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In recent years there have been a Venetian style carnival celebration as part of a fund-raiser. I am not sure they had the fund-raiser this year, but the Venetian style costumes and masks were seen through out Antigua Guatemala. These fancy dresses and masks, of course, are far, far away from the traditional Guatemalan carnival celebrations; brought by foreigners living in Antigua Guatemala and worn mostly by foreigners as well.

For some reason, I believe, Guatemalans have not caught up with these fancy dresses yet. Why do you think that is?

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!

Since Antigua Guatemala is the tourism capital for Central America, it’s quite common to see tourists, local and foreign, window shopping for something eat. What I’ve seen that works and brings people in are photo menus with combos which include everything. I guess tourists who are unfamiliar with the Guatemalan gastronomy can point their finger at specific combo and be done with it. Of course, you can always browse the over 230 entries in Food and Drinks section on AntiguaDailyPhoto before your trip to familiarize with the dining choices available in Antigua Guatemala.

I came across this list of Five Reasons to Spend Christmas in Antigua Guatemala, which basically mentioned the weather as top reason number 2. I would say the writer got most of it right, except the temperature can go as low as 5C/41F around six in the morning; people do give Christmas cards, except they are given personally because we don’t trust the mail system or by email; and last but not least, the winter solstice was not even mentioned. And don’t forget that the December 2012 solstice will be very important. Even if it’s not the end of the world as we know it, check out the Tikal Solstice Maya Rainforest video made by Thor Janson.

• Christmas in Antigua Guatemala Reason #1 – Low Crassness Factor

  Antigua Guatemala keeps a light hand on the Christmas throttle. It’s not like the in-your-face fake and be merry season, which starts before Halloween and is endured in our more Northern climes… Overall, there’s less tinsel and more gentle feeling as citizens and visitors alike coast into the season…

• Christmas in Antigua Guatemala Reason #2 – The Weather

  … Antigua Guatemala is a yuletide paradise. Even during the December days when daylight is at its shortest reign of the year, it’s usually about 75 degrees F (24 C) during the day and about 55 degrees F (13 C) in the evening…

• Christmas in Antigua Guatemala Reason #3 – No Christmas Cards

  It seems that sending Christmas cards is not a tradition here… After, I’d gone to the third stationary shop (duh) it finally sunk in that this is not the done thing here…

• Christmas in Antigua Guatemala Reason # 4 – Christmas Festivals

  December 7 kicks off the season with the burning of the devil… Our Lady of Guadeloupe brings solemn as well as merry folk through the calles and agendas… “Las Posadas,” which reenacts Mary and Joseph looking for a room in the inn…

• Christmas in Antigua Guatemala Reason #5 – Its Really a Family Time

  …when it comes down to it, December 24 is really family time where church, a great meal and modest gift exchanges happen… families go back home and eat and party until 3 or 4 in the morning. Christmas Day is very quiet here with people sleeping off the festivities of the night before… continue reading the COMPLETE Five Reasons to Spend Christmas in Antigua Guatemala

Simply awesome! Check out the Tikal Solstice Maya Rainforest video made by Thor Janson:

Okay everyone, I am in the Santa Claus mood, so I will send a beautiful set of three 11″x14″ photos from AntiguaDailyPhoto.com to the most creative caption/story for these three photos. Everyone is welcome to participate and I will not close the contest until there at least 10 proposed captions. Be as creative as you can be. Good luck to all participants!

La Antigua Guatemala is quite possibly the most photogenic town in Guatemala and it comes as no surprise to find photographers, sometimes entire groups, to be walking around the colonial time capturing enduring memories and vistas to share with family and friends. In the picture above, we see two such photographers comparing their shots.

La Antigua Guatemala is very culturally rich and enchanting town; thus it comes as no surprise that La Antigua Guatemala is the premier touristic destination in Central America. Antigua Guatemala has evolved into a cosmopolitan city to accommodate travelers and tourists who choose to spend some time in this 500-year old Spanish Colonial Town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes in the highlands of Northern Central America.

So far most of the visitors have come from North America and Europe. However, it is quite common to see Asian tourists stroll around town; and when I mean Asians, I mean the entire continent.

In the words of Jeannine who recently commented about Antigua Guatemala:

…it feels sooo good to know that I’ll be back in one of my favorite cities in the world !! ( though for me it’s more like a nice little village actually, cause people are so kind and open, everyone says hello, you can always find strangers to chat with in Parque Central and when you’re there for two weeks, you always seem to meet the same people all over town almost every day. I so love Antigua and reading your blog every day makes the time till the next vacation shorter ;o) !

How about you, do you feel welcome when you’re in La Antigua Guatemala?

