New Style Guatemalan Purses and Backpacks

Here’s one of the new directions that Guatemalan textiles are taking. You can still identify the pieces as made with Mayan textiles from Guatemala, but the patterns and colors as well as the new designs of purses and backpacks are made for people in North America and Europe. What do you think of these new … Read more

Caldo de Gallina Criolla Vegetables

Back on August I shared with you the presentation of Caldo de Gallina Criolla from Sabe Rico Restaurant in Antigua Guatemala. Criollo or criolla is the Guatemalan Spanish word often meaning native, garden grown or free range. As I said before, criollo in colonial times was the word used to label the offspring of Spaniards … Read more

Installing the Christmas Lights

The installation crew for the Christmas lights is hard at work to have all 600 series installed before December 3 and that’s when the all the trees and plants at Parque Central will be lit at night. To see how the main plaza looks like with all the lights on, follow the white rabbit to … Read more

Thanksgiving in Antigua Guatemala

Thanksgiving is yet another holiday from the U.S. that is celebrated in Antigua Guatemala, especially by the local expat residents living in town. Because of this, often you find restaurants that cater to those who do not want to go through the ordeal of cooking the turkey and Thanksgiving dinner. Other expats just celebrate the … Read more

Live Andean Music at Parque Central

There’s been live Andean music at the Plaza Mayor for several months thanks to this band who a few times a week set up a live show of classic Latin American songs and covers of popular music played with the distinctive Andean music style. Live music at the park is always a hit and everyone … Read more

The Walls Speak for 99%

Libertad, expresión y conciencia nos declara el muro

Everywhere, the times they are a-changin’

Libertad, Expresión, Conciencia the wall declares. Liberty, Freedom of Expression and Conscience could be the rough translation of this message on the wall.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
.
.
.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

—Bob Dylan

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Washbasins and Water Tanks Are the Social Media Networks For Villages

Public laundry washbasins (sometimes river and lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place there. In many places in Guatemala public washbasins could be considered the first news broadcasting sites or rural social media networks, similar to Facebook or Twitter for people with computers … Read more

Architectonic Details: Búcaro Fountains

A búcaro fountain is half fountain normally embedded in a wall, normally near an inside patio, but it can be anywhere. I’ve photographed búcaro fountains for a while now and there are plenty of designs in the archives of Antigua Guatemala. Here’s a short list of some of the búcaro fountains found in the archives: … Read more

Typical Wall Garden from Antigua Guatemala

Often the perimeter walls for residential homes have carefully guided bougainvillea trees flowering all year long along to the top. In a way, bougainvillea and other such trees served as a safety fence to keep the amigos de lo ajeno at bay. Of course, at the same time, the luscious green vegetation and flowers are … Read more