Last updated by at .
If AntiguaDailyPhoto has been at all useful to you, I will let you INVITE me a cup of coffee
Subscribers today:
Here’s another take on one of my favorite wall in Antigua Guatemala. If you’re in town, don’t miss this wall on the south side of the San Francisco El Grande church; this is the same street that takes to El Calvario.
Hurry, we only have a few more weeks of gorgeous light left before the rainy season begins. I wonder why Guatemala does not use the enchanting light along the temperate weather are selling points to potential visitors who might not where Guatemala is located. I am sure there are people out there who do not know where Central America is in the world. That’s not Kansas by the way. In some cases, they don’t know that between North and South America there are the youngest land of the world. Sometimes they put Guatemala in South America; other times, they think that Guatemala is part of Mexico.
Share with us what was your first memory of learning about Guatemala and what were your thoughts about this exotic land of the eternal Spring?
Growing up in Guatemala, I was often scared down to the bones by tales of famous Guatemalan ghosts that frightened many generations of pedestrians that braved the dark streets of the City and La Antigua. La llorona, El Cadejo, El Sombreron, among them. According to my grandparents, many of these ghosts dissapeared with the introduction of public electric lighting. On recent trips to Antigua I have walked the streets late at night, imagining that they are still around. I was happy to encounter this “friendly ghost” on a wall during broad daylight.
Reader’s contribution by Eddie Deleon (NYChapin)
READER’S CONTRIBUTIONS ASIDE: As suggested by loyal reader NYChapin, we are inaugurating the new section: Readers Contributions. If you would like to submit your contributions (title, photo and caption), please, email them to editor at antiguadailyphoto.com (no spaces and replace at for @). With this new section we all have a larger, richer dimension to the daily updates. Please, send your contributions and make AntiguaDailyPhoto a richer, polyphonic experience. Thanks!
As I mentioned in “Nobody walks in LA…” in Antigua Guatemala is the opposite. People enjoy walking and with such small grid (about 10×10 block), you can certainly do just about all your chores faster by walking than by driving. Besides many blocks are one-way only which means you have to drive four to six blocks to park your car half-a-block away. Besides the utilitarian walks, people tend to take strolls and to see people and talk to friends and acquaintances on the streets.
I have a fascination for bare naked walls that show the materials that are used to form them. Bricks, rocks, concrete, adobe, et cetera, that’s what’s shown in this picture; everything in a harmonious texture. Of course, if we can get a climbing plant to top the wall and some trees on the other side of the wall, now we’re talking. Last but not least, we have to include life, moving life, if at all possible to make for a more interesting image. I believe that’s what this photograph works for me.
How about you, what things do you like to see in pictures?
This is the rear end of San Francisco El Grande Church as you walk south, following the Stations of the cross. As a matter of fact the cupola and roof-top details are part of one of the Stations of the cross.Basically, the route for the Stations of the Cross goes from the San Francisco El Grande church to El Calvario church. You know I hadn’t realized that Iglesia de San Francisco El Grande occupied an entire city block; wow, it’s huge. I take this opportunity to show you the construction materials that were used at the time this section was built: bricks and rocks. I like very much the texture of this wall, everything about it really; how about you?
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.
I want to say how much I appreciate your blog! I lived in Guatemala for a year (in 2007) and I miss it a lot. My husband and I lived about an hour from Puerto Barrios and there was not much to do in the town we spent the majority of our time in. Every time we had a chance to get to Antigua, we were there! It really became our hometown in Guatemala. Once in a while, when I’m really wishing I could be there again, I find my way back to your blog and spend an hour or so looking through posts and feeling very nostalgic. It’s nice to be able to have a little insight into what’s currently going on in Antigua and around Guatemala. So, thanks! —Sarah Hiltz
