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Lent Food: Plataninas

Basically, plataninas are green platano/plantains chips. Plantains are like bananas, but much bigger and with a unique flavor. Guatemalans eat platanos in …

Guatemalan Spanish Words for Lent Food

Today we will begin our Spanish lesson with some very important Guatemalan Spanish words: Poporopos, Plataninas, Papalinas and Churros. Poporopos: This is …

Recycling Around Antigua Guatemala

Often I have shared with you the different recycling programs available around Antigua Guatemala. There are many recycling approaches that people use …

Guatemalan Christmas Food

Among the most popular foods found for dinner in Christmas Eve and during Christmas are tamales colorados (red tamales), tamales negros (black …

Garden Art: Monkey Sculptures

Business owners take note, how do you take something as mundane as a parking lot and turn it into a delightful experience? …

Garden Art: Rabbit Sculpture

I really like these ceramic sculptures found in the green areas of Santo Domingo del Cerro. I especially like this rabbit. I …

Garden Art: Horse Sculptures

These beautiful and playful sculptures can be found in the green areas of Santo Domingo del Cerro, one of my favorite destinations …

Paca Nation

Because I am a politically correct person I will say that Guatemala is one of major recycling centers for things discarded in …

Cerro de la Cruz Entrance

This is the main entrance to El Cerro de la Cruz park and mirador (viewpoint). There are two other entrances, one is …

Window Gardens

In other places of the world, windows are just windows. In La Antigua Guatemala windows are shop displays, gardens, pet spots, plant …

Restaurant & Food Overview

RWOrange put together a very comprehensive list of the restaurants and food I have covered in AntiguaDailyPhoto in Chowhound. Here’s the list …

Guatemala’s Fiambre

There’s no way to go by Día de Todos Los Santos (All Saints’ Day) and Día de los Fieles Difuntos (All Souls’ …

Coffee Colors

In Spanish we use the word café to mean coffee and brown. Coffee berries, however, begin their color palette lifecycle as green …

Typical Guatemalan Breakfast

I have shown you the typical Guatemalan breakfast at least three times and each time has been somehow different, how so? Well, …

Street Photography Is Like Hunting

We street photographers are like hunters; often we roam the streets, stalking the city for candid, naturally looking, images. Other times, we …

Can you spot the Chevere Guy?

The two most famous Guatemalan hot dogs are shucos and cheveres. I have covered Guatemalan shucos hotdogs often enough that I believe …

Gran Courtyards of Espacioce!

The entire property of Espacioce! or the Centro de Cooperación de la Formación Española is impressive. Yet, many never venture beyond the …

Colorful Fiambre Chapín

Guatemala is such a colorful country; everything from flora to textiles, from architecture to food is saturated with the richest rainbow. If …

The UNIMOG Hog

What a beast. The journey of “flying through the forest” with Antigua Canopy Tours begins with a ride in the unique UNIMOG, …

Gliding Through the Treetops

Dangling like a spider on a web, he slightly rocks back and forth in his harness as he awaits the “okay” to go. At the cue, he lifts his legs, bends his knees… and takes off, plunging into a tunnel of thick, forest foliage. A whirring sound follows in close pursuit as he soars above the sloping forest floor, suspended meters – at times more than 100 meters – above the ground. To onlookers below, he looks like nothing more than a fragile doll that is somehow managing to cling to a nearly invisible cable as he races across the treetops.

Antigua Oasis

I can remember everything about this Antigua moment except exactly where it is. All the recent discussion about water reminded me of …

Nature’s Abstract Art…

For me, nature’s patterns are often works of abstract art, displayed before humanity in a living, outdoor gallery. These leaves are unknown …

Guateflora: Orejas de Elefante

These mammoth green leaves are known as Quequeshque or Orejas de Elefante, Elephant Ears, in Guatemala because of its gigantic size. The …

Guatemalan Jade in Mayan Art

See everything is a matter of perspectives and that’s the whole truthiness and nothing but the truthiness (thanks Manolo for the new …

Guatemalan Fruit: Caimito

I tell you, those Costa Ricans have no shame. First they made the entire world believe that Central America was them. Then, …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Jocón

A while back I tease those crazy Guatemalan who have decided to live abroad (you know who you are) with a photo …

The Guatemalan Shuco Hot Dog

The Guatemalan shuco hot dog comes with guacamol (avocado sauce), boiled cabbage, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, mustard, hot sauce, and one or more …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Pacayas

Today’s entry marks the 1000 consecutive daily pages of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo. And I thought I wasn’t going to last …

Churros, Anyone, Anyone?

It just occurred to me that the United States is one of the largest Spanish-speaking countries since it has one of the largest populations of Spanish speakers. Spanish has been spoken in the U.S. from a time before its independence. And at the rate at which the Spanish-speaking population grows, faster than any other, you may have to hablar español sooner or después. Remember that you can always come to La Antigua Guatemala to take Spanish classes in the more than 65 Spanish Schools available in this tiny colonial town.

