Guatemalan Sweet Bread Sampler – One Year Anniversary

Guatemalan Sweet Bread Sampler

Exactly one year ago with the entry Where in the world is Antigua Guatemala? we began the photographic journey of documenting life in this Spanish colonial town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes in the mountains of Central America (we are not talking about Kansas, you know). Inspired by the excellent work and ideas laid out by Eric Tenin of Paris Daily Photo and others at the time and following the guidelines compiled by Ham of London Daily Photo, I published the first twelve photos and captions to give an overview of what does life in La Antigua Guatemala is like. Back then, Antigua Guatemala DP was the only city daily photo blog in Central America, and still is, and there were only three other cities in Latin America.

My idea was to show the good, the bad and the ugly of this colonial town. I did not want to make a touristic site for the most popular touristic destination in Central America. La Antigua Guatemala is photogenic, so my goal has been a bit difficult. But I have tried to show other aspects of life which I did not see cover in other sites. Also, I wanted to ‘own’ a venue for practicing my inadequate written English and amateur photographic skills. Three hundred and seventy-six posts later I have improved neither; it’s so pathetic. On the other hand, I have gained a great deal of knowledge about this town and many good friends (even if they don’t see eye-to-eye on the issues we talked about here). What can I say, they’re are all wrong! 😉

Anyhow, I am mostly satisfied with the amount of photos and information I have shared about La Antigua Guatemala; especially if we consider this is still a hobby and that I have virtually no time in my already overwhelming lifestyle. My girlfriend and cats have given up some of my time with them. So be kind with me when I publish photos that are not artistic or shots taken when the light is not the best. I take shots when I can and usually while doing errands. Ditto for the typos, spelling errors and horrible English grammar.

What about the Guatemalan Sweet Bread?
Oh yeah, I am rambling again. In the photo above you see one of things Guatemalans abroad miss the most: Sweet Guatemalan Bread. I have talked about cutting a cake for this anniversary, but then I decided to shared the poor Guatemalans alternative: La Torta, this huge sweet bread, takes the place of the cake for many Guatemalan families. Also, as suggested by some friends, I decided to include other pieces of the Guatemalan sweet bread repertoire for all those chapines abroad. In Guatemala, we dip the bread in the coffee, as described by Manolo in LD’s entry about Miss Manners International. Since Manolo can not find champurradas (the flat tortilla-like bread in the picture) in Toronto, he dips his cookies in the coffee. I hope you don’t get grossed out by my dipping the bread in the coffee; I am doing it for the full impact on those Guatemalans who live in foreign countries and visit this site infrequently.

The sweet Guatemalan bread in this picture comes from a very popular bakery in La Antigua Guatemala by the name of San Antonio, which stills uses brick ovens and wooden logs. The bread is baked freshly twice a day and with the best recipes from La Antigua Guatemala, the culinary capital of Guatemala. Sweet bread dipped in a cup of the best coffee in the world (from Antigua, of course), what else can you ask from life?

Muchá, les puedo testificar que esa torta estaba especialmente deliciosa y con una buena taza de café antigüeño supo mejor. La vida también puede ser buena en Guatemala (a veces). ¡Salud!

That is it, thanks for all your visits, comments and feedback.

Should I continue this photographic journey?

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