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If walls could talk, what kind of stories do you think we would hear from this wall?

Everywhere, the times they are a-changin’

Libertad, Expresión, Conciencia the wall declares. Liberty, Freedom of Expression and Conscience could be the rough translation of this message on the wall.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
.
.
.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

—Bob Dylan

(more…)

Here’s yet another photograph of a garden wall taken at Sabe Rico restaurant in Antigua Guatemala. As I have said in previous posts, there’s an appreciation for rustic and bared walls in La Antigua; what I have called the “new” aesthetic values of an old colonial town!

Would you like to have breakfast or brunch at table next to this wall? Here’s one of the breakfast possibilities and the table in front of the wall.

In La Antigua Guatemala there is an appreciation for rustic walls. If you visit the post Let me show you my guts, you can see a beautiful rustic and bared stone wall. If you then head over to New houses that look old to see how brand new walls are left exposed so that the rainy season can do its magic.

This is what I have called the “new” aesthetic values of an old town!

Okay, enough I say; it’s been way too long since I gave away free wallpapers; since December 23, 2010 to be exact, it was the Christmas present from AntiguaDailyPhoto. Honest, I should give away free desktop/laptop wallpapers at least once a month, don’t you agree?

Download the three free wallpapers from Antigua Guatemala from here:

1. Yellow wall
2. Chipped wall
3. Zapote wall

Enjoy and share them with your family and friends. Moreover, if you want to download all the free wallpapers I have shared with you previously, feel free to browse the Wallpapers category and if you like what you see, share this link with your family and friends as well.

Also, it is time to feed the Only in LAG category and what better way to do it than with a Cucuruch’ants procession video produced by Guy Howard and his wife, which they entitled “Cucuruch’ants.” Enjoy!

Oh leave it to the French and their Je ne sais quoi, yo no sé que in Spanish, to describe something the moves you in special way without knowing exactly how or why. That’s the feeling I get from the photo above; some I-don’t-know-what sensation.

How about you?

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Here’s yet another gift for those Guatemalans living abroad, the jocotes de corona wallpaper that you can download from here at 1200×900 pixels. Several of you wrote to me to let me know that you haven’t had jocotes in a long while and since I’ve been given the gift to think ahead about your suffering, I took some close-up shots of jocotes de corona (crown red mombin), so you can torture yourself in the intimacy of your computer desktop. Go for it! The other day I was brave enough to enter the mercado of Antigua Guatemala, camera in hand.

For those who have no jocotes idea what this Guatemalan fruit is, this is what Cindee share with us last time we talk about jocotes (can somebody help with the pronunciation?).

Jocote or Ciruela Roja

Known in English as Red Mombin and Hog Plum, jocotes are tree fruits, produced by Spondias purpurea of the Cashew Family, which is native to tropical America. Often jocotes are eaten raw but Mexicans also like to mash them in water, add sugar, and drink the water like Kool-Aid. They are 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long. Jocotes are usually reddish, but can come close to being yellow.

Ciruela, or Spanish Plum

Ciruela or Yellow Mombin, Spondias mombin. Sometimes known in English as Yellow Mombin, the Spanish name ciruela means “plum,” and these tree fruits look and taste a lot like northern plums. They are very closely related to the above jocotes, being in the same plant family and genus. They are Spondias mombin. Note the large, white, very hard, boxy seed. After growing on leafless tree limbs for months, the fruits ripen at the end of the dry season, in June or so. They are good raw and also make tasty preserves.

About the pronunciation, this is what Carmen had to say about it:

“hawkottes” That reminds me of “free – hall – eat- us.” Actually, Manolo, hehehe, based on my research, which could be wrong… but I doubt it. Haha. Jocotes can be pronounced /hoe-ko-tes/ That middle o has the long sound. I suppose /haw/ and /hoe/ could be similar, but I fear we can get into a whole phonetic discussion/debate, which will include (undoubtedly) perspectives on region, accent, and so on… and so I’ll just point you in this direction. See, you used the Hawk card (/aw/ sound), I used the Long O card (/o/), I can’t put that line on top of the o to denote the long sound.

Happy Birthday Chata! (I-heart-U) Go rent this movie and let me know your feelings about it.

The quality of the sunset light during the winter months in La Antigua Guatemala is the best of the year. Almost anything you photograph has this warm feel. If you are in Antigua now, click away like crazy. Even a simple shadow can be warmth, don’t you think so?

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

We continue with “the sign fetish” and today’s turn is for La Tienda de Doña Gavi sign. Believe it or not, this tiny store is one of La Antigua Guatemala landmarks and it’s located on the street behind the Cathedral. Doña Gavi sells all kinds of organic stuff in this cozy shop including avocado ice cream. If you come to Antigua, you must visit this shop. If you don’t trust my recommendation, read the On the Road Travel recommendation below:

La Tienda de Doña Gavi
3a Avenida Norte #2, around the corner from Posada Joyerí­a del Angel, open 11:30am — 6:30pm.
Dona Gavi serves up the best — and most unique — ice cream in Antigua. Choose from avacado, corn, fig, cherry, lemon, and other local fruit flavors. The mango ice cream is incredible. In fact, it is a treat just to meet Dona Gavi and explore her store. Cones are Q16. (source)

La Tienda de Doña Gavi also provides a good contrast with her textured walls against the completely white skies of the rainy season. See, I have been complaining (almost nagging) about how white or gray the skies are because of the rain without realizing I could use these neutral backgrounds as backdrops for the wet and saturated colors of the buildings façades. Nevertheless, I am happy with what I have captured while taking advantage of a disadvantage (see One Way to the Decisive Moment).

