Currently browsing

Search results for: "details, details, details", Page 2

Welcome to Mennonite Country © Rudy Giron

Welcome to Mennonite Country

Yes, Guatemala is becoming a magnet destination for all kinds of religious groups. I believe this is the second time I spotlight …

The Buñuelo Transaction © Rudy Giron

The Buñuelo Transaction

As I mentioned yesterday, Cuaresma [Lent] has street food that is sold at the booths outside the church where the velación, vigil, …

Shoe-shine Kids vs The Visitors

Here’s your Guatemalan-Spanish word of the day: Chamusca, an informal football match. All you need is a few friends or visitors, a …

Fiambre Cold Cut Ingredients

This is what supermarkets look like around fiambre time. Some of these cold cuts are only available during fiambre season, which is …

Wood Carving Art from Guatemala

Guatemalans have always produced great sculpture and wood carving figures. From the time of Maya all the way through colonial period, Guatemala …

Guatemalan Portrait: The Soldier

Slowly but surely, the series Guatemalan Portrait is coming along. Obviously there are hundreds of portraits I still need to take have …

Antigua Guatemalan Water Jar

Here’s your Guatemalan Spanish word for the day: Tinaja or water jar. They don’t make things like they used. Take this over …

Guatemalan Baroque Entrance by Rudy Giron - www.rudygiron.com

Guatemalan Baroque Entrance

Now, be honest, don’t you wish this was the entrance to your home? I know I do. I normally like very minimalist …

The aesthetics of abandonment by Rudy Girón

The aesthetic of abandonment

If there ever it was a place where abandonment looks good that would be La Antigua Guatemala, which by the way is …

San Francisco El Grande Niche

This niche and statue of San Francisco (Saint Francis) can be found at the entrance of the façade looking north of Iglesia …

Occupy Antigua Plantón

There was a plantón, sort of an occupy protest, called for many civil organizations to disrupt and put an end to the …

Perspective Is Everything!

Yes, perspective is everything! If you don’t believe me compare the Tea Partiers and the Occupy Wall Street movement, since both share …

Original Street Names Signs

I can’t believe how slow I am and how little attention I pay to the details that come my way everyday. Can …

Colorful Guatemalan Vegetables

We are so lucky in Guatemala to have an abundant supply of fresh and colorful vegetables all year long. This colorful side …

New Closing Time City Ordinances

There is new seismic activity in La Antigua Guatemala’s grapevine. For a while now, I’ve been hearing rumors about new closing times …

Antigua Abstracta

Early on I had been bewitched by the abstract possibilities found in every nook and cranny of this enchanting and vibrant sleepy …

Post Card From The Past

A creative framing on a quiet afternoon with just the right amount and kind of people and we get a post card …

Arches Are Us

El Palacio de los Capitanes building has to be one of my favorites edifices with lots of arches; and you know I …

The Broom-head Romans Are Back

I have honestly tried not put as many Cuaresma/Lent and Semana Santa/Holy Week photos here. I could, in theory, have a Lent/Holy …

Making Pilas: Setting the Mold

The first step of making the Guatemalan washbasin is to set the concrete mold pieces and then filling it with concrete. The …

It’s Refa Time!

There are two ‘official’ snack times in Guatemala known as refacción; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I have …

Coffee Tables, literally!

Here is one more entry for the Only in LAG. Leave it to the creative people of La Antigua Guatemala to produce …

Theme Day: Night

Night is the subject for the Theme Day of the City Daily Photo community, which every first of the month synchronizes over …

Horseback Riding in Antigua Guatemala

It is not unusual to see people riding horses within the streets of La Antigua Guatemala. Some of the horses have been trained to do so gracefully that is a pleasure to watch them go by. Such is the case of this white horse and the jockey that ride as one with refinement and suave stride.

Gravilea Trees Wallpaper

As mentioned before the Gravilea trees are planted next to coffee bushes to provide the necessary shade for the coffee plants. Once …

Visit The Time Tunnel

In my quest to bring to you ‘new’ vistas of the same ‘old’ places around La Antigua Guatemala, I present to you …

Casa Antigüeña: The Niches

Of course, big part of the beauty of the Casa Antigüeña is found in its details, like the niches that can host …

New Tile On the Antigua Blocks

With the new administration at La Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall, there have come new regulations and orderliness on the streets of this …

What Was the Old Man Thinking?

I wonder what was going through the old man’s mind while watching the young tourist with flip flops (thongs) and short shorts. …

Baby Jesus Inside the Nacimiento

On the December 8th, It was Carmen who said, “Baby Jesus was put in his spot within the Nacimiento after we came back from the Misa de Gallo…” in the comments of the entry about the Nacimiento Shrine Niche at Capilla de Belén. Well, I am glad to know that our fellow readers and visitors are eager to fill in all the details and ephemerides that I leave out (out of ignorance). Follow the link if you would like to learn about Nacimientos tradition in Guatemala.

The Last Fashion Statement: The Chucho

Believe it or not, I read recently in an article in the New York Times (printed edition, so no link) that the latest fashion statement in the U.S. was to adopt Latin American street dogs, commonly known here as “los chuchos”. Well, maybe this should be the type of Guatemalan adoptions that should make the headlines. There is an abundance of chuchos or street dogs available for adoption in La Antigua Guatemala and throughout Guatemala.

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!

Typical Post Card from La Antigua Guatemala

I am not too fond of post cards shots, but I do get them too every once in a while. So, please tell me you will come back tomorrow; I promise to stay away from post card images. I promise!

Antigüeño Breakfast at Rainbow Cafe

The Guatemalan Writers Side Note:
For being such a tiny banana/coffee writers republic, Guatemala does produce and export quite a few good writers. I have mentioned some of them in this site like Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Pepe Milla, Ronald Flores. But, I have not done enough to talk about the great Guatemalan Literature written by its many excellent writers. Thanks to a comment by Coltrane_Lives about the possibility of his adopted Guatemalan daughter becoming a writer, I can point out a great Guatemalan novel written in English by Francisco Goldman, a respected journalist whose work appears often in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s (source: literaturaguatemalteca.org [ES]). “Francisco Goldman won accolades and international recognition with his extraordinary first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens, the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts… ” (source: amazon.com). Another great contemporary novel is Ruido de fondo (background noise) by my dear friend Javier Payeras. Javier Payeras is one of the clearest and loudest voices of this generation and his poetry and prose has won the recognition in and outside Guatemala. Ruido de fondo has been reissued by the Guatemala’s Government Editorial Cultura to be required reading for High School students in Guatemala. For those who are fluent in Spanish, I leave the link to one of my favorites poems by Payeras: Soledadbrother.

Alto – Stop Sign in La Antigua Guatemala

The flavor in life is found in the little details. The transit signs in La Antigua Guatemala are a very good example of that. You take something boring but necessary as a stop sign and turn it into a beautiful detail; which makes your walks around town a little more pleasant to the eyesight. The stop signs (alto in Spanish) in La Antigua Guatemala are made from red ceramic tiles and metal frames.