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Do you really want a long name, here’s one: “Parroquia San Pedro Apostol, San Juan Bautista of San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala”

If you remember at least one of the photos of the former San Pedro Apostol Church, you may say, “wait it a minute, this is not the same church, is it?”

Well, it is after over 600,000 Quetzales (US$80,000) have been spent in restoration works and a new paint job. You could say that’s not much, really, for the amazing new facelift and restoration. Well, you know how atmospheric temperature is now given in two forms: what the thermometer reads and in parenthesis (what is feels like). Okay, US$80,000 feels like half a million bucks in Guatemala; that’s how you explain the complete transformation.

This amount does not include the spot lights system and the paint job which was donated by the Novella Foundation (one of the 20 wealthy families of Guatemala). This amount does not include the thousands of man-hours donated by the San Pedro Las Huertas neighbors.

You guys are so lucky, and don’t even know it. Well, that is whoever comes to see this photo tonight. See, this image is quite possibly the one of first photos taken of this church now that it’s been restored to its former glory. This church opened its doors in 1672. As a matter of fact, they were still painting the terra cotta floor tiles tonight, running against time, since tomorrow morning they will have a big procession, mass service and at 11a.m. and right after the inauguration of the new Parroquia San Pedro Apostol, San Juan Bautista of San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala. You are also lucky because I am making available this photo as a computer wallpaper for your workstation at 1600×1200 pixels.

Next week, it’s going to be the San Pedro Las Huertas Town Fair.

Today, however, was a-wonderful-first-day of the Summer season and even though we’ve been having lots of rains and floods lately, today was a gorgeous dry day with the most amazing light. To me, the quality of days is measured by the quality of light; what can I say. With this nice weather, I felt like taking a walk to the park for un atolito. I am so glad I did and that I took my camera with me.

With the atol de habas in my hand, I walk a few steps towards a gathering of men, all standing up and enjoying the beauty of their newly restored church. I shook the atol while exchanging a few words with these proud neighbors. That’s how I found out how much they have spent in the restoration; that Q400,000 of it was donated by the only factory in town (Sacos Agroindustriales); that paint job and spot lights system was donated by the Novella Foundation; that 10 construction workers were hired since January and that almost all neighbors were required to help with their own labor or donate money towards the restoration; that floors and ceiling were repaired; that tomorrow they will be having a procession, mass and inauguration, that the name of this church is very long and confusing; that these people are very nice and friendly (my neighbors, you know). All of that transpired while I shook my atol to cool it down.

That short while with the neighbors of San Pedro Las Huertas and the dozen photos I took are my highlight for the week: what a delightful time!

If you would like to see other photos with the former San Pedro Apostol Church in San Pedro Las Huertas, check out the following entries:

1. Guatemalan Fair: The Ferris Wheel
2. Guatemalan Fair: The Church and its Saint
3. Altar Inside San Pedro Las Huertas Church
4. Mobile Library Chicken Bus
5. San Pedro Las Huertas Cathedral
6. Bell ringer
7. Guatemalan Women & Killer’s Paradise

You can also browse the over 40 entries about San Pedro Las Huertas. Boy, I need to turn San Pedro Las Huertas into its own category; don’t you think so?

P.S. Today’s entry is number 796… counting up to 800 pages in La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo.

What’s so special about the Esquisuchil trees around La Antigua Guatemala?

For starters, the esquisuchil trees (bourreria huanita) are very old and very few. Quite possibly, the oldest specimen is located in San Miguel Escobar where it was planted by Guatemala’s first bishop Francisco Marroquin in the 16th century. From the esquishuchil tree in San Miguel Escobar, the Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt (1626-1667) took pods and planted several trees around La Antigua Guatemala, being the most famous located inside the San Francisco El Grande Church; his burial grounds.

Most, if not all, of the esquisuchil trees around La Antigua Guatemala have plaques to highlight their importance and give out background information. The specimen of esquisuchil tree in the park of San Pedro Las Huertas is not an exception. If you can read Spanish, you can click the thumbnail below to read the plaque.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in Guatemala, let’s hope I can get a shot of all the mamas!

