If we are what we eat, then this is what Guatemalans are made of. The vegetables above the most often found in the Guatemalan diet.

How many of these vegetable are part of the diet where you live?

Si somos lo que comemos, entonces los guatemaltecos estamos hechos de estas verduras, las cuales son las encontradas con más frecuencia en al dieta chapina.

¿Cuántas de estas verduras están en tu dieta?

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?

These news may come as total shock to some of you, but I figure today is as good day as any to let you know that because of Antigua Guatemala’s preservation and protection laws there can not be parking meters. Believe me that’s a good thing. However the municipal government may not agree with me since that means they lose yet another way to tax us. Well, that’s how it used to be until not too long ago when a mayor realized that the city could by law charge for parking without installing the parking meters. Nevertheless, the government officials knew that they could not pass the legislation needed if they tax the people who actually live here. I know city governments all over the world do charge for public parking to its own neighbors, but trust me when I say this could not be possible in Antigua Guatemala. Thus, they created these parking permit decals for antigüeños that go on your front windshield and pretty much exempts your from having to pay the Q10 per day for parking as everyone else. Once a year you have to go to the transit or treasure department and prove that you live here by way of showing your DPI (Guatemala’s national ID) or the title of your property, the circulation cards for your vehicles and show your boleto de ornato (decoration ticket) which is a variable obligatory tax that Guatemalans must pay every year to their local municipality. Ornato is Guatemalan Spanish for the aesthetic or beauty of town or place.

And with today’s entry we begin a mini series about the parking problems of Antigua Guatemala. Each day I will bring different issues regarding the parking situation of Antigua Guatemala.

Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas) Aside: Around Antigua Guatemala, many people keep their Nacimientos and Christmas decorations until February 2nd, Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas), which incidentally is Groundhog Day in the United States. The day after February 2nd the Christmas lights around Antigua’s Main Plaza will be pick up and put away.

Now it’s time to begin preparation for Carnival first, and then Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday.

Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
—Mark Twain

Once again Antigua Daily Photo is participating on the theme day organized by the DailyPhoto community on the first of each month. Animals is the theme chosen for February 2012. I took a quick look at what photos other DailyPhoto cities around the world are posting and it seems like Cats are the big winners by far; another variation is a feline photo. It’s interesting since most of the time people share photos of dogs.

For the theme day I am sharing a photo of my cat Tito who almost everyday climbs to the second floor through the garden and then cries for us to let him in; sometimes he does his routine more than once in a day. Tito has trained us well, so he was complaining that I was taking too long to open the door. I had my photographic reasons, you know.

Are you a cat or dog person?

Guatemalan music video aside: The most famous and popular singers from Guatemala Gaby Moreno and Ricardo Arjona got together to make this wonderful video which uses many locations from Guatemala as backdrop. INGUAT, Guatemala’s Tourism Institute, should be happy for this is one of the best promotional videos for Guatemala.

Last time I declared that chow mein was among the most “authentic” dishes in the Guatemalan gastronomy I got into trouble. Then, recently I declared that there was nothing more chapín (Guatemalan) than the chow mein tostada and once again some people disagreed with me, at least initially, because at the end everyone sees the light.

Let me share with you some comments I have received:

Luis: Chow Mein is not an authientic Guatemalan dish!

Javier: Sorry Luis, But Guatemalan Chow Mein is very different from the other chow meins.

Susanita: What do you mean that chow mein is not Guatemalan!!!!! My Daughter loves to eat it with lots and lots of CATSUP and soy sauce….and it’s not weird it’s traditional.

Ana: I am from Guatemala visiting my daughter in the USA and the first thing she asks me to cook every first time I see her in more than six years is Chow Mein Guatemalteco, it’s very unique, everyone has it’s own recipe with onions, carrots, “guisquil”

Miguel: jajaja, sera con guacamol o tomate o frijol, pero este chow mein se nacionalizo, bueno.

Miguel: Si, y a casi cualquier hora, incluso se llama ya “CHOMIN”

The other day on my way to the office I came across these interesting signs. The sign that pulled me in was the Facebook, Twitter and Youtube sheet glued to a near-by post as way of saying we provide internet access service. Nowadays, I guess, most people who need internet access will probably do it to check or update Facebook or Twitter, but Youtube? That was interesting. So, I began looking for the place that provided internet access because the post was in the middle of the road, near El Calvario church, and that’s when I found the zaguán business across the street selling chocobananos, chochofresas, chocomelones, chocopiñas, internet access and bathroom services. This one is going directly to the Only in LAG category.

Do you want to know what is a zaguán business? follow the white rabbit for the answer.

Sometimes you have to lose all the color to really appreciate the dramatic lighting of the cathedral of Antigua Guatemala. The picture above also happens to be a follow up to Antigua’s Cathedral at Sunset; follow the white rabbit to look at the cathedral during the afternoon.

Once again, you write the caption in a similar manner than yesterday’s Thinking Boy. What’s the little girl deliberating about?

Okay today you write the caption. What’s the little boy thinking about?

This morning Guatemala is taking baby steps towards justice by having a historic public hearing of retired General Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The retired General Efraín Ríos Montt will be responding to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity done during his year in power between 1982-1983. This is just one more baby step to bring reconciliation and justice for the Guatemalan armed conflict which happened between 1960 and 1996 and was sparked by a coup orchestrated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état which produced over 250,000 victims, 45,0000 disappeared persons and over one million of displaced people.

You can watch it now below or at ParaQueSeConozca. Hopefully this transmission will be available later on so more people can watch it because as the flyer above reads: Only Truth and Justice are the true path to Reconciliation.

UPDATE: About 12 hours later the retired general Efraín Ríos Montt was formally charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. First baby steps had been taken.

Calle del Arco is the place to be on the weekends in Antigua Guatemala if you want to listen to live music. For sure you can find live marimba music, either Maya or traditional Guatemalan songs, but sometimes you find blues, jazz or urban rock ensembles. This was the case for the past weekend.

Below you can watch a short video clip, if you can provide the name of the song, you win a post card. Good luck!

Let’s do an observation experiment. What things do you find interesting in the picture above?

One of the things about cultural and traditional events that I like is that they are people magnets and it’s so much easier to photograph people and situations that normally are difficult. Take as an example the photograph of the Guatemalan lady and the Maya man from yesterday or the ease with I was able to capture these Maya teenagers while they pay attention to the Mayan ceremony (see video clip from two days ago).

Oh what a culturally rich and diverse country is Guatemala for being such a small territory, don’t you think?