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Guatemalan Carnival Cascarones for 25 Centavos

Cascarones are empty eggshells that are filled with pica-pica paper confetti and then covered up with another piece of papel china (tissue paper) and finally painted in colorful ways; like everything else in Guatemala. The final painted eggshells are reserved for the Carnaval as it is known carnival in Spanish which is the ‘Sad Tuesday’ before Ash Wednesday; why ‘Sad Tuesday’?, well carnival means “farewell to meat”, you can only be sad if you are going to keep a vegetarian lent. 😉

YO-YO: The Catalog

YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos exhibit received so many accolades and magnificent reviews by the critics that it prompted Carlos Woods, owner of the gallery, and his curatorial team to pump even more oxygen by bringing the photo exhibition to one of the most important venues in La Antigua Guatemala and to create a catalog to record the fist YO-YO. This impressively beautiful catalog is printed on an European paper size (24 cm. x 36.5 cm or 9.5 in. x 14.5 in) and was designed by Paola Beverini. This is the second catalog that is put out by the Carlos Woods Gallery, but the first that will be on sale. I recommend its purchase as soon as it hits the shelves.

YO-YO: The yo-yos

Under the name of YO-YO: retratos y autoretratos (portraits and self-portraits) the Carlos Woods Gallery is presenting its very successful photography exhibit in the Sala Marco Augusto Quiroa of Paseo de los Museos in the Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo in La Antigua Guatemala.

The photo of the hanging yo-yos above is part of one of the teaser window displays to make you go visit the exhibit inside the Marco Augusto Quiroa gallery in Hotel-Museo Casa Santo Domingo. You can find this yo-yos window display in the hallway that connects the underground parking lot and the hotel.

Cups of Light

Exactly one week ago, these cups were fill with light first, then happiness and finally with wine. These cups were used in the inauguration of the new Mayor of La Antigua Guatemala, Dr. Adolfo Vivar of Unión de Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), and to wave goodbye forever and ever and never again to the former ‘mayor’ Antonio Siliezar; one the worst episodes in La Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall.

Corner Detail of Spanish-tile Roof and Street Lamp

I will let you in a little secret: I was caught taking the photo of the watchers (the guard and the photographer) so I pretended I was not taking their photo, but rather they were actual visual noise on my attempt to capture the street lamp, the stop sign and the roof detail. It worked, they continued their voyeuristic activities and so did I. Boy oh boy, the things I do for you guys!

Postscript

Sometimes bad things turn good. Guatemala’s postal service is so slow, expensive and unreliable that in Guatemala the concept of junk mail …

Surf Shop in La Antigua Guatemala

The waves are getting closer to La Antigua Guatemala. So it is no surprise to find a “surf shop” in a Spanish colonial town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes.

Actually, you can get straight down to the Pacific Ocean in about 45 to 60 minutes (depends on your safety level while driving) through one of the most beautiful stretches of road in Guatemala, known simply as Carretera 14 (road #14) and then the highway in Escuintla. Two prime beaches for surfing are Monterrico and Sipacate, both of them about two hours from La Antigua Guatemala.

Architectonic Design Elements in La Antigua Guatemala

La Antigua Guatemala is like a huge living catalog of colonial architectonic design elements. You can walk around the town armed with a camara, notepad and pencil and an eye for detail to capture all the beauty that make up the architecture of The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Sait James of the Knights of Guatemala. All the colonial architectonic design elements make this an enchanting and haunting little town. It is, certainly, more than the sum of its elements.

Inside the Safety Zone

Ever since I took a snapshot of a Electrified barb wire fence I wanted to come back to the subject to get …