I caught these would-be High School teachers learning Guatemalan history on Sunday in front of the Church of San Pedro Las Huertas. I learnt that these future teachers were taking tours around the churches of Departamento of Sacatepéquez to learn mass movements in Colonial times as part of their history class. For sure, this history classroom beats my thick-n-boring-n-outdated-book-based High School history classroom.

Processions are majestic, huge and long in La Antigua Guatemala. You can browse the Processions category to get an idea of the size of the processions in La Antigua Guatemala. There are smaller and more humble processions in the villages and small communities surrounding La Antigua Guatemala. This year, I will try to focus more in the Holy Week celebrations and processions in the villages where you can still observe the fervor, regardless of the size, for all these Catholic rituals. The photo above was taken in the village of San Pedro Las Huertas, while the procession made a pit stop or parada as they are known in Spanish. Well, I think that is the name, maybe somebody more knowledgeable in Catholic rituals can provide the actual name for the stops the processions make every so often at specific spots.

For some unknown reason, many Guatemalans opt for misspelled Spanish bastardizations of English words to name their businesses. For instance, the image above has the name Stilos (Estilos is the proper Spanish spelling) as a way to relate to Styles the English word for this barbershop (peluqueria in Spanish).

By the way, does anybody know why barber shops have the multi-color cylinder (I believe it should be red, white and blue) as a marker for a barbershop?

With November come the strong winds (Vientos fuertes would say Miguel Ángel Asturias). With the strong winds come the kites. With the kites come the celebrations of the day of the dead and all saints day. With the day of the dead celebrations comes the fiambre, the food to share with our dead. Stay tune for background information on the kite flying rituals and its meaning.

Also with November comes my first collective photographic exposition. That is right, yours truly will be participating with other Guatemalan photographers in a photo exhibit on November 8 at Rocí­o Quiroa Gallery in Guatemala City. If you happen to be in Guatemala next week, we will be delighted if you can join us to see all the different visions of this tiny banana republic. Below you can see the official invitation created by Iván Castro with a photograph by Javier Uclés.

Post cards request update: Cathy from Saint Louis sent her post card on the 22nd of October and today was already in the post office box. It arrived in Guatemala City on October 26. This is one of the fastest deliveries just yet. Thanks Cathy for you post card and your description of St. Louis Missouri. If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

Even the alleys get dressed up with pine-needle and flower carpets for the town’s fair processions. Pine-needle element adds the value of pine scent to the whole festive occasion. Pine-needle carpets are also used for parties and special celebrations.

I could go as far as saying that the scent of pine-needle, along with the scents of tamales, ponche (fresh fruit punch), hot chocolate (not cocoa), firecrackers, new clothes and shoes (estrenos), are what makes the scent-memory of the Navidad season (Christmas). These scents, colors and its flavors are what pain Guatemalans abroad in their nostalgic moments (otherwise known as every day!).

The making of these processional carpets is such a community-forming and bonding activity since in the process participate many, if not all, of the neighbors and family members. These traditions, festive calendar dates and special celebrations mark very strongly what makes a normal human being into a hard-core Guatemalan. You break the link or access to these experiences and you only have a person that was born in Guatemala; a fact as worthless as the fact of having had a pair of boots once.

Well, with this image we wave farewell to the Guatemalan Fair series. It’s been the longest running series I have done about Guatemala yet; with sixteen photographs, descriptive captions and video clips, and I feel I barely touched the surface of the Guatemalan town fair.

Could you guys tell me if you enjoyed the series and point out where the coverage was weak or non-existent (special call to Guatemalans and long-time residents).

Update: La Antigua Guatemala is not the only place where these carpets are made. Check out Tenerife Daily Photo for a sample of their carpet-making abilities.

