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Since the rainy season abruptly ended at the end of September, the cold winds from the north moved in within the first week of October thus allowing Guatemala’s kite season to begin almost an entire month earlier than normal.

Below, you can watch a short video clip which shows a kite day outside a local public school in San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala.

In the nine years that I have been living around La Antigua Guatemala I had never seen so much work being done by a municipal administration as with the current City Hall government, especially around the villages which historically are always forgotten in favor of Antigua Guatemala. That’s three different mayors.

Although I did voted for Dr. Adolfo Vivar, the current Mayor, I am happy to say I am glad my vote did interfere with him getting elected. In fact, I am now sure that if my candidate had won it would had been bad for La Antigua Guatemala. I would never put mis manos al fuego (my hands on fire) for any politician, but I have no trouble admitting I casted my vote the wrong way. Neither I have issues with pointing out that someone is doing a good job or the opposite.

I have mentioned already a few times how impress I am with all the work being done by the current administration, so I felt validated in my perception when I heard Elizabeth Bell mentioned that the current mayor is the best one she’s seen in 40 plus years. Elizabeth Bell is the person behind Elizabeth Bell“>Antigua Tours and a very vocal member of the citizen watchdog group Salvemos Antigua, an organization working hard and trying to save the city.

Of course the current administration also has its detractors and be sure I will let you about them like I have done in the past with Market Marchers Manifestation, New Closing Time City Ordinances and Antigua’s New Parking Fees Explained, just to name a few articles.

Every time I see my taxes hard at work esbozo una sonrisa, I smily faintly! Wouldn’t you?

Here’s a lesson to be learned. Even though San Pedro Las Huertas was one of the villages that was hit the hardest in La Antigua Guatemala by Nature’s tropical storm Agatha, here they are building Nature-inspired floats for their annual beauty pageant. The people of San Pedro Las Huertas decided to show their appreciation for Nature and the environment by building most of their carrozas with green foliage plants, flowers, water, planet Earth, moon and the stars themes. They are not the least resentful about Nature’s recent catastrophes.

Below, I am sharing with you the rest of the photos I took; I hope you can get a feel for their beauty pageant, the atmosphere and the happy Guatemala smiles. Let me know what do your own feeling about it!
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Foot Bool with the African spelling is how the people of San Pedro Las Huertas want to let everyone know that the World Cup of Foot Ball (not the U.S. meaning) brings borders and people together.

The World Cup is now everywhere; of course that if you live a sheltered life in the U.S., you might not be aware of it. See the World Cup of Foot Ball is truly the only sport contest that can use the word World since every country in the world gets a chance to participate and win the world cup. This is also the first time I see all TOP TEN trending topics in Twitter are about just one subject, the World Cup 2010.

With these photos I am happy to report that the people of San Pedro Las Huertas are back on their feet after having survived the floods and lahars caused by the tropical storm Agatha; which hit the town only two weeks ago. Today, San Pedro Las Huertas celebrated their annual Beauty Pageant with five different carrozas, parade floats, themes. San Pedro Las Huertas is also getting ready to celebrate their annual town fair; which I covered extensively two years ago in the series Guatemalan Fair. I recommend you browse all the posts related to Guatemalan Fair to refresh or to learn how Guatemalans celebrate their Patron Saint day.

Guatemalans urgently need a break!

First we experience a short but strong jolt cause by an earthquake. Right after Pacaya volcano began erupting and spewing black volcanic sand and ash over Guatemala City, which cause the closing of the main international airport of Guatemala. People were still cleaning up the black sand and ash when we got hit by tropical storm Agatha, which behaves pretty much like a hurricane.

We urgently need a break!

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 and http://is.gd/cvbak.

Don’t you agree that we need a break from Nature’s catastrophes?
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Okay guys, today’s game is very simple: find as many kinds of contrasts as you can in this image of the San Pedro Las Huertas cathedral. I already gave you the color contrast.

The person with the most contrasts listed wins today’s photo as a post card. Good luck to all participants!

Here’s a typical vista of a municipal clinic and pharmacy found in La Antigua Guatemala villages.

Can you guess the name of the volcano in the background?

I don’t know about the rest of Guatemala, but in and around La Antigua Guatemala it seems there is at least one procession every week. The picture above documents the San Pablo, Saint Paul, procession from two days ago in San Pedro Las Huertas.

First, Blame the trabalenguas, tongue twister, title on emromesco, who said that water will be the oil of the 21st century.

Second, forgive the undramatic photograph; not much I can do with a working water well and its pumping warehouse. I compensate with all the wonderful researched information below.

Third, a few Spanish-English word equivalents are in order. I will list the words in Spanish and you gals and guys provide the English words, okay: agua, pozo, poza, manto acuifero, bomba, chorro, grifo, pila, lavadero, tanque, agua subterranea, lluvia, filtración, caudal, pluvial, cubeta, fuente, nacimiento, manantial, piscina, agua pura, agua purificada, agua corriente, río, lago, laguna.

