Of course the parking problems get aggravated when there are events in Antigua Guatemala and thousands of people are expected to arrive. Then, any available spaces becomes a temporary parking lots. With this entry we finish the mini series about the parking problems of Antigua Guatemala. Let me know your thoughts about it.
One of the reason for why most of streets in Antigua Guatemala are one-way is because once the parking areas are occupied the streets are too narrow. This is even true of the roads around La Antigua as you can see in the picture above where you can barely fit two buses each going on the opposite direction. Also, because there are not enough parking spaces many people have opted for also owning a motorcycle as well and using it for moving around town. The extremes of each block (about 20 meters on each side) are allocated for motorcycle parking only as reported on Motorcycles Are Us.
People also use bicycles, although there are NOT bicycle parking spaces or even accommodations for the most ecological means of transportation on the streets of Antigua Guatemala. I believe that bicycles could be a great solution for many of the parking and obesity problems of antigüeños, but there needs to be marked bike paths on all the roads and bike parking accommodations throughout town to make bicycle riding the preferred means of transportation.
What do you think, what successful bicycle riding programs have you heard about?
Parking spaces or rather the lack of parking spaces is among the most challenging problems that Antigua Guatemala is facing right now. Antigua spends millions of quetzales each year to keep up the cobblestoned streets which were not designed for motorized vehicles like automobiles, trucks and buses when first implemented over 500 years ago. Heck, not even the streets were designed for the vehicles we used today and that’s why the streets are narrow and in many cases have to be one-way streets because otherwise there wouldn’t be any space for parking.
That’s why people use chairs, crates, rims, chains, trash cans, anything really as parking space reservations. Of course, that’s illegal because the streets are public and nobody can claim to own the space in front of their office, clinic, restaurant, etc.
Among some of the solutions I have heard are to create huge parking lots just outside the Antigua Guatemala entrances and turn the streets into pedestrians throughways, well at least the streets closer to the Plaza Mayor. Still, I don’t think a viable solution has been found yet or it’s being implemented.
Do you have a parking problem where you live?
The callejones (alleys) found in many of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala are really narrow, passageways really created, I imagine, as a result of splitting of land through the process of inherence. These alleys are really no wider than six feet at the most. I’ve been photographing many of them found in San Pedro Las Huertas. Each callejón has something unique about it and I will do my best to capture its essence.
What kind of stories do you imagine when you see a callejón like the one pictured above?
Sorry, I don’t want to give the wrong impression about carpooling in Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala in general. Yesterday, when I said there wasn’t carpooling here… I actually meant in this particular instance. Carpooling or motorcycle-pooling is as common here as anywhere else in the world. Carpooling here is done mostly for economic reasons and many people ride in group to save fuel costs. Motorcycles are often ridden by two people on their way to work or school.
What are the most common reasons for carpooling where you live?
As I was walking I could hear the sounds of a drum line. To my surprise it was an all girl school parading through the streets showing off their skills. Honestly they were good! Coming from a former drummer’s perspective I am picky about my drum lines. It was fun to watch and listen as they marched through the streets of Antigua Guatemala.
text and photo by Zach Olson.
Exactly one week ago, a few meters from where this photo was taken, two young women were waiting for the bus when a speeding truck lost control and crashed into them, killing them instantly.
Their names were Aleyda (19) and Anita (20); both the most recent victims of negligence.
Friends who live in Santa Inés, the village just outside La Antigua Guatemala, on the road to Guatemala City, have been lobbying to get speed bumps on this stretch of road since there have been many accidents and over and over again they were told that it was not possible because COVIAL, the governmental agency in charge of the roads in Guatemala, would not allow it.
A week after the tragedy, the Municipalidad or COVIAL, who knows really, began installing a series of speed bumps to force drivers to slow down and prevent further accidents and deaths. Ironically, they first built two, not one or three, but two. That’s why I say these speed bumps have proper names: Aleyda and Anita. Another irony is that fact that in Guatemala we used the word túmulo for speed bump, which actually means tomb or burial mound.
