San Pedro Las Huertas

New Gardens in San Pedro Las Huertas

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In the nine years that I have been living around La Antigua Guatemala I had never seen so much work being done by a municipal administration as with the current City Hall government, especially around the villages which historically are always forgotten in favor of Antigua Guatemala. That’s three different mayors. Although I did voted … Read more

Nature-inspired Beauty Pageant Floats

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Beauty Pageant: Guatemala Green Float

Here’s a lesson to be learned. Even though San Pedro Las Huertas was one of the villages that was hit the hardest in La Antigua Guatemala by Nature’s tropical storm Agatha, here they are building Nature-inspired floats for their annual beauty pageant. The people of San Pedro Las Huertas decided to show their appreciation for Nature and the environment by building most of their carrozas with green foliage plants, flowers, water, planet Earth, moon and the stars themes. They are not the least resentful about Nature’s recent catastrophes.

Below, I am sharing with you the rest of the photos I took; I hope you can get a feel for their beauty pageant, the atmosphere and the happy Guatemala smiles. Let me know what do your own feeling about it!

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El Foot Bool Une Fronteras y Razas

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Foot Bool with the African spelling is how the people of San Pedro Las Huertas want to let everyone know that the World Cup of Foot Ball (not the U.S. meaning) brings borders and people together. The World Cup is now everywhere; of course that if you live a sheltered life in the U.S., you … Read more

Stop Agatha, Stop!

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Stop Agatha, Stop!

Guatemalans urgently need a break!

First we experience a short but strong jolt cause by an earthquake. Right after Pacaya volcano began erupting and spewing black volcanic sand and ash over Guatemala City, which cause the closing of the main international airport of Guatemala. People were still cleaning up the black sand and ash when we got hit by tropical storm Agatha, which behaves pretty much like a hurricane.

We urgently need a break!

Of course the tropical storm Agatha is the worst of all evils because it hit hard the entire country with a heavy downpour which caused floods and land slides in many places, including La Antigua Guatemala. Many people have lost their houses and many more have been evacuated and are now living in temporary shelters. A flood of tweets and Facebooks updates keep inundating the timelines with the hash tags #Pacaya, #AgathaGT, #CenizasGT, #ApagonGT, etc. You can look at all the photos from tropical storm Agatha that people are uploading at http://is.gd/cvbam and http://is.gd/cvbak.

Don’t you agree that we need a break from Nature’s catastrophes? 🙁

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Guatemalan Water Wells Wet Wealth

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First, Blame the trabalenguas, tongue twister, title on emromesco, who said that water will be the oil of the 21st century. Second, forgive the undramatic photograph; not much I can do with a working water well and its pumping warehouse. I compensate with all the wonderful researched information below. Third, a few Spanish-English word equivalents … Read more

Water Tanks and Colonial Style Social Networks

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Today, as in colonial times, these public water tanks and washbasins serve as the places for doing the laundry and for water distribution. Furthermore, public laundry washbasins (sometimes river or lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place. Public washbasins could be considered the … Read more

Public Water Faucets Are Today’s Fountains

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These recently renovated colonial-styled public water faucets can be found in and around many of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala. Like I said yesterday, the presence of these chorros as the water faucets are called in Guatemala, is a sure sign that there are still houses in the villages without piped water service. The … Read more

Who owns the water in Guatemala?

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All Guatemalans, of course, just like the air. Water belongs to the Guatemalan people and it’s managed by the government; national and local government. In theory, Guatemalans don’t pay for the water itself, but for the distribution system; that is the electricity to pump it and the distribution pipes. The water bill can vary a … Read more

Open Schools: Computer Workshops

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Oh there is a revolution brewing down South in Meso-America. This revolution will not be televised. This revolution will be streamed! Let me explain how this is going to happen. First a little background on telephone lines in Guatemala. Throughout its entire telephone history, Guatemala has barely managed to get a little over a half … Read more

Open Schools: Playgrounds

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One important aspect of the Escuelas Abiertas school program on the weekends will definitely be the safe playgrounds and fútbol and basquet bol canchas, foot ball (soccer) and basket ball courts respectively. I wish I can transmit through images the energy and happiness of the kids playing in their school courts with new balls on … Read more

Open Schools: Registration

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Finally something good for the communities in the rural areas of Guatemala. Escuelas Abiertas or Open Schools is a government program which will pay for teachers and tutors to work in public schools on the weekends from 9 to 5 so the kids take art and computer workshops, music, English, as well as physical education … Read more