Okay, to finish the first part of the water series, I have several questions and answers from two distinct locations in Guatemala: Jalapa and La Antigua. The Jalapa answers were provided by Ted from Wells of Hope. The answers from La Antigua Guatemala were provided by my dear friend J.M. “Chema” Magaña; a regular fuente, source for authoritative information regarding all things about La Antigua Guatemala.

Right after the questions and answers, I share with you an anecdote by long-time loyal reader of AntiguaDailyPhoto and member of the La Antigua Guatemala City Council in Spanish and my best effort at translating it into English. Enjoy!

How much does it cost to dig a well, an average of course?

• Jalapa — There are fundamentally two parts to a successful well. The drilling of the well is one challenge and the mechanics of bringing the water to the surface is another. There are numerous variables when drilling a well which will have a direct effect on the cost of the drilling process. The diameter of the well, the depth of the well, the amount of casing, the size of casing, the geological formation all have a huge impact on the overall cost. Due to the geological diversity that make up the drilling conditions in the various parts of Guatemala, a well can cost, on average, between $50,000 to $150,000.
• La Antigua Guatemala — If it is a mechanically drilled well as the above, the average price is $20,000. However, in La Antigua Guatemala manually digged rustic wells can be had for a few thousand quetzales, depending on the depth.

What are some of depths of wells around Guatemala?

• Jalapa — We have drilled wells from 200 feet to 1,500 feet.
• La Antigua Guatemala — The water tables in La Antigua Guatemala are near the surface, so for a manually digged well, water can be found between 3 and 8 meters ( 10 and 25 feet). In some places of San Pedro El Panorama, water was found at 50 centimeters (20 inches) of depth. For large amounts of water for a residential neighborhood, you may need to mechanically drilled until 100 meters (325 feet), but you are guaranteed a large recovery rate.

What kind of water tables and underground beds does Guatemala have?

• Jalapa — Primarily drilling in the mountain region of Jalapa, the abundant aquifers have been found in gravel beds well below the hard volcanic rock that must first be penetrated.
• La Antigua Guatemala — The water tables in La Antigua Guatemala are very near the surface; between 3 and 8 meters ( 10 and 25 feet). However for abundant aquifers, you must drill sometimes until 100 meters. The entire Panchoy Valley used to be a lake, so almost everywhere you drill you will find plentiful water.

What kind of treatments are necessary to make water potable?

• Jalapa — The aquifers that we have encountered in the rural communities of the Jalapa region have not yet been disturbed by the contaminants of humanity. The water sources that we have found have been free of pollutants and therefore quite potable.
• La Antigua Guatemala — Often, water found at the shallow depths can be contaminated so it needs to undergo purification before is potable. For underground water found much deeper, close to 100 meters (325 feet), you are almost guaranteed to draw pure water.

Is water from a well potable?

• Jalapa — Generally speaking, yes.
• La Antigua Guatemala — Much of it depends on the results of the water analysis by a professional laboratory. But, generally speaking chlorine and sometimes hydrochloric acid in the recommended doses by a professional laboratory, as well as filters for organic sediments and other such things. Often, water from deep wells is drawn quite potable already.

Here’s some additional information shared by Antonio Palomo, long-time loyal reader of AntiguaDailyPhoto and member of the La Antigua Guatemala City Council.

Te cuento que mientras viví en San Juan del Obispo, varias familias NO deseaban el agua municipal y no tenian agua corriente en sus casas, pues sólo hacian uso del agua de los chorros [ed. grifos] públicos. Intrigado por esto, pregunte a tres familias vecinas y la respuesta fue que el agua de los chorros públicos era mejor por que era nacida [ed. de manantial].

Let me tell you that when I lived in San Juan del Obispo, several families DID NOT want the municipal water and they did not had running water in their houses since they only used the public water faucets. Intrigued about this, I asked three neigboring families and their answers was that the water from the public faucets was better because it came from natural springs.

Investigando un poco mas, es decir, preguntando por allí, descubrí que los chorros públicos, por lo menos en San Juan [ed. del Obispo] y San Pedro [ed. Las Huertas], se alimentan de nacimientos naturales que son tan antiguos como los pueblos mismos.

Investigating a little further, in other words, just asking around, I discovered that indeed the public faucets are fed by natural springs as old as the towns themselves, at least in San Juan del Obispo and San Pedro Las Huertas.

El agua de San Juan proviene del cerro frente al pueblo hacia el oriente, yo visité el nacimiento y los hombres del pueblo tienen que hacer una faena anual para limpiar el nacimiento y otros arreglos. El agua de San Pedro, proviene de los nacimientos del Pilar, cerca de San Cristobal el Bajo, y es conducida hasta el pueblo, ahora en tuberia de pvc, en vez de los caños coloniales de barro. Y sí, el agua nacida sabe mejor, sólo basta probar el incansable chorro de la pila de San Pedro Las Huertas para comprobarlo.

