By bike

Many of the deliveries are still done by bike. If you recall my post about daily bread delivery service on September 24th, you might remember that bread delivery was done on a bicycle. Also, just a few days ago I mentioned that bicycles are among the most widely used vehicles in Antigua on October 11th. Actually, many of the photos show bicycles riders on the background as Kate commented on the tree trimming entry. Bicycles are great vehicles for deliveries as well and they do not pollute.

Having said all of that and having shown many bicycles on previous photos, you would think that bicyclists get a special bike path, right? Of course not, no way josé, this is Guatemala and if you approach the politicians with proposals for special bike paths and roads they will say they will look into it mañana. As LD said, “We’ll see how many mañanas it takes for something to change.” Yeah right, mañana would say Carlos on The Shrimp on the Barbie (Funny movie for our friends from Down South and Under).

Side note: Today is a holiday in Guatemala: “Día de la Revolución” (Revolution’s day). This holiday commemorates the resignation of Dictator Jorge Ubico and his succesor Jorge Ponce Vaides which did not last very long because the revolt of October 20, 1944 overthrew the dictatorship for good. Next came the political spring for Guatemala with Juan José Arévalo, as freely-elected president first and then Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán as “… president of Guatemala from 1951 until 1954 when he was ousted in a coup d’état organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency, known as Operation PBSuccess… ” (As quoted from Wikipedia). There you have it, Guatemala was not a sovereign country any more. The worst thing is that “… Guatemala is just a pawn of the United States once again… ” (quote from LD, a Canadian now living in Guatemala, on her post UN Vote: Does anyone care? on her site Hello from Here)

Tags: Antigua Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / bicyclist / bike deliveries

Ovelikios says:

October 20, 2006 at 6:37 am

Nice post. In Greece we had our “fair” share of US intervention with the coup in 1967. Luckily, in Europe we have since long forgot such political anomalies. Hope Latin America will find its way to prosperity and peace soon.

patsy poor says:

October 20, 2006 at 7:05 am

i thought it was funny when you said” no way jose” that is a saying i have heard all my life and we have only began to have people here from mexico and gutamala in the last few years. it would be interesting to know how that saying came about. your post about gutemala being a pawn of the united states was not clear to me. do you consider gutemala a pawn of the U S now? and if so why?

Rudy Girón says:

October 20, 2006 at 11:12 am

Patsy: Actually I did not say Guatemala is a pawn for the US; it was Lorenda (LD, a Canadian now living in Guatemala who writes very intelligently about living in this country on her site Hello from here) who tells us that people here do not really care about having a UN Security Council seat; people are more worried about the price of chicken and vegetables and whether they have a job.

My opinion is that Guatemala is not a good candidate for the “Security” Council because Guatemala can not even provide security for its own citizens. Guatemala has the highest number of assassinations of women. There is even a documentary by Giselle Portenier called Killer’s Paradise. On any given months there are more killings in Guatemala now than there were back on the years of the civil war. So, in the process of blocking Venezuela from getting a seat on the Security Council, the US is willing to promote and give the seat to one of the most violent, unsafe, and human rights violator in the world.

Those who not pay attention to History are bound to repeat it… Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan anyone?

Meg says:

October 20, 2006 at 3:39 pm

Interesting perspective from the inside, Rudy – we haven’t heard anything like it over here. And by the way, fantastic photo. I can feel the wind on HIS face.

October 22, 2006 at 8:10 pm

ok now i understand what you said. i didn’t realize you had more deaths now than in the civil war.and yes i think history will be repeated because people don’t care or can’t see their hand in front of their face.there is a saying in our country, old men make war and young men die. this is so true. i saw the names last night of 15 U S soldiers who died in Iraq that day and most were between 19 and 24. i thought they were just kids. i wonder how many young people of iraq died that day and how old were they?may be 10 years old ? our country has a lot to answer for. sorry i shouldn’t get stared.

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