Why is it human nature to wait for a tragedy before taking action to prevent accidents or catastrophes?
Guatemala in the news aside: Once again Guatemala became trending topic in the social media and news networks because of the killing of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral; one of Latin America’s most admired folk singers. You can read the rest of the story at The Washington Post for full details.
There only three alamedas (tree-lined streets) in La Antigua Guatemala. Alamedas are public walkway or promenade shaded with trees; from álamo ‘cottonwood’ + -eda ‘grove’. The alamedas in Antigua Guatemala are Alameda Santa Rosa, Alameda El Calvario and Alameda Santa Lucía.
Have you taken a stroll through Alameda El Calvario yet?
Sólo hay tres alamedas en La Antigua Guatemala, las cuales ya aparecen en la traza original de la ciudad. Las alamedas son El Calvario, San Rosa y Santa Lucía; ésta última también conocida como calzada a pesar que el rótulo al inicio de la Alameda Santa Lucía la declara como alameda.
You don’t have to give your soul to the Devil as as Robert Johnson did at the crossroads to enjoy the quotidian corner life in La Antigua Guatemala. Just take your guitar, your camera or your sketch pad to capture the lonely and bored municipal transit police selling parking permits, the old man on the way to check on his milpa, the swift scooter driver doing mandados, et cetera. Corners are among my favorite places to take daily snapshots of La Antigua Guatemala since there’s so much going on at the crossroads.
What stories can you create based on the picture above?
This is the main entrance/exit for La Antigua Guatemala. A couple hundred meters ahead the road ends and the cobblestone streets begin. We can say this is the edge of La Antigua Guatemala. If you take this road in the opposite direction in about an hour you reach Guatemala City.
Since I just mentioned Guatemala City let me share with you a little secret: now we have a GuatemalaDailyPhoto.com which began today, April 1, 2011. From now on you can check AntiguaDailyPhoto.com, XelaDailyPhoto.com and GuatemalaDailyPhoto.com to get three different and unique realities for Guatemala. Enjoy!
To see how others in the City Daily Photo community have interpreted today’s theme please click here to view thumbnails for all participants around the globe.
Another typical vista from February are the streets repairs done before or during Cuaresma, Lent, to have all the streets in their best condition for Semana Santa, Holy Week, in La Antigua Guatemala.
Do you know how much money is spent every year on street repairs? Hint, the answer is in the archives.
In Guatemala we have the following sayings: Enero loco y febrero otro poco, Crazy January and February a bit as well, or Febrero loco which means Crazy February. Well this week February is totally loco since we had cold days, below 10C/50F, hot humid days, cloudy days and clear skies days and rain; everything in just five days. Also, Volcán de Fuego was erupting an average of 4 times per hour; some hours almost every five minutes.
Today’s was captured with an iPhone while I was walking back to the office from lunch. Make sure you click on the image above to look at the large version. I like the grainy-rainy quality of it; what about you?
I am with MO with regards to how electric wires become visual pollution, especially in colonial Antigua Guatemala. However, I have tried to capture electric wires in creative ways in the past. How sucessfull I was with Electric Wire Grid plus Volcanoes, Wonderful Sunset plus Power Lines and The Webs We Weave is hard to say; you better judge for yourself.
Nevertheless, I can’t argue with the fact that underground wiring and antique style street lamps remove the visual clutter and are much more appealing and coherent for a colonial town.
If you don’t believe me, compare today’s photo of Calle del Arco with the photo in Antigua Style Street Lighting and then come back here and share your thoughts with us.
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?
I want to say how much I appreciate your blog! I lived in Guatemala for a year (in 2007) and I miss it a lot. My husband and I lived about an hour from Puerto Barrios and there was not much to do in the town we spent the majority of our time in. Every time we had a chance to get to Antigua, we were there! It really became our hometown in Guatemala. Once in a while, when I’m really wishing I could be there again, I find my way back to your blog and spend an hour or so looking through posts and feeling very nostalgic. It’s nice to be able to have a little insight into what’s currently going on in Antigua and around Guatemala. So, thanks! —Sarah Hiltz
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