The water from San Juan comes from a hill in front of the town to the east, I visited the spring myself and the men from the town are required annually to donate one day of work for cleaning and maintenance of the spring. The water of San Pedro comes from the springs of El Pilar, near San Cristobal el Bajo, and it is driven to San Pedro, now with PVC pipes, instead of the colonial ceramic tubes. And yes, the water from the springs tastes better, just try the tireless flow from the water tank in San Pedro Las Huertas to confirm it.

Today, as in colonial times, these public water tanks and washbasins serve as the places for doing the laundry and for water distribution. Furthermore, public laundry washbasins (sometimes river or lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place. Public washbasins could be considered the first news broadcasting sites or social networks such as Facebook or Twitter; computers are not required. In many places in Guatemala this stills holds true.

As I took these pictures, I took the time to talk to several of the women doing the laundry and I asked what were some of the reasons for utilizing the public washbasins even though most of them have running water at home. These are some of the answers:

• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are more comfortable because they are larger and the water is closer.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see and talk to my friends and neighbors.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins have plentiful of free water.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see things and people, sort of free entertainment.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins provide less distractions than being at home doing the laundry.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins the temperatures are cooler and thus more comfortable.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are my only choice since I do not have running water at home.

This morning Kwallek asked the following questions:

Things that matter with water wells: what are they casing off the bore with, is it cased all the way to the water table, is it potable the way it comes out of the ground, what is the recovery rate, how deep is the water and depth or thickness of the water table.

And tonight we already have the answers, thanks to Ted from Wells of Hope.

Steel well casing is used. Because of the earthquakes that are possible in Guatemala, the well should be completely cased to the aquifer, which will prevent the well from collapsing if there were tremors in the area. We have found that the water in the mountains of Jalapa is very potable directly from the well. A 24 hour pump test is done after drilling a well. This helps us to determine how much water we can safely remove from the aquifer without extensively drawing down the water table or drying the aquifer. Every well is different when it comes to recovery rate. It is very difficult to determine the dimensions of the water table. It is only through the use of very expensive measuring equipment and extensive study that one can propose a dimension of a water table. Our volunteer program does not have the necessary finances in order to do this.

What do think of public washbasins and water tanks?

These recently renovated colonial-styled public water faucets can be found in and around many of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala. Like I said yesterday, the presence of these chorros as the water faucets are called in Guatemala, is a sure sign that there are still houses in the villages without piped water service.

The woman in yesterday’s picture hauling the water on her head filled her bucket precisely from one of these grifos, which is by the way the proper Spanish word for faucet.

Stephanie requested that we include information on water projects (NGO or otherwise) that could use support. Interesting enough, Revue Magazine, included a profile of Wells of Hope a few months ago as part of the People and Projects series. I thank Stephanie for the suggestion and I will try to find other similar projects to highlight during the water series.

Here’s some information I grabbed from the Wells of Hope web site:

Wells of hope is determined to make a difference! Overcoming many roadblocks, hurdles and frustrations, the Wells of Hope Group has successfully transported it’s own drilling equipment to Jalapa, one of the poorest regions of Guatemala, Central America.

In this mountainous terrain, the women are enslaved to walking anywhere from two to ten kilometres per day in search of precious, life-giving water.

They fulfill this backbreaking task by carrying on their heads twenty litre buckets of dirty, bacteria infested water over steep, mountainous terrain, to their mud-brick, one room home This contaminated water, the only source of water available to these poor, mountain communities, ends the lives of many a child before he or she sees it’s third birthday. Wells of Hope has successfully drilled many deep-water wells in these water-starved communities, ranging in depth from six hundred to one thousand two hundred feet. (continue reading at Wells of Hope)

I will write to Wells of Hope to find out how much does it cost to drill a well, for instance?

All Guatemalans, of course, just like the air.

Water belongs to the Guatemalan people and it’s managed by the government; national and local government. In theory, Guatemalans don’t pay for the water itself, but for the distribution system; that is the electricity to pump it and the distribution pipes. The water bill can vary a lot from zone to zone for the same amount of distributed water.

Water is always available in the wealthy neighborhood homes. Water is rarely available in the poor neighborhood homes. Water is not even available in many villages homes. This reality is what brings us to today’s picture. There are several public water faucets located in San Pedro Las Huertas, one the villages that belong to Municipio of La Antigua Guatemala, county in Spanish, pues. That people actually use the public tap water faucets makes me believe that water is not available in all the houses in this aldea, village.

