AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

Not even a week had elapsed since I shared with you the incredible vistas from La Casaca as shown on the post Having Breakfast in Antigua Guatemala when my friend Norman Avila decided to come up to the terrace and make this panoramic vista of Parque Central. We should thank Norman for sharing this unique perspective with us.

Photo by Norman Avila

Pantempters Steel Orchestra is Belize’s most dynamic and entertaining steel band and they played this past weekend at the stage next to the Cathedral.

The Pantempters Steel Orchestra first begun in 1992 as a university steel band at the University College of Belize, under the directorship of the then Dr. Colville Young (now Governor General of Belize). From a humble beginning with no more than ten members, the band rose in the entertainment circles becoming one of Belize’s premier steel orchestra. Today, Pantempters is one of the largest steel bands in the country performing both locally and internationally with a culturally dynamic repertoire of music including punta, brukdong, soca, reggae, bassa nova, sala, jazz, classical and many more.

The band is currently managed by Ms. Therese Martinez and directed by Mr. Herschel Armstrong. (source: Pantempters Steel Orchestra fanpage in Facebook)

Photo by guest contributor Darrin Brown

Los Bomberos Voluntarios (Voluntary Fire Deparment) were giving demonstration of equipment outside of the Capuchinas Ruins this weekend. It looks like the kids were having a blast with the water hose, although the little boy seemed a bit reluctant to take charge of the water hose all by himself.

By the way, in Guatemala there are two fire departments entities: Bomberos Municipales and Bomberos Voluntarios. Bomberos Municipales receive some of their funding from the municipal government while Bomberos Voluntarios receive their funding through “crowd sourcing”; that’s web talk euphemism for “donations from the people.”

Photo by guest contributor Darrin Brown

Sábado de Gloria is a quieter day with only small processions carried by women known as Las Dolorosas (The Grief or Suffering women) follwing the Vía Dolorosa. Sábado de Gloria is also the day when Judas’ Will (testament) is read, a sort of farcical speech or a neighborhood chisme speech. Kids and teenagers also play at getting each other wet with water balloons. Although I have not seen these two traditions in many years; I wonder if they still exist.

Today we take the opportunity to share various Holy Week vistas from La Antigua Guatemala.

Enjoy your weekend and set your timer for the 5-year anniversary of AntiguaDailyPhoto.com on May 1st. What should we do?

Also, remember that you can check out what is happening during Holy Week in XelaDailyPhoto and GuatemalaDailyPhoto.

All photos by Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos

Today the whole Church mourns the death of our Savior. This is traditionally a day of sadness, spent in fasting and prayer. The title for this day varies in different parts of the world: “Holy Friday” for Latin nations, Slavs and Hungarians call it “Great Friday,” in Germany it is “Friday of Mourning,” and in Norway, it is “Long Friday.” Some view the term “Good Friday” (used in English and Dutch) as a corruption of the term “God’s Friday.” ["Viernes Santo" or Holy Friday in Antigua Guatemala] (source: CatholicCulture.org)

Do not underestimate the power of catholic imagery. You see, the world-famous Antigua Guatemala processions are about showing the devoted images as a reminder and representation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Revue Magazine has an article by Dwight Wayne Coop that chronicles how the Jesús Nazareno de la Merced was taken to Guatemala City in 1778 in order to force people to abandon Santiago de Guatemala (La Antigua Guatemala) in favor of the new capital Guatemala de La Asunción (Guatemala City).

Here’s a fragment of the chronicle, make sure your read the entire article which is funny, historical and an eye opener:

The killer quake that rattled Panchoy Valley (La Antigua) in 1773 led to the founding of a new capital in Ermita Valley in 1776. But even then, most Santiagans refused to move. Similarly, after Hurricane Hattie ravaged Belize in 1965, the government of Belize founded Belmopán—only to see the population of Belize City stay put.

The job of moving La Antigua’s masons, maids, porters and wet nurses to Ciudad Real (Guatemala City) fell in 1778 to viceroy Martín de Mayorga. His biggest card was the bond that Santiagans felt to Jesús Nazareno and to another wooden statue, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes. Move these images, Mayorga reasoned, and you move the people. (source: Revue Magazine)

Also, today all Stations of the Cross altars will be open and many if not all procession will pay a visit to El Calvario Church, which is located on the southern outskirts of La Antigua Guatemala. El Calvario or Calvary (Golgotha) is the name of the mount on the outskirts of Jerusalem where it’s believe Jesus Christ was crucified. This church with its three arches provides a symbolic representation of the crucifixion; with each arch representing each cross.

Here’s a panoramic view of the culmination of the Good Friday procession as it enters the Antigua Guatemala cathedral.

Also, remember that you can check out what is happening during Holy Week in XelaDailyPhoto and GuatemalaDailyPhoto.

All photos by Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos

Cucuruchos with their purple or violet cone-head rebes are another prominent element of Semana Santa in Antigua Guatemala. Purple is worn as a sign of penitence. As a matter of fact, processions are a sign of penitence as well, heck the whole Semana Santa is a penitent act.

Not only Cucuruchos have to observe penitence during Lent (Cuaresma) and Holy Week (Semana Santa), but they also have to pay if they want to get a chance to carry the enormous floats, known here as andas. According to Nelo, each turn costs around Q60 (around US$8), there are around 60 turns and each float has somewhere between 80 and 100 spaces for the Cucuruchos. You make the numbers…

Also, remember that you can check out what is happening during Holy Week in XelaDailyPhoto and GuatemalaDailyPhoto.

All photos by Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos

There’s nothing more impressive during the Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala than seen these massive floats, andas in Spanish, being carried by 80 to 100 cucuruchos. Click on any of the images to get a slide show started with larger versions of these images.