The People of La Antigua Guatemala and surrounding villages simply love to make processional carpets and the town fair provides the perfect excuse to make sawdust and flower carpets throughout the year; really why wait for Semana Santa (Holy Week).

Along with the processional carpets, white and yellow plastic decorations mark the route of the town’s procession. Nobody is allowed to step on the carpets before the procession.

The Royal Street Side Note: By the way, the name of this street is Calle Real (Royal street) which is the name given to the main street or avenue in small towns in rural Guatemala. This was done to mark the streets where the king and queen could walk by. It’s been 186 years since Guatemala obtained its independence from Spain in September 15, 1821; yet the streets are still called Calle Real, just in case The Kings ever show up—and they did in San Pedro Las Huertas. Check out the full coverage of the Kings of Spain visit to San Pedro Las Huertas earlier this year.

The charcoal-grilled meat stall has gotten so hip that you now find it not only in fairs, but around La Antigua Guatemala in parks, markets and sidewalks. Back in February 20th, 2007, I showed you an extremely popular stall of grilled meats in Tanque de la Unión park from a bird’s eye point of view. In the picture above, chicken and beef steak were being offered along broiled potatoes. Q10 ($1.25) for a portion of the meat of your choice, chirmol (read the link’s side note), guacamol and potatoes; definitely, not too bad of a deal.

The Barbecuing Side Note: Legend has it that when Columbus first touched American lands in the Caribbean, he was greeted with a banquet of char-broiled meats, as he and his crew were starving. Mister Christopher Columbus, Cristobal Colón as he’s known in Spanish, loved the flavor of the meats, the style of cooking and the sauces the meats were served with; quite possible a type of chirmol (chili mole). Not being to shy, he asked of his guest to name the sauce and the ingredients, but since he was not very fluent in the languages spoken by the indigenous (this was first contact, after all), there was a miscommunication problem and the friendly tribe people believed he was asking how they cook the meat, so they told him in good faith that the process was call barbacoa (barbecue); they even pronounced it by syllabus bar-ba-coa is the open-fire or charcoal way of cooking meats. So mister totally-confused-Italian-Spanish-captain-in-the-wrong-continent wrote it his travel blog (well, maybe just a captain’s log) as barbacoa is the sauce which these Indians (from India) used to accompanied their meats. He had heard the Indians used heavily-spiced sauces with their meals (curries they call them); so he was sure he had landed in India. From this encounter two confusions arose, which are still used today: the aborigine peoples of the American continent were called “Indians” and the rich sauce for the meats is called “barbecue”. (Source: as heard in one of KPFK radio programs many years ago)

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but seeds are very popular in Guatemala. If you recall the entries Name the seeds! or Guatemalan sweets; so it is obvious that seeds had to present in a fair booth. Okay, what do we have here? Peanuts in their shell, Guatemalan pumpkin in melcocha syrup, sesame seeds with melcocha, salty fried or roasted habas (broad beans); that’s as far as I can distinguish. Read the entry on Guatemalan sweets if you want to know what is melcocha.

I’ve lost my marbles! Yes indeed. Guatemalan fair games are about competing against the odds, against your friends and family, against yourself. There are mechanical games like the ferris wheel and such, there electronic arcade machines, there are table foot ball machine which required no electricity, there are loterí­a or lottery rooms; sort of like bingo.

The Latin American lottery is played with cardboards of nine images, each cardboard is different, bean or maize counts, and a person calling out aloud the name of the images: La Chalupa, El Borracho, El Catrí­n, La Campana, El Cantaro, et-cetera. Whoever gets all nine images called out and accounted for with beans or maize seeds wins the lottery, if, and only if they scream with all their lungs LO-TE-RIIIIAAAAA.

At the fair, there are of course, games which required less adrenaline, like the one pictured above. You play this game with marbles, huge marbles which you throw with the spring action of your thumb and fingers in the direction of the little holes, which are marked with numbers. Depending how much you add up per set, so it’s your prize.

