Did you know that Guatemala is the birthplace for chocolate? If not, read on. Cocoa bean (also cacao bean,[1] often simply cocoa and cacao; Mayan: kakaw; Nahuatl: cacaua) is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. They are the basis of chocolate, as … Read more
Not much to say about the marimba except it’s Guatemala’s national instrument. But, did you know the chromatic marimba was developed in Guatemala? If not, read on… The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets … Read more
Today’s entry is a follow up to Camouflaging Cellular Towers where I mentioned how fortunate we are in La Antigua Guatemala where efforts are being made to reduce the visual pollution found elsewhere in Guatemala. Here’s what posted before: Sometimes we don’t realized how lucky we are for living La Antigua Guatemala until we take … Read more
I am a lucky guy! As I shared with you before, I am so lucky to have among my friends and acquaintances, movers and shakers of the Guatemalan society. Last year I introduced to Christian Van Der Henst, @cvander as his world-famously known, a Guatemalan who fourteen years ago decided to create a website, a … Read more
Do all local governments tag or label every public work they execute? I ask because this is something I never noticed before coming back to Guatemala, but here every bench, post, park, bridge, et cetera is tagged or labeled with a sign, or like in this case, the label is built into the bench itself. … Read more
We are very fortunate in La Antigua Guatemala because we have great coffee available all year. In case you didn’t know delicious coffee berries are grown all around Antigua Guatemala in the many coffee plantations. One can find the coffee berries in many stages as shown in The Ages of Coffee. Furthermore, the latest trend … Read more
For some reason, Arcángel San Miguel is quite popular in Guatemala. Around Antigua Guatemala there at least two communities that carry San Miguel as part of their name. Do you know why San Michael is so popular as a patron saint for so many towns? These are some of the names of villages, towns and … Read more
We continue the Catholic Decorations series with an image of San Cristóbal (Saint Christopher). Because Christopher offered protection to travelers and against sudden death, many churches placed images or statues of him, usually opposite the south door, so he could be easily seen. He is usually depicted as a giant of a man, with a … Read more
Angels are, of course, the most often found catholic imagery decoration found in La Antigua Guatemala. The wooden angel above can be found hanging at one of the walls in La Palma restaurant in Antigua Guatemala. So, we began the Catholic Decorations series with Archangel San Miguel (Saint Michael), we continue with a “regular” angel … Read more
La Antigua Guatemala has to be most catholic town in Guatemala, heck make that Central America. Nowhere is Catholicism more solidly embedded in the culture, traditions and identity that in La Antigua Guatemala. This is why the Semana Santa is such a grandiloquent event. Almost all the celebrations in Antigua Guatemala are around a catholic … Read more
Even though it is difficult to see, these rain threads are an actual record of heavy rains. Boy oh boy, when it rains in Guatemala it really pours. Sometimes it feels like a lake was just pour over La Antigua Guatemala in less than hour. Anyway, here’s a simple image showing a downpour at the … Read more
RENAP stands for Registro Nacional de las Personas or National Registry of Persons. RENAP is the government institution in charge of replacing the old Guatemalan identification card known as Cédula for the new Guatemalan identification card goes by the name of Documento Personal de Identificación, DPI for short. The DPI is a plastic card, similar … Read more
Simple and elegant, that’s what I think is the essence of the colonial architecture of the Casa Antigüeña. How about you? What words would you use to describe it?
A huge part of the beauty of the Casa Antigüeña is found in its details. Simple details like a rustic round staircase with natural spot lights to illuminate during the day, the wonderful filtered sun light is more than enough. Interesting enough, for the most part the style of the architecture of the Casa Antigüeña … Read more
Slowly but surely these ugly, but necessary antennas are disappearing from the Antigua Guatemala skyline. Some of the antennas around Antigua Guatemala are being camouflaged as trees while new cellular towers are disguised as public street lamps inside the colonial town.