Call it synchronicity or better yet, serendipity because that’s the story behind this simple rainy season vista. For a while now I have decided I wanted to take a photograph of a corner while leaving enough of the perpendicular street and the next block on the frame to make an interesting composition. Think of it as more refine corner shot than the one appearing in Quotidian Corner Life; which is by the way the diagonally opposite corner from where I took this photo. As I have mentioned before, corners are among my favorite places to take daily snapshots of La Antigua Guatemala since there’s so much going on at the crossroads.

Anyway, here I am coming back from a mandado, errand, as I see a picture forming in my head with the repetitive patters of the water bottles, perhaps a new take on the Agua Pura Salvavidas post from 2006 I said to myself; the yellow corner, and the following street with the houses at a perpendicular perspective. That’s it, I pulled out my camera, moved closer to wall so the rain would not fall on the camera, configure the aperture, shutter speed and white balance to capture the scene and begin framing the composition. In the viewfinder I saw the silhouettes of some girls walking by so close to me that I could not see anything else. I was trying to recomposition the photo when I heard one of the girls saying “Take my photo,” as she walked across the street and stood next to the water bottles. Certainly she was not talking to me so I got my face out of the viewfinder to see the other girls standing next to me with a camera on hand. Fine, be part of my photo I said to myself as I put my eye on the viewfinder and just as I was ready the press the shutter button, a line of people with umbrellas formed on the perpendicular street.

Just as the Universe sometimes aligns against you, other times the Universe just puts all the pieces in place for us to steal an image from the never-stopping chaos which we call life.

Synchronicity click.
Serendipity click.

Today’s photograph could be considered a follow up to Monk in San Francisco El Grande Church photograph taken during the dry season. Don’t you agree?

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 was the very first time I became aware of the location of the table with the antique map on top. The table’s got a map, a nice one at that, and Rudy took a very pleasant photo of it with a cup of coffee next to it.

Can you guess where in La Antigua Guatemala?

Hint, they make excellent coffee, excellent chocolates, the food is great, and the ambience is plain antigüeña authentic!

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Bike riding is among the best ways to get to see all of Antigua Guatemala and its villages. For a long time I wanted to photograph tourists bike riding since they always seemed to have a big smile on their faces, but for one reason or another I never got the chance or a good shot. Interesting enough, this photo was taken with the iPhone, my new carry-at-all-times camera.

Have you taken any bike rides during your visits to Guatemala?

I did it again. I spotted an image I like and then just waited for life to walk into the frame. You might remember I have done that before with Monk in San Francisco El Grande Church.

In this I liked the compression of the depth of field caused by the extreme zoom and the resulting repetition of the electric posts and the façades, I just needed an element of life, which in this case was a woman passing by.

How do you like it?

In my quest to bring you the most complete photographic library of the people, things and events that you may encounter while visiting or living in La Antigua Guatemala I have set myself to include more photos of tourist and traveler stamps since they represent an omnipresent vista in town.

For instance, almost everyday you can see tourists set against a wall or in a restaurant checking their paper travel guides to get an overview of things to do in La Antigua Guatemala.

Paper travel guides will always be outdated for sure, I know now since I often see how often things change in La Antigua Guatemala.

A web site like AntiguaDailyPhoto will be a better resource, I believe, for travelers in the near future since it’s updated often and because of its multimedia content. I know some of you already use AntiguaDailyPhoto as a travel guide since you mentioned it to me in your emails and comments.

If you have used AntiguaDailyPhoto as a travel guide for the things to do and see in Antigua Guatemala, would you please share it in the comments. Thanks!

Guatemala is a tiny little country with a tremendous wealth of things to do and see.

From La Antigua Guatemala, you can travel to any part of the country in a day (more or less). You can visit the hundreds of pyramids of the ancient Maya in Petén. You can swim in the Caribbean sea and the Pacific Ocean on the same day. You can take daily trips to many villages in the high lands and be back on the same day. There are 33 volcanoes to hike: rivers, lakes and lagoons to take with you as memories or photographs.

However, Guatemala is not an easy country to travel, the geography of the country is up-and-downs, zig-zagging roads with lots of curves that make interesting road trips, but at the end of the day or before if given the chance, you want to take a nap on the nearest couch or bed to recoup the energy for another fascinating trip through the land of the eternal spring.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. —Ernest Hemingway

Often I think I belong to the last generation that will have an appreciation and enchantment about paper books and notebooks. Even though I belong to the overlap generation; meaning we can as easily keep a travel blog but have no problem and even enjoy keeping a paper travel log. I mean there’s something irresistible and enchanting about a Moleskine journal with drawings, clips, post cards and real handwriting entries «- Click the link to see what I described.

Oversharing Aside: I don’t overshare often, but what the heck. Even though I am proud member of the La Antigua and Guatemala Geek Squads and I own lots of gadgets, I still keep a weekly paper agenda and I use college ruled notebooks to write my ideas and sketch possible designs and photos. Furthermore, I still read paper books. Please, do not tell anyone because these secrets might be grounds for expulsion from the Geek Squads.

What about you, what’s your relationship with paper? Do you still use paper notebooks?