Central America and Guatemala especially have an abundance of water resources, many are groundwater. La Antigua Guatemala is located in a valley irrigated with over six months of a rainy season per year. La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that collect even more water. Much of this collected rain ends up as groundwater and then pump to municipal water tanks and finally available through the public water distribution system, of which the public water faucets are part of, and then, in some cases, water is hauled home like the image above shows.

I believe I could do an entire series just on water; any of you interested in learning about water rights, water usages, water wells, municipal water, public water distributions, public washbasin water tanks, water stations and bottled water? If we get 15 requests I will take all the photos and research all the information this week; it is up to you.

Oh there is a revolution brewing down South in Meso-America. This revolution will not be televised. This revolution will be streamed!

Let me explain how this is going to happen. First a little background on telephone lines in Guatemala. Throughout its entire telephone history, Guatemala has barely managed to get a little over a half a million telephone land lines. In less than ten years, however, the cellular telephone companies have managed to get 6.5 or 7 million active mobile accounts. In a country with about 13 million people, that is a little over 50% or 60% or even more because children are included in the total population and of course, not all of them have cellular phones.

How is it possible that in less than a decade the cellular telephone industry accomplished what the regular telephone company could not do?

Simple the infrastructure to create a cellular telephone network is much cheaper since the signal travels through airwaves. If the cellular repeater towers are placed in strategic locations you can cover several municipios (counties) with one or two cellular towers.

Then, the cellular companies came up with an clever marketing plan. Let’s make pre-paid plans and give away the telephones dirt cheap or for free and we will recoup the investment in the users pre-paid usage. That’s how they were able to get 7 million cellular telephones lines installed; less than 5% of those are contract lines. In the process, the three main cellular companies were able to bring the air time prices down to a bare minimum and now it’s cheaper for Guatemalans to call the U.S. and Canada than the other way around; go figure!

Well, last year I shared with you the news about how the three main cellular companies, Tigo, Claro and Telefónica were upgrading their networks to the 3G or third generation of telecommunication standards and with it comes wireless Internet access. Since the telecommunication infrastructure is already in place, it will only be a matter of time before wireless Internet access is available in every corner of Guatemala.

Next, computer are getting cheaper and cheaper every time. You can get a nice working netbook for about $279 with Linux or $379 with Windows. Or the next generation of OLPC (one laptop per child) will be $75 when it becomes available.

So with the wireless infrastructure in place and inexpensive computers and mobile devices like iPod Touch or even intelligent telephones just around the corner, the only thing missing is computer classes and workshops. Well, why wait if the motto for Escuelas Abiertas; let’s provide computer workshops now for free on the weekends.

What do you think, am I hallucinating or there is real opportunity here the narrow the gap between the have and the have-nots?

One important aspect of the Escuelas Abiertas school program on the weekends will definitely be the safe playgrounds and fútbol and basquet bol canchas, foot ball (soccer) and basket ball courts respectively.

I wish I can transmit through images the energy and happiness of the kids playing in their school courts with new balls on the weekends.

Surely, this will have an impact on how children see their school during the week since they know this building is not only the place they are obligated to go to receive their education, but can also be a fun place to go to play with their friends and to learn computers, English, music, handicrafts, and art stuff without any obligation at all.

I wish there were open schools when I was growing up.

Finally something good for the communities in the rural areas of Guatemala. Escuelas Abiertas or Open Schools is a government program which will pay for teachers and tutors to work in public schools on the weekends from 9 to 5 so the kids take art and computer workshops, music, English, as well as physical education programs.

The idea is to open the schools on the weekends so the children of the communities can have a place to hang out and take courses which are not available during the regular school study assignments and without any obligation. If you open the schools on the weekends and providing engaging activities and workshops, perhaps, the kids will stay of gangs and out of the streets.

Spanish word of the day: Inscripción is the correct Spanish term for registration. However, online, for lack of knowledge or for plain laziness, registration forms are known as formularios de registro in Spanish. Registro is the word for record or inspection. Easy does it is the mentality for many web sites in Spanish, thus, they simply change the spelling of English words into Spanish looking words.

For instance, here is a real question asked a while back on a very popular Spanish web site: ¿Es tu registro usable para el usuario? which translates as, Is your registration form useful (usable) for the user? the word useful in terms usability. Now since Spanish is a phonetic language you can write, read and pronounce just about anything; even if it does not make any sense. The two basic problems with the question are registro and usable. even though registro is a Spanish word, is not the right word which should be inscripción. Usable, on the other hand, is not even a Spanish word; the right words in my humble opinion, for usable are útil or amigable. So the question should be: ¿Es tu formulario de inscripción útil (or amigable) para el usuario?

Sadly, however, the Spanish language is losing the battles with registro (inscripción/registration), tráfico (transito/traffic), masacre (matanza/massacre), usable (útil), usabilidad (utilidad/usability), mail (correo), chat (conversar), et-cetera. Can you share with us what other English words are being misused or poorly translated into Spanish?