Needless to say we’re in debt with Nelo for sharing these incredible photographs, for going the extra mile to capture these unusual perspective and for spending over 12 hours per day to follow the processions through out their entire route. If you have anything to say to Nelo, please do so in the comments area.

Elsewhere in Guatemala, you can check the procession in XelaDailyPhoto and GuatemalaDailyPhoto as well.

All photos by Leonel [Nelo] Mijangos

Guatemala is a country of Desaparecidos (disappeared) and La Antigua Guatemala is not an exception. These colorful and friendly street vendors and their traditional carts vanished without leaving a trace or even causing a murmur. These honest and hard-working people simply desaparecieron (disappeared). They are missing… and missed.

My friend and colleague Miguel De León Soto, who’s also an Antigua Guatemala lover, send us these photos because he’s outraged the municipal government has removed these typical street carts without consultation. He believes these carts not only provide much needed services and products, such as fresh fruits, but they are also an integral part of our identity, and important ingredient of what makes La Antigua Guatemala rich and colorful.

I agree with him!

Come on, where are we going to buy these fresh fruits now?

It seems that in an electoral year, the Mayor Adolfo Vivar should be careful about the things he does and upsets. It looks like this is not the only steps backwards or in the wrong direction that Muni (short for Municipalidad or City Hall) has taken recently. Today I also discovered that they have taken a mayor leap backwards by replacing their nearly usable and friendly website which I reported back on August 2010 with a horrendous and user unfriendly flash website.

We live in a world that moved forward, away from the horrible and unusable flash websites, which gave us the Web 2.0 back in 2002 and then the Social Media Networks back in 2005. We are humans and we love to communicate and share and that’s why websites that provide the tools and the means for these basic needs are very successful, websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, just to mention a few examples. On the other hand, most of the time flash websites are unusable, unfriendly, horrible to navigate and inhibit communication. The prevention of a dialogue should be reason enough to take down a flash website right away, especially if it’s a government office which is incompetently serving its constituents communication needs.

The reason I checked the Muni’s website in the first place was because I wanted to grab the mayor’s email address so we can write to him and let him know we are not happy with the removal of the traditional street carts as suggested by Miguel de León, but believe or not there’s no contact form or email for any of the offices or branches of the municipal government. In fact, the only email address available anywhere on the website is for the web developer.

I promise I will get the mayor’s email address so we can write to him. Stay tune, I will update this entry with his email address.

This is what reported on August 24, 2010:

New Blog and Twitter presence of Municipalidad de La Antigua Guatemala Aside: Finally the Municipalidad de La Antigua Guatemala is sporting new presence in Twitter as well as a new website. If you are in Twitter you can follow @MunideAntigua for all the latest official buzz.

Now, the new web site found at MunicipalidadAntiguaGuatemala.com leaves much to be desired. The new web site is poorly executed, with awkward navigation, horrible animations, partially translated into Spanish menus and a poor structure all around. There is no English version of the website to better serve its foreign community. In my humble opinion, the new web site is almost as bad as the one it replaces.
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Furthermore, it’s my professional opinion that the Municipalidad de La Antigua Guatemala was poorly advised regarding its web site, its Twitter account, its new domain, et cetera.

Yes, even the new domain is the wrong choice. Instead of having a FREE or inexpensive .GOB.GT domain they have a U.S. commercial domain. Instead of having something simple as AntiguaGuatemala.gob.gt they have this cumbersome municipalidadantiguaguatemala.com business domain.

Nevertheless, I welcome the new steps the Municipalidad is taken to have a better web presence and communication with its citizens and the world. I just hope next time they hire someone with sufficient experience and knowledge to give them the website and presence that will benefit its citizens the most.

Photos by Miguel De León Soto. Check out Miguel’s Flickr gallery where he shares with us so many beautiful and touching images of La Antigua Guatemala.

Having a satisfying coffee with a very delicious torreja at La Cocina del Obispo, this flower was just there sort of flirting. It’s called Flor de La Pasión because it’s got a religious signfiicance and if I’m not mistaken it is Venezuela’s National Flower. If you know the flower, can you guess the colors and the significance of it?

Try to be fair and don’t look it up on Google or Wikipedia.

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Isn’t it just engaging to run into so many different doorlocks around La Antigua Guatemala? This one is found in one of the villages around Antigua Guatemala; it is from a museum, can you guess which one?

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Like many fountain’s around Antigua Guatemala, there is always something very soothing about them (oh, and the light was just beautiful), but how many of us do pay attention to them? If you do, can you guess where is this fountain located? I hope this is a tough guess for you.

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Street music calls for everyone. It is not privileged or costly. Any passers-by is invited to enjoy it fully. So these two persons response was to dance to it.

text and photo by Pinar Istek

This was the very first time I became aware of the location of the table with the antique map on top. The table’s got a map, a nice one at that, and Rudy took a very pleasant photo of it with a cup of coffee next to it.

Can you guess where in La Antigua Guatemala?

Hint, they make excellent coffee, excellent chocolates, the food is great, and the ambience is plain antigüeña authentic!

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Not the normal way you’d think about contrasts (politically speaking), but I just love it when you just try to challenge lighting conditions and you get experiments like the picture above, which I took at Las Capuchinas convent. Mix lighting conditions are always a challenge; what do you think about the results in this picture?

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.

Scattered throughout the terra cotta rooftops of La Antigua, keen observers can spy the signature domed chimneys of the traditional Spanish colonial architecture. For me, the chimneys evoke thoughts of a warm hearth filled with crackling firewood. But during this unseasonal rain, I can’t help but to think of Rudy as he asks “Who stole November?” I should go get some firewood for this crazy weather I’m missing the warm days

text and photo by Arturo Godoy.