Los Patojos Need Your Help
Contact Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes or Gary Jepson to learn how you can help Los Patojos. In the meantime, read about what …
Guatemala Breaks Guinness World Record
How many people can you fit inside a bus? The chicken bus Guinness World Record of how many people you can fit …
Arches: Colonial Architectonic Design
This is crap! The four basic principles of graphic design are: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. It was Robin Williams, the graphic …
Jocotenango’s Cathedral
Those darn electrical wires! There they are again… getting in the way. ¡Son tan metiches! —MO I agree, but what can I …
The Jocote Monument in Jocotenango
Today, for a mere random act, I ended up in Jocotenango and because we’ve talking and learning about jocotes, I remember to …
In Search of the La Naranja Pelada
The first time I ever heard about La Naranja Pelada (The Peeled Orange) was at Inner Diablog, a blog published from London but filled with hindsight and hard-to-find information about Guatemala. On top of all, Guy writes so eloquently that it is a pleasure to read his entries. Honest, this blog and his writing is an inspiration for me. Check it out!
In the area around Antigua the best ceviches are to be found in a small seafood restaurant on a backstreet of Jocotenango called La Naranja Pelada. The dining room is wood-panelled and decorated with specimens of local ‘game’ such as snakes, turtles and armadilloes. (source: Inner Diablog)
Arch column in Jocotenango
Okay enough is enough. If you browse the Arches category you can find 22 entries and that is not counting all the arches that have appeared through the 535 consecutive days, but I have not tagged or classified as arches. Not once I have talked about the simple column that supports the arch; that is wrong if you consider that it takes two columns to support a single arch.
Arches at the Jocotenango Municipalidad
Here is another shot taken at the Municipalidad de Jocotenango which shows its yellow façade and abundance of arches. Jocotenango was the community where workers and artisans (indians) lived in colonial times. Nowadays, Jocotenango still provides residence to many of the workers of La Antigua Guatemala.
Arch-framed Women in Jocotenango
This is very simple image will allow us to play a creative game. Taking the two women as our characters we will write up one of many conceivable dialogues as the interaction between them. This would be similar to what we did in Opposite Ends of Life #2, which you should look at and read to get an idea. The apparent age difference could be used to set the pair as mother and daughter or sisters or simply co-workers of the newly opened Subway; it is up to you. I will submit the first plausible dialogue.
Jumping over the cables
Here is a vertical shot of a biker doing a jump in the atrium of the Jocotenango church. Jocotenago is one of the communities very near La Antigua Guatemala. Jocotenango is so close to La Antigua that you might walk and cross over the municipal borders without realizing it. Jocotenango and Ciudad Vieja are the two municipios (counties) where most of the antigüeños moved after they sold their houses in La Antigua Guatemala. Some antigüeños sold their house under pressure from buyers and because the incredible prices buyers were willing to pay. Ciudad Vieja and Jocotenango is where most of the workers of La Antigua Guatemala businesses live. Jocotenango and Ciudad Vieja are ‘REAL’ Guatemalan communities, unlike La Antigua Guatemala. Soon I will post an entry with the following title: La Antigua Guatemala is not Guatemala (which I’ve been saving for a long while now). Stay tune!
BMXing in Jocotenango
In La Antigua Guatemala and surrounded areas, church atriums and basket ball courts are used for many activities ranging from town fairs all the way to BMX bike competitions like the one above where I was lucky to catch a few shots. Believe or not, the kid on the frame above landed with his feet on the pedals. Awesome dude!