Paving streets by hand, one block at a time

I know I have shown street repair crews before, but I don't think I have mentioned that most streets in and around Antigua Guatemala are built and paved by hand, one cobblestone or block at a time. In the picture above we are seeing adoquin stone tiles as they were being layout on one of the streets of San Miguel Escobar village. It's incredible to me how with simple tools such as nails, fishing line, rustic wooden mallet and adoquin stone tiles a street can be paved.

2 Responses to "Paving streets by hand, one block at a time"

NYChapin says:
July 18, 2012 at 7:40 am
Yes, very interesting. I have never seen a ” rustic wooden mallet” as my well read Gringo paisanos would call it, like the one the man in the picture is holding. You should see some of the buildings our chapin paisanos built in the jungle of Peten. What kind of tools did they use ?
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1. Rudy says:
  July 18, 2012 at 8:28 am
  Thanks NYChapin for coming up to the rescue, I knew the word mallet, but my brain was too fried last night when I wrote the post. And you’re right, the Maya did indeed built some incredible skyscrapers with very simple tools. I believe I saw a documentary at NatGeo about their simple tools for laying out precisely the orientation of the pyramids.
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Paving streets by hand, one block at a time

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