Typical Post Card from La Antigua Guatemala
I am not too fond of post cards shots, but I do get them too every once in a while. So, please tell me you will come back tomorrow; I promise to stay away from post card images. I promise!
Real Old Wall with Alto Sign
After all those years, all those rainy seasons, all those earthquakes this old wall still stands.
Dove Meeting in La Iglesia de La Merced
I can still hear the rumors of the doves’ chat while at their meeting in a late afternoon at Iglesia de La Merced in La Antigua Guatemala. Since La Merced Church is one of the landmarks for La Antigua is visited often by tourists and chosen by many Guatemalan and foreigners as their wedding chapel. I dedicate this entry to my good friend Manolo who has a special history with this church.
Don’t Take Pictures…
Even though La Antigua Guatemala is a very photogenic town and that is virtually impossible to take a bad photo of this …
Postscript
Sometimes bad things turn good. Guatemala’s postal service is so slow, expensive and unreliable that in Guatemala the concept of junk mail …
Alto, watch this corner…
Anyhow, I really like the rhythm of the image above. I like all the different actions of the people, almost totally unaware of the camera. Honestly, I am very happy with this particular photograph. I feel it captures, very well, the essence of an usual street scene in La Antigua Guatemala. For those of you who visited this colonial town, what is your opinion?
Old Wall with Electric Meter Desktop Wallpaper
Here is yet another textured old wall that can be used as wallpaper or desktop image in your computer. This image even includes the electric meter so you can keep a log of how much electricity you are using while in front of your computer. 😉
Remember that you can also browse the Wallpapers category for another 7 images of La Antigua Guatemala that can be used as wallpaper or desktop images for your desktop PC, Mac or Linux workstation. To download the images as wallpapers, all you need to do is click the photos in this site and you will be taken to a larger-size image (1600í—1200) that you can download. The rest depends on the operating system you use.
Transnational: Eat fresh
I think this Subway franchise will have to use its second slogan: The Way A Sandwich Should Be because the Eat fresh may not work in a place like Antigua Guatemala, where most places serve REAL fresh food. With all of these transnational fast-food restaurants in La Antigua Guatemala, we still have to make a run for the border or drive to Guatemala City if we’d like to think outside the bun while enjoying a bean and cheese burrito.
Hotel Arizona Doorway
The La Antigua Guatemala city ordinances requires that the name of businesses be in Spanish. Some business have dual names like Rainbow Cafe which was forced to change to Café Arcoiris (although they kept Rainbow Cafe at a smaller size within the sign). Backpackers Hotel became Mochileros Hotel and so on. For the most part, I agree with this city ordinance because the La Antigua Guatemala is protected by national and international laws since it was declared by UNESCO as World Heritage.
Jungle Party Sign in Antigua
Okay, I don’t have much to say today. Or, rather there’s plenty to say, but not enough time to write it up. So, we take a break and pleasure in a soothing image of dog enjoying the late afternoon rain.
Best wishes for the upcoming weekend, everyone!
The Guatemalan Flag Should Be This Blue…
Thanks to our resourceful readers now we know exactly what shade of blue should the Guatemalan Flag should be. Manolo provided us with the exact Guatemalan Congress Act 104-97, available as a PDF download, which determines the color blue as ISCC-NBS 177. Then, Manolo, who felt like procrastinating, decided that ISCC-NBS 177 was not something most people could understand as Celestial Blue, so he gave us a web site address where we could look at the specific shade of blue. He went even futher, and submitted the HTML codes #4285B4 and #4997D0 for the Guatemalan flag blue. Xensen, took this information and came back with Pantone Matching System 297 and 298 and a link to get an idea of the color. So with all this information at our disposal, we now know what the official blue should be used in the Guatemalan Flag (like the photo below). But, like I said yesterday, “… Reality dictates that the Guatemalan flag can be blue, any blue really, with or without the emblem or coat of arms.”
What Shade of Blue is the Guatemalan Flag?
Well, who knows really. I know there’s legislation which describes to the T what a Guatemalan flag is supposed to look like, but like always in Guatemala, laws are beautiful abstract texts that live inside very dusty books. Reality dictates that the Guatemalan flag can be blue, any blue really, with or without the emblem or coat of arms.
Antigüeño Breakfast at Rainbow Cafe
The Guatemalan Writers Side Note:
For being such a tiny banana/coffee writers republic, Guatemala does produce and export quite a few good writers. I have mentioned some of them in this site like Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Pepe Milla, Ronald Flores. But, I have not done enough to talk about the great Guatemalan Literature written by its many excellent writers. Thanks to a comment by Coltrane_Lives about the possibility of his adopted Guatemalan daughter becoming a writer, I can point out a great Guatemalan novel written in English by Francisco Goldman, a respected journalist whose work appears often in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s (source: literaturaguatemalteca.org [ES]). “Francisco Goldman won accolades and international recognition with his extraordinary first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens, the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts… ” (source: amazon.com). Another great contemporary novel is Ruido de fondo (background noise) by my dear friend Javier Payeras. Javier Payeras is one of the clearest and loudest voices of this generation and his poetry and prose has won the recognition in and outside Guatemala. Ruido de fondo has been reissued by the Guatemala’s Government Editorial Cultura to be required reading for High School students in Guatemala. For those who are fluent in Spanish, I leave the link to one of my favorites poems by Payeras: Soledadbrother.
Tropical Fruits Guatemalan Breakfast
I guess you can have a breakfast like the one pictured above just about anywhere in the world since these tropical fruits are shipped everywhere now. This breakfast, however, was made from fresh fruits grown and harvested within an hour or so from La Antigua Guatemala; with luck the fruits were picked the day before.
Guatemalan Independence Day 2007 Slideshow and Video
I haven’t seen the film yet, but the title alone is hauntingly enough, for me, to make me want to see it. Live and become could be the short answer for those searching how to make a Guatemalan from a newly adopted baby. With that in mind, I leave you a short slide show and a video clip of the activities around the Guatemalan Independence Day.
I dedicate these photos, video and sounds to all my Guatemalan readers living abroad; may these vistas bring you home for a little while.
