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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 …

Typical Vista from Antigua Guatemala by Rudy Giron

Typical Vista from Antigua Guatemala

My commitment has always been to bring you typical quotidian stamps from Antigua Guatemala. Unfortunately our beautiful enchanting little town also happens …

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 …

Repairing The Spanish-tile Roofs

People repairing streets, façades and roofs are also very common during Cuaresma [Lent]. Everyone wants La Antigua Guatemala to look its best …

Mermaid Architectonic Detail

I wonder what’s the fascination with mermaids and sirens around La Antigua Guatemala, a town located in the highlands of Guatemala, a …

Antigua Colonial Niche

This has to be one of the more elaborate niches I have seen around Antigua Guatemala, except for the niches on the …

Antigua Abstracted #3

One of Antigua’s many attractions is slowly discovering the piled and jumbled beauty of ruined buildings scattered throughout the old city. The romanticism and nostalgia of shattered architecture has always drawn traveler’s and tourists to places such as these- from the 19 Century grand tours taken by Europeans through Ancient Greece and Rome- to present day seekers of lost cities in the Guatemalan jungles.

Cathedral’s New Look

Well, it looks like 2009 will be the year of the new paint jobs on all the major churches around Antigua Guatemala …

Doña Gavi Store Wallpaper

In September 2007, I brought to you the façade and sign of La Tienda de Doña Gavi, remember? Today I bring to …

Casa de los Pasos in Antigua

This façade belongs to self-titled Casa de los Paso on Calle de los Pasos (Street of the Steps). You can see several …

Familia Gaytán Durán Sign

This is another tradition which is disappearing from the façades of La Antigua Guatemala. Having a tiled-sign with the family names on …

Little gray boxes on the hillside, Little gray boxes made of ticky-tacky

Anyhow, what’s got Little boxes to do with today’s entry. Well, once you listen to Little boxes or Las Casitas del Barrio Alto, you’d know it is impossible to get them out of your head. In a recent trip to México over the weekend we took the new road Carretera 14 to reach the highway that takes us to Southeast México. Carretera 14 is part of the road which will circumvent La Antigua Guatemala and some of the villages. In other words, Carretera 14 is the backbone for what will be the periférico around La Antigua Guatemala. Carretera 14 is also one the most beautiful stretches of road in Guatemala.

Nacimiento Shrine Niche at Capilla de Belén

One important aspect of this particular Nacimiento is the fact that Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt managed to get himself in the picture of the Nativity shrine. For those who are not well verse in Catholic imagery, myself included, normally the Nativity scene shows Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus along with a few animals. No, Santo Hermano Pedro could not be present there since he was born about 1600 years later, give or take a few moons. Rather, the inclusion of his image, on the right, is to celebrate and to remember that is was Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt who introduced the Nacimiento and Posadas to the American Continent, to La Antigua Guatemala if you want to be precise, and from this old town, this celebration was taken to the rest of the continent.

Private Spanish Classes in La Antigua Guatemala

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the private Spanish teachers yesterday in the cornucopia of options available for taking Spanish classes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Spanish Schools entry. Once again, take all these options with a grain of salt since many of the flyers put more emphasis in the private part of the sale of the service.

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.

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!

Don’t Take Pictures…

Even though La Antigua Guatemala is a very photogenic town and that is virtually impossible to take a bad photo of this …

La Tienda de Doña Gavi Sign

We continue with “the sign fetish” and today’s turn is for La Tienda de Doña Gavi sign. Believe it or not, this tiny store is one of La Antigua Guatemala landmarks and it’s located on the street behind the Cathedral. Doña Gavi sells all kinds of organic stuff in this cozy shop including avocado ice cream. If you come to Antigua, you must visit this shop. If you don’t trust my recommendation, read the On the Road Travel recommendation below:

Guatemalan Kitchen Colors

These are some of the most often used ingredients in the Guatemalan kitchen. This photo was taken on Calle del Arco in front of La Fonda de la Calle Real at a booth that the restaurant put out to showcase their flavors and the ingredients they use in their kitchen. You can take this photo to your local Latin market and start cooking some of the recipes found in this site under the Food