Often, around La Antigua Guatemala, you see long lines of tourist in uniforms; sometimes is just a t-shirt, sometimes is the everything. You wonder what organization they belong to or what are they here for. In this case, I wish I had asked their reasons to wear the same t-shirt. Darn!
We continue our tour of the remains of the Holy Week by showing how flores de papel (paper flowers) are use to embellish windows and doorways around La Antigua Guatemala. Above, can see the entrance to the handicrafts and jewelry store El Quinto Sol.
Well, it seems like the color purple will be with us for a while longer. The flowers above are known colloquially as Flores de papel (paper flowers) because their petals are so dried that they look like if they were made from paper. I looked up the flower in the Guateflora book, but I did … Read more
Many purple and violet banners are still hanging from doorways and windows around town. It feels like many don’t want to let go of Semana Santa. What do you think? Accomplishment Side Note: Believe it or not, the Macmillan Group will be using one of my photos as a cover for their Music Text Book … Read more
I caught a shot of marching students and the municipal band in a campaign of awareness and against tuberculosis. I even got a flyer describing the 4 steps to prevent the propagation of tuberculosis in Guatemala. If you click in the thumbnail below you will be able to see the flyer.
This is the kind of smile you see often on people’s faces who visit La Antigua Guatemala. The weather gods do help, I guess. 😉
Other colonial measurements still in use in present-day Guatemala are: Una mano (one hand or five of anything), un manojo (a bunch), una libra (a pound; this one may hurt many of you, but for sure, the civilized world now uses the kilo), una picopada (a truckload), una fila de frances (a row of french rolls), una arroba (@ or 25 pounds) un quintal (100 pounds), una cuerda (a cord equals 1/6 of city block), una medida (a measurement of whatever fits inside a small can or basket), una penca de banano (that’s a banana cluster), et-cetera or basically that’s what I can remember right now. I am sure the Guatemalans visitors will share other colonial measurements being used in Guatemala. There was a recent article about colonial measurement in Prensa Libre’s Revista Domingo under the title of Costumbres que pesan {ñ}.
A simple shot to commemorate the sunshine, the purple, the ever-present spring and to revive the Guateflora series. This photo was taken at my favorite green house: Vivero La Escalonia. I wish everyone an easy starting week! P.S. I forgot to mention that we went over 700 entries six days ago; Today’s photo is the … Read more
The Spring Season began a few days ago, so I’ve read somewhere {ñ}. Guatemala’s slogan is the Land of the Eternal Spring, yet in this country Spring has never showed up. As a matter of fact, Guatemala’s weather does not follow the ‘normal’ seasons. Instead, Guatemala has a dry and a wet seasons. The wet season begins in May and ends towards the last days of October; the remaining months are the dry season. So in about 40 days the rainy season will begin in Guatemala and the whole country will be wearing an intense verdurous foliage dress. If you ever decide to visit Guatemala, make sure you bring dark sunglasses because the adjective intense accompanies every shade of the color hue.
This old man and the band are the tail of the procession. There goes Semana Santa 2008… we are at end of the Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala. Just one more day!
That is right, Semana Santa in Guatemala is an equal opportunity celebration. Sure, cucuruchos take the majority of the clicks of cameras and most of the video recorded, but children, women and dogs have a place in the Holy Week celebrations. Women’s float or andas are a bit smaller and carry virgins or angels most of the time.
Gringos are now an integral part of La Antigua Guatemala and therefore many of them participate of the preparations of the world famous alfombras de Semana Santa (Holy Week carpets) made from colorful sawdust, flowers, fruits, and anything the imagination allows. From this shot, I particularly like the framing of the tourist with his backpack … Read more
Just like the Christmas Season comes with its own set of smells, flavors and color palette, so does the Holy Week celebrations. I can bring to you still photos, slide shows, video clips and sounds. But I can not bring you the smells. Like I said back in the Virgin of Guadalupe Day, … the incredible power of the sense of smell can detonate nostalgic memories… if only the smells could be seized like Patrick Süskind suggested in his masterpiece Das Parfum (Perfume). How could one go about imprisoning the mixture of the smells of copal incense, corozo palms, fireworks, pine needles, moisten saw dust, fresh tropical fruits, palm flower arrangements and sweat into a digital format readily available to download onto your own computer?
So much mumble jumble to present the underneath view of a Holy Week float in one of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala. Andas (floats) are not only the affair of cucuruchos, women also participate; and sometimes even chuchos (street dogs) get involved in the penitent act of carrying the heavy float! 😉
Each turn of the Holy Week Float costs around Q60 (around US$8), there are around 60 turns and each float has somewhere between 80 and 100 spaces for the Cucuruchos. That’s close to Q290,000 (US$38,000) per procession.