La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

The last presentation in the three-day Festival de Jazz en Antigua was the Jordi Albert Projet doing a tribute to Chet Baker and billed as a collaboration from Spain. Ironically, two of the musicians of the trio are from Guatemala. Alejandro Álvarez and Victor Arriaza {ñ} are part of the Guatemalan Jazz band called Imox; which is quite possibly the best example of the young jazz movement in Guatemala.

The chilly winds from up north came back to La Antigua Guatemala and thus made more sense to listen and watch to the jazz performance of the Jordi Albert Projet Chet Baker Tribute from L’Espresso Café across the street from the atrium while drinking a cup of the best coffee in the world and eating a very decent plate of Linguini al Pesto. Sacrifices, that’s what I do for you!

My respects and greetings to all the women on the International Woman’s Day!

Tonight it was the turn for Be Little! Trio which is composed of Luca Calabrese, Massimo Minardi and Francesco D’Auria. Be Little! is a jazz trio from Italy and their music takes you through the roads of improvisation of jazz with the help of rare instruments and the guitar, drums and trumpet.

Below you can see the flyer promoting the Festival de Jazz en Antigua; like always, if you click on it you can see an enlarge version.

Honest, I don’t mean to brag. But I have to say sometimes life can be pretty good in La Antigua Guatemala. Let me explain. In La Antigua Guatemala, sometimes you get access to free events like music concerts, photo exhibits, plays, paintings exhibitions, et-cetera.

Well, tonight, some friends, my wife and I assisted to a live Jazz trio presentation in the atrium of the Compañía de Jesús Building as the first concert for Festival de Jazz en Antigua. I must say the performance was exquisite and delightful. Alain Derbez is a Mexican poet and musician who mixes poetry reading and jazz interpretations of sometimes popular songs and other times compositions from his own.

The Alain Derbez Jazz Trio was composed of an electroacoustic guitar on the hands of Manuel Viterbo, an electric bass played by Juan Cristobal Pérez and the sax played by Alain Derbez himself. They played a mixture of jazz tunes from all over, but with a strong emphasis on Mexican music. We were all delighted with the over two-hour performance under the illuminated ruins of the Compañía de Jesús Building and the perfect evening weather of 75°F/24°C.

This was the first of three live jazz evenings at the Atrium of Compañía de Jesús Building. Tomorrow will be the turn for a jazz trio from Italy and on Saturday the jazz trio will be from Spain.

I leave you with a slide presentation of the concert and a short video clip of a fragment of one of the pieces.

Really, I don’t mean to brag; honest!

Here’s the slide show; you can click here to view it at full screen:

Below you can see a fraction of a song:

… it tolls for thee.

No man is an island, entire of itself… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne (1572-1631)

Perhaps you guys are right, this site is actually yours and I am only the care taker; the person in charge of feeding it. I shall continue for a while longer.

I want to thank all you for your wonderful feedback. Believe it, your comments and feedback are the only compass that I have to know this site is useful to someone out there. The only way to know that I should continue sharing my findings.

I have maintained this site for 426 days without any interruptions or breaks; there are close to 600 photos describing many aspects of life in La Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala in general. I have aspired to give you a blog-documentary (blogumentary) of the peoples, traditions, history, cultural hindsight, architecture, monuments, ruins, streets, et-cetera of La Antigua Guatemala. I have tried to not make this a touristic site; although sometimes it is difficult since LAG is the touristic capital of northern Central America. I have put so many of my twisted opinions and points of views; maybe I should do less of that and just focus in describing the photographs. Also, please excuse all the typos and spelling errors.

Special thanks to the two people who donated towards the hosting bills. Please, send me your mailing address, so I can mail you some post cards made from the photographs found in this site.

Oops! I almost forgot about the photo above. These ruins belong to the church Our Lady of the Remedies, or Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Spanish. It is located on the left bank of El Pensativo river, on the south part of town, right on the street that takes you to El Calvario Church; just a few hundred feet from it. The processional figures in storage, shown yesterday, are pile on the front part of the atrium. There is a black bird in the picture, can you find it?

Today’s night photo is to follow up my entry of Dramatic Illumination of Ruins and Historic Buildings with a better example. Back in June 3rd, I mentioned that many ruins and historic buildings in La Antigua Guatemala get a light bath a key places with spot light as to emphasize and to add drama to building that might not look impressive during the day. You now can see what a big difference a tripod can make when taking photos at night.

In the photo above, you can see the San Agustín ruins in the foreground, the Moon in the background and Venus between the two.

Please, let me know what do you think of this night shot and for those who have been here, tell me if you remember seeing this building?

Around Antigua Guatemala you’ll never know what may find if you take a side road or dirt road. For instance, today while taking a shortcut dirt road between El Calvario and San Cristobal El Bajo, I found this church ruins at the cross roads in the middle of some coffee plantations. Now I have some homework to do, learn the name and background information of these ruins.

Through the contact the author form, Juan asked me to cover the the new restoration works done at the San Cristobal El Bajo Church and that is the reason why I took a side dirt road. I will be posting some of my finding in the next few days. Stay tune!

Are there lost historic jewels nearby where you live?

Here is better overview of the La Ermita de la Santa Cruz ruins and the trees that hug it. Also, you can see more students practicing for the big marching band competition which I believe will be next week. I will try to take a few snapshots for you and maybe a video clip.

Thanks for all your wonderful feedback and continue visits. My best wishes to you and your love ones!

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins / marching band / Guatemalan teens

While driving over Calle Chipilapa, I was lucky several school marching bands practicing for an upcoming student band competition in La Antigua Guatemala. In the background you can see La Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins, a popular venue for music concerts. I published a rather plain photo of La Ermita before on July 19th, 2006. If you follow the link, you can read more information about the ruins and the concerts that have taken place there.

I am hoping to be free and alert for the student bands competition so I can snatch a few shots for you.

Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins / marching band / Guatemalan girls

The El Carmen Ruins show cases some of the most baroque-style architecture. Here you can see the details of the columns. Outside these ruins, on the streets, is where the handicraft and textiles market is located on the weekend; you can see the market and the ruins in context on the Selling Folk-ar on the street entry on November 29th.

One way to tour La Antigua Guatemala is through the horse-powered carriage rides around town. If you can obviate the buses, the automobiles, the motorcycles, the tuk tuks, in short—all modern vehicles, then you can almost feel like in the 18th century. Now, pull out your digital camera and set it in the sepia mode and shoot away.

Normally you look out a window to see the sky, not in this photo. This shot is take from the outside to look the sky inside. Many ruins do not have roofs anymore and that is why you can have the sky inside.

Ruins are everywhere in Antigua. Heck you could even say the whole town is a ruin or a post card from the past. Here you see the rear of the San Jerónimo ruins. I mentioned on June 18th that Palo de Izote is used often as a fence. Well, here is the proof. If you want to know a little more about Palo de Izote, visit the June 18th post.