As always, Guatemala’s tourism institute, INGUAT for short, put up a show of “Mayan” ceremonies and dances to welcome the members of the OAS General Assembly being held in Antigua Guatemala for the next three days. Honest, I have never understood why Guatemala’s tourism board or institute, INGUAT, hires real Maya people to perform ceremonies … Read more
Today, I did some photos of orchids as part the coverage of the 1st National Orchid Exhibition in Antigua Guatemala where over 500 orchids are on displays for the next five days at the Museo de Arte Colonial, formerly the building of the Universidad de San Carlos de Borromeo. As part of the photo taking … Read more
I am not too sure this Guatemalan woman will be singing this popular song to bring on the rain, don’t you agree? Que llueva, que llueva Canción infantil Que llueva, que llueva La Virgen de la Cueva Los pajaritos cantan, Las nubes se levantan. ¡Que sí, que no, que caiga un chaparrón! Que siga lloviendo, … Read more
All Together Now by The Beatles – www.studiohits.us on Grooveshark One, two, three, four Can I have a little more? five, six, seven, eight nine ten I love you… Today AntiguaDailyPhoto.com is celebrating 7 years of daily multimedia updates. For the seventh anniversary (2,570 consecutive daily updates and 12 pages, which have generated over 12,627 … Read more
Alright, we will finish the first part of the Real Guatemala series with portrait of two police officers who were deployed during Semana Santa, Holy Week, to keep everyone “safe.” Only a few times during the year we get the opportunity of seeing so much policías on the streets of Antigua Guatemala, but never as … Read more
Today we begin a new mini series: The Real Guatemala. Claudia she was bringing back some long lost memories from her dear Guatemala, in her own words, “No helmets, no amber alerts, no Wiis, just a plastic ball or if lucky a real soccer ball, I feel one component that I loved of living down … Read more
Whoever came up with the idea of pairing the omnipresent bucaro fountain and a vertical garden is pure genius. Imagine a vertical garden everywhere in Antigua Guatemala where there’s a bucaro fountain. I don’t want to imagine it, I want to see it. By the way, this vertical garden is found inside the premises of … Read more
With this selection of the hermanas cargadoras, the women who carry the smaller floats of the Virgin Mary or other virgins for the matter we conclude our coverage of Lent and Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala. Our gratitude and huge round of applause goes to Nelo Mijangos who goes the extra mile, literally, to bring … Read more
With this gallery of Semana Santa photos from Antigua Guatemala, Nelo Mijangos shares with us an overview of the many vistas one can expect while following a procession in Antigua Guatemala. For instance, the picture above gives us an idea of the length of the float and how many cucuruchos carry it. Below, we can … Read more
These photographs belong to the procession of Santuario de San Francisco El Grande. Nelo explains that the two wood rods that stick out at the front of the float, andarilla he calls it, are called timonen (steering) and are the responsible for the rhythm and direction of the procession. If you have any questions about … Read more
Velaciones, vigils, are a very important tradition during Lent and Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala. Velaciones are altars or shrines made for the catholic figures that later on will be on top of the floats, andas in Guatemalan Spanish, which are the nucleus of the processions. Even though I recently shared with you an entire … Read more
As I have mentioned before, Lent and Semana Santa is an equal-opportunity tradition. As you can see here, even little girls get a chance to carry a float, small, but still their float. By the way, the male carriers are called cucuruchos and the female carriers are known as hermanas cargadoras. I call the little … Read more
One thing I know for sure, there will be Holy Week celebrations in Antigua Guatemala for a long while. These traditions are being perpetuated with the very young and pride and identity of these customs are being held very high. The picture above of students of tourism was taken at the end of their creation … Read more
The second Sunday of Lent is the turn for the village of Santa Inés del Monte Pulciano. It is at this processional float when many cucuruchos from Guatemala City make their first appearance. For this procession, Nelo Mijangos took 752 photos and “only” walked 19.4 kilometers or 12 miles. You can see his route on … Read more
The fountains are decorated with flower arrangements as part of the low profile celebrations for Antigua Guatemala’s 470th anniversary this March 10th. Because of the Lent processions and festivities, the celebration will consist of opera recital by ensemble from Juniata College from Pennsylvania on Saturday 9 at 7pm on the main square. Don’t miss it! … Read more