Remember there will be general elections in Guatemala next coming Sunday 9th. I will try to do something special for the day. Stay tune!

The opposite corner of the Cookies is the Joyerí­a del Ángel, which by the way is the twin business for Posada del Ángel. Both businesses are run to the highest standards and thus you can find just of about any high-end and exquisite jewelry produced any where in the world right here at Joyerí­a del Ángel, in La Antigua Guatemala.

Obviously what they sell there has not influenced my appreciation for this wonderful light-blue, celeste in Guatemalan Spanish, corner. I simply liked the light hitting the building and the tourists walking by that afternoon. Also, I like the geometry of the white stripes, the Joyerí­a del Ángel sign and the lamp. You will have to excuse the white sky in many of the photos taken during the rainy season; not much I can do.

Disclosure side note: I am not being paid anything for saying nice things about the Posada or Joyerí­a del Ángel. Even though I know the general manager, these things I say them because I know the businesses and have been give unrestricted access to photograph them. That is all. If I ever I am being paid for promoting or saying nice things about a particular business, I will let you know with a disclosure. That is the deal.

Often as you stroll around La Antigua Guatemala, you come across walls with lots of texture made from the many layers of natural lime-stone-based paints. Below is a quote from an previous entry about Natural paint textures.

Because the high levels of humidity around Antigua, people have to paint their walls often. Not every time the walls get painted they use the same color and after so many years when the paint peels, you get the gorgeous texture where the different colors peek through. The Antigua Protection Agency recommends that people use lime-stone-based paints because they allow the walls to breath. The lime-stone-based paints have shine, similar to pearls, so that is how you get some incredible colors as light changes through the day.

Some people may find this kind of photographs boring and uninspiring; others get their kicks from the yellow texture on the wall. To which kind of people do you belong?

No, this stencil-art graffiti portrait of Rigoberta Menchú is not part of Banksy‘s art portfolio. According to NEARsyx, our Guatemalan expert in uban art, this portrait is quite possibly the work of H.I.J.O.S. (Sons and daughters for the Identity and Justice against Oblivion and Silence), a collective of sons and daughter of the disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war. Their main objective is to bring justice and to not let Guatemalans forget the recent history; The Peace Accords were barely signed 11 years ago in 1996.

Who is Rigoberta Menchú, anyway? Well, she thought you may want to know, so she coauthored a book by the name of “Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así­ me nació la conciencia” (My name is Rigoberta Menchú and this how my Consciencie was Born) back in 1982. TThe book became a great success when translated into English (as “I, Rigoberta Menchú“), giving her a role on the international stage at the time of the ongoing conflict in Guatemala [source: Wikipedia]. If you have the means to buy the book, available through Amazon, you should get it if you are interested in learning a bit about Guatemala’s recent history. You can also read the entry about Rigoberta Menchú in Wikipedia. She was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998.

What is Rigoberta Menchú’s Mission, anyway? She has embarked in an impossible mission. She is running for the Guatemalan Presidency. So what, why is this an impossible mission? Isn’t she Guatemalan and thus possess the legal rights to run for the presidency? Well, yes, that is correct. But, and this is a big but, she is a woman; worst yet, she is an indigenous woman; even worst, she is an indigenous woman from the left.

See, not everything is fine and dandy in the paradisiac lands of Guatemala. Real democracy is still over a century behind. In Guatemala, a woman could not get elected as president, just yet, although it has happened several times in Latin America (even in Central America). In Guatemala, an indigenous person could not get elected as president, just yet, although it has happened twice in the American continent with Benito Juárez and Evo Morales. In Guatemala, a person from the left could not get elected as president, just yet, even though most countries in South America and even Nicaragua in Central America have elected people from the left.

Now you can see why her candidacy for the presidency of Guatemala is such an impossible mission. I guess she decided that one can be part of the problem or part of the solution; she opted for the latter. Who was it that said, those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

If you could vote in the next elections in Guatemala, would cast your vote for a woman? for an indigenous person? for somebody from the left (democrat)? would you cast your vote for Rigoberta Menchú? or none of the above?

Okay, not much time today and you need something light every once in a while. Here is a little niche, nicho in Spanish, found at Posada del Ángel, which is a small luxury hotel in La Antigua Guatemala. I have shown other photos of this gorgeous bed and breakfast.

Here are the other photos:
» Guatemala Sells Light and Color
» Really Green Garden at Posada del Ángel
» Rusted Plant Pot
» Plant Pot at Posada del Ángel

Ever since I took a snapshot of a Electrified barb wire fence I wanted to come back to the subject to get an inside view. I imagine that you will see many concentric circles getting smaller as the approach the vanishing point. The question is can one find beauty in these type of subjects? I believe it is only in the constant search of the right angle and/or perspective.

What do you think?