble opinion, these are: first of all—people, a spot-illuminated ruin, a street scene, an inviting atmosphere, music or music concert if at all possible (make it jazz concert), poetry, warm and friendly companionship, silhouettes may come handy and comfortable temperate weather. I am happy to report that all these characteristics were present at the time this photo was taken of the Quinteto Jazzuv. You may need to click the image above to see all the details.

Thanks for visiting and please make an effort to visit to the other participating cities around the planet. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Boy, didn’t I tell you that the best time of the year to visit Antigua Guatemala, top city travel destination, is during the Lent period.

Not only you get the opportunity to see all the processions prior to the world-famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala, you also get a chance to see all the Lent decorations, attend several shows from the Festival de Cultura Paiz; but you also get the opportunity to enjoy the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala for FREE; like the best things in life.

Well, it is the time of the year again and once again Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala will include three acts: the Jazzuv Quintet from Mexico, the Jazz and Claps Quintet from Spain and Lalsax Quartet from Italy. If you remember, last year the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala included the Alain Derbez Jazz Trio from Mexico, the Jordi Albert Projet from Spain and the Be Little Trio from Italy.

Today’s photo are from the Quinteto de Jazzuv, an amazing educational and artistic manifestation project from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Basically the Jazzuv Quintet is formed by a main academic base and top jazz music students in the making.

To me, to take photos of Jazz concerts in Antigua Guatemala is an exquisite experience since I get to photograph musicians against 500-year ruins backdrop illuminated by delightful color spot lights while listening the best music genre and my favorite music as well. What can I say, it’s sublime!

I sorry that I am not able to include music piece, like last year, but I hope the other photos make up for it. Please, let me know what you think of the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala and the first batch of photos from the first evening. I expect to hear you feedback.

Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala 2009