The Guatemalan psyche, traditions and culture fabrics are made from having experienced friends and family at the fair with its food, smells and sounds from the loud firecrackers, the sweet sounds of marimba, the hot rhythms of cumbia and salsa music, games, religious rituals such as processions, the rain, lots of rain and the smell of earth after the rain. Gosh, how I wish I had the power and the ability to seize in coherent words the experiences that make up Guatemalans. Perhaps the images do a better job.

After all the pounds we have gained this week at the San Pedro Las Huertas Fair, it is nice to come across some healthy food. For Q5 ($0.65) we can take any fresh fruit bags and we will need the savings since we already lost quite a few Quetzales at the others fair stands. Now, even though I have shown all these Guatemalan fair food and even describe it as tasteful and delicious, I don’t want to pass it as healthy. Fair food is junk food. I am so glad these fair food vendors have not come across the Super Size Me concept!

A question for you guys. I still have 5 for more photos related to the Guatemalan town fair, but maybe you already had enough of the Guatemalan fair series. Would you like me to continue or to turn onto something else tomorrow… maybe some nice touristic shots of La Antigua Guatemala? It is to you.

Papas fritas is the Guatemalan Spanish name for French fries. Here is the abbreviated history that gave us the Guatemalan french fries stall: first the Quechuas or Incas domesticated the potato (Solanum tuberosum) into a crop in southern Peru and northern Bolivia; the Spanish conquistadors took it to Europe where it was an instant hit and along with maize turned a famine-prone population into a healthy society; somewhere in one of the northern European states, quite possibly Germany, the potato lost its skin and got deep-fried; This Eurpean recipe crossed the Atlantic with the new immigrants that came to U.S. and since it was a foreign-looking recipe, they called it French fries (remember Coneheads); so the French fries came to Guatemala along one of the many incursions from the United Stateians (Americans they seem to call themselves ) as a side dish for the hamburger or the hot dog. Guatemalans (Chapines they seem to call themselves) thought that French fries were too good to be side dish and turned it into a meal by itself. That is how the papas fritas cart came to be.

Two more aspects worth mentioning are the Pollo Campero logotype and the name La Huasteca. The French fries are the perfect side dish for fried chicken, so it made us believe the Campero chain. La Huasteca is a region in Mexico which has given the world flavor-rich recipes and Huapango.

The omnipresent catsup is ready to turn simple papas fritas into crazy papas fritas along with mayonnaise and the green chile pepper sauce.

We are almost over with the typical Guatemalan town fair and we will go back to those nice touristic photographs of La Antigua Guatemala; I promise.

New 7 Wonders side note: The Mayan Pyramid of Chichén Itzá, in southern Mexico has been elected as one of the seven new wonders of the world. The Mayan Ruins of Chichén Itza are very close to Guatemala and it is one of the many Mayan city states of the great Mayan empire. By electing Chichén Itzá as one of the new 7 wonders of the world, the world is recognizing the importance of the Mayan Architecture, Culture and Civilization. Let’s hope soon they will unite Tikal(Yax Mutal), the largest ancient Mayan city and Chichén Itzá with a brand-new paved road as well as Uxmal to create the great Mayan Triangle.

A recent addition to the Guatemalan Fair zoo is the pizza kiosk. Just like many other aspect of modern Guatemala idiosyncrasy, pizza has come to stay, but it must evolve, just like chinese food. So the typical Guatemalan town fair pizza is made from a less tasteful dough, only a light tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and ham; nothing more. You get your slice and normally ad ketchup to it. The Guatemalan town fair pizza stand is, almost invariable, managed by one or two young indigenous teenagers or young adults with a taste for extremely heavy rock metal music which they blast from a portable boom box. The pizza booth may have posters describing their pepperoni or salami pizza even though they only sell ham pizza. Go figures!

We continue the photographic tour of a Guatemalan town fair with a typical booth. Since the inflated toys and balloons are very obvious, we will play the game of naming everything else that you see on the table. I will get you started with the bags of peanuts on the left. Now it is your turn, name as many things as you can recognize. Let the game begin!