La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

John Rexer is the man behind the hippie hole known in La Antigua Guatemala as Café No Sé (I don’t know cafe), Y tu piña también Café, Dislexia Bookstore, La Cuadra Magazine, among others.

John Rexer, New Yorker by birth, Mexican by heart and Antigüeño by choice, came to La Antigua Guatemala a few years ago and after surfing the local scene, he realized a joint was needed for backpackers, hippies, ex-pats and others looking for the other side, the flip side, of LAG. A sort of bohemian atmosphere where people were free to express their artistic vein, or simply to relax while eating the local variant of Tex-Mex food or drinking cheap beers or his own Ilegal Mezcal brand (the generic name for Tequila-like agave distills).

Now, after several years in this colonial town, his plans to take over the whole block of 1a avenida sur are actually working and working very well, I may add. It takes a ‘real’ hippie to make the best entrepreneur; at least in La Antigua Guatemala.

I found out about the sign above via Buried Mirror and I knew a mini series was long over due about this hippie joint in La Antigua Guatemala.

Do you know what place am I talking about?

Who ever came out with this great idea for a sign, for sure, was a hippie who now is very wealthy. Check out this amazing slide show that reveals all the different places where the sign has been posted.

COLOMBIA SANS FARC, the sign reads.

This is the welcoming display sign that you can find in the hallway that connects the underground parking lot and the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala. Although, there is no reference element in the picture to give you an idea of the size of the sign, I can tell you is very big; the red background of the display must be about 3 meters by 2 meters (9 feet by 6 feet).

The hanging yo-yos and this display sign should be enticing enough to make you go visit the YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos the photo exhibit (portraits and self-portraits) inside the Marco Augusto Quiroa gallery in Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo. Don’t you think so?

If you have lived for a while in the ‘first world’, make sure you know how to read this sign. Sanitarios is the Spanish word used in Guatemala for bathrooms. Make sure to memorize it, otherwise you will be running like this little girl.

Don’t you just love this Sanitarios sign… see how can I not suffer a fetish for signs in La Antigua Guatemala when even the most mundane sign is made to look aesthetically pleasing.

Have I told you about my sign fetish… I don’t know if a cure exist for this sing disorder, but for sure La Antigua Guatemala signs do not help; there are SO MANY of them.

Do you know the etymology of fetish? If not you can find in this site… go happy hunting!

Fumar es causa de cáncer (smoking is cause of cancer)

The warning above is not used in Guatemala. I have only seen it used in Mexico. In Guatemala, the warning on the cigarette boxes is pretty explicit Smoking will kill you, period.

I have no idea how and why in Mexico the message is spelled and constructed as to be ambiguous and fuzzy, like smoke, you know.

The sign above was seen at the Los Mojados Taquería (The Wetback Taco restaurant). It’s a subtle reminder that this is a “real” Mexican restaurant and not a ChapiMex restaurant.

If you eat with our competition this is how you’ll end up!

This is a very simple and effective way to discourage the patronizing of the competition. Sign seen at Los Mojados Taquería (The Wetback Taco restaurant).

For some unknown reason, many Guatemalans opt for misspelled Spanish bastardizations of English words to name their businesses. For instance, the image above has the name Stilos (Estilos is the proper Spanish spelling) as a way to relate to Styles the English word for this barbershop (peluqueria in Spanish).

By the way, does anybody know why barber shops have the multi-color cylinder (I believe it should be red, white and blue) as a marker for a barbershop?

As of 22 hours local time of Sunday 4th of November, Guatemala’s Electoral Supreme Tribunal or Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) in Spanish has declared the Socal-Democrat Alvaro Colom as the new elected president of Guatemala. You can see the live results at the Tribunal Supremo Electoral web site. The result were 52.76% (1,409, 990) for Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) the Social Democrat party; Alvaro Colom’s party and 47.24% (1,262,680) for Partido Patriota (PP) which postulated Ex-General Otto Pérez Molina; this results as of 23 hours.

The second round of the 2007 elections (first round was on September 9th) had a low participation, but were swift and without any violence. In La Antigua Guatemala you could into one of the voting centers and cast your ballot under three minutes.

This is the sixth time since 1985 that Guatemalans elect a president by popular vote. And this is the first time Guatemala left the conservative right wing. Beginning January 14th, Guatemala will be considered a Social-Democrat country and it will be inline with most of the countries of the American Continent. Guatemala will be turning green with hope of a better future; green because is the color of the party of Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza and hope because that is what Esperanza means. Let’s hope this new turn and focus will be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of the masses. Let’s hope too that this time around the empire and its intelligence means will let us be what we have decided with our democratic elections. Let’s not have another 1954 ever again.

… enough said.

The above yellow corner is located on 1a calle poniente in La Antigua Guatemala. The Astoria delicatessen is just one of many delicatessen in La Antigua Guatemala. We are privileged in this aspect with access to some fine and exclusive ingredients. La Antigua Guatemala is a tiny town that wants to be a huge cosmopolitan metropolis, but without the traffic, rush hours, or smog. Let it dream!

Have I mentioned I have a fetish for the signs around La Antigua Guatemala? Here you see the Berenjenas (eggplant) sign on 6a avenida norte. If you are interested in seeing what all this fetish is about, please, browse the sign category (at your own risk).

The Fetish Etymology Side Note: First there was the Spanish word Hechizo (witch craft or witch-made) which turned into Feitiço in Portuguese. The Portuguese Feitiço swam over the North Sea to France and became Fetiche (actually, between you and I, Feitiço flew to France on a broom; but since we are talking about the XV century we don’t want to risk misinterpretation, you know). Once in France it was only a matter of time for the English to snatched the foreign-sounding word, but because they did not how to spell it, Fetiche became Fetish. Unfortunately this was at the time when the Europeans were trading with humans from Africa and because they did not know much about Africans religions they use the word fetish to denominate all those religious rituals. Karl Marx felt that merchandise possessed a bewitching aspect and thus it was evil, so he called this malicious attraction a fetish. Once in the German language, it was only a matter of time (again) for mister Sigmund Freud to muddle with its meaning to apply it to the phenomena he was observing in his clinic. With this last meaning fetish (fetiche in Spanish) came back to its mother tongue; completely transformed. (Source: Fetiche from elcastellano.org)

Crea fama y acuéstate a dormir. —anónimo (Create fame, then sleep. —Anonymous)

The first time I ever heard about La Naranja Pelada (The Peeled Orange) was at Inner Diablog, a blog published from London but filled with hindsight and hard-to-find information about Guatemala. On top of all, Guy writes so eloquently that it is a pleasure to read his entries. Honest, Guy’s blog and his writing is an inspiration to me. Check it out!

In the area around Antigua the best ceviches are to be found in a small seafood restaurant on a backstreet of Jocotenango called La Naranja Pelada. The dining room is wood-panelled and decorated with specimens of local ‘game’ such as snakes, turtles and armadilloes. (source: Inner Diablog)

The second time I read about La Naranja Pelada was about a meeting of Guatemalan writers that took place there. Then I read a recommendation by Pepe Zarco, one of the columnist of Prensa Libre.

This was enough to pique my curiosity. I have to find the La Naranja Pelada… To be continued

After all those years, all those rainy seasons, all those earthquakes this old wall still stands.

Even though La Antigua Guatemala is a very photogenic town and that is virtually impossible to take a bad photo of this old town and its façades, sometimes, you find places that request that you refrain from taking pictures. Yet, if you ask nicely you are even allow to take photos in these places.

What do you think of this sign?