Theme Day: Lines

I have decided to participate on the monthly theme of the City Daily Photo sites again. You may not know it, but …

Guatemalan Cuisine: Amarillo

This Guatemalan stew takes its name from its yellow-orangy color. Amarillo is the Spanish word for yellow; those living in Texas probably …

Wear it with Pride (Part 3)

Sure, you say, the traje indí­gena is a far out outfit, but are there really symbols encoded in these garments? Once again, …

Sompopo: The Giant Guatemalan Ant

Enough about pondering the big questions! Sompopos are now here and thus we are now “officially” in the rainy season. Sompopos arrived …

Guatemalan Fresh Fruit Snacks

Since you guys are having the cravings for Guatemalan fresh fruit snacks, I decided to show you the current options. All you …

Pruning the Gravileas Trees

There is nothing like rain water to make all the flora grow and in Guatemala we have a very copious rainy season …

Guateflora: Duranta Lila

A simple shot to commemorate the sunshine, the purple, the ever-present spring and to revive the Guateflora series. This photo was taken …

Little gray boxes on the hillside, Little gray boxes made of ticky-tacky

Anyhow, what’s got Little boxes to do with today’s entry. Well, once you listen to Little boxes or Las Casitas del Barrio Alto, you’d know it is impossible to get them out of your head. In a recent trip to México over the weekend we took the new road Carretera 14 to reach the highway that takes us to Southeast México. Carretera 14 is part of the road which will circumvent La Antigua Guatemala and some of the villages. In other words, Carretera 14 is the backbone for what will be the periférico around La Antigua Guatemala. Carretera 14 is also one the most beautiful stretches of road in Guatemala.

The Coffee Colors

The other day we heard many voices on the other side of the fence; voices of children and women just talking and laughing. We approached the windows on the second floor to see what was all the commotion; then we saw men, women and children harvesting the coffee. At this moment, you can see the turning point of coffee from green to golden yellow and finally cherry red.

Guatemala Will Now Be a Social Democrat Country

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.

Office Window View

Here is a little over-sharing, as Miss Jill would say. This is one of the views from our office window into the garden. Here we can see José, our green-thumb gardener waiting for the heavy rain to pass. By the way, rain is one of the most difficult things to photograph. Here I set shutter’s timing at two seconds, holding the camera over the window crate as a tripod, to try to capture the heavy down pour, yet I was only able to show silky lines. I’ve tried to do the same before in the entry Comtemplating the heavy rain with a little better success. We are about one to two weeks from the end of the rainy season.

Window view of Mountains around La Antigua Guatemala

As beautiful, cosmopolitan, antique and modern as it is La Antigua Guatemala, many people choose to live in one of the surrounding villages that belong to the municipio (county) of La Antigua Guatemala. There are many reasons for this decision which range from the economics, ‘real guatemalan experience’, or simply to live in a more natural and greener environment.

The Roads Around Antigua Guatemala

From the Guateflora series we take a different road to show you the lush roads around La Antigua Guatemala. By the way, the roads that communicate La Antigua Guatemala with the rest of the ‘real’ Guatemala are some of the best in the country, if not the best; they are kept in better conditions than the rest of the roads around Guatemala.

Guateflora: Falsa Uva (False Grape)

The hoja de falsa uva (false grape) or Parthenocisus inserta as it is known scientifically is a trepadora (climbing) plant. In the trepadoras category the most often used are the hiedra (ivy), uña de gato (cat’s claw), falsa uva (false grape), collar de la reina (queen’s collar), and of course the ever-present bugambilea (bougainvillea). The trepadoras (climbing) category in the Guateflora book has 34 different plants, so I have homework to do. 😉

Guateflora: Falsa Maní­a (False Peanut)

Falsa maní­a or Maní­ forrajero (false peanut) as it is known in Guatemala the Arachis pintoi is a cubresuelos (ground-creeping) plant used often in the garden of La Antigua Guatemala. José, our gardener, told me that you can also use it a trepadora (climbing) plant if you guide it. I really like this evergreen plant which flowers all-year-round a tiny yellow flower. According to the Guateflora book, it can grow anywhere and handles well people walking over it.

Guateflora: Hiedras (Hedera/Ivies)

Hiedras (Ivies/Hederas helix & H. canariensis) are very popular as well as all kinds of trepadoras (climbing) or cubresuelos (ground-creeping) siempreverdes (evergreen) plants in La Antigua Guatemala. Hiedras and trepadoras are found in many antigüeño homes covering the gardens’ walls.

Guateflora: Cactus Pot

Believe it or not, the land around La Antigua Guatemala was a very ‘fertile’ arid zone before the introduction of the coffee bush as a crop in 1875. I know fertile and arid sound like two mutually exclusive words, but they were not in Guatemala before 18th century where the Nopal and Maguey cactuses were grown in plantations. I’ve even seen photographs of the nopal plantations around La Antigua Guatemala in the CIRMA Fototeca (The Photo Archives at The Center for Mesoamerican Research).

Guateflora: Colas de Quetzal

You know you are in a Guatemalan home the moment you see the Colas de Quetzal (nephorlepsis spp.) or Quetzal’s tails (ferns) hanging in the corridors. The Colas de Quetzal bracken has to be one of the favorite ornamental plants used in the Guatemalan home. Some of these ferns or brackens are native to Guatemala, but they are considered cosmopolitan because they can grow anywhere. Colas de Quetzal can grown in hanging baskets, pots or in the ground, but they need some shadow to maintain the evergreen colors. The above photo of Colas de Quetzal was taken at Vivero La Escalonia (5a av. sur final), a very popular nursery in La Antigua Guatemala. Vivero La Escalonia is a great place to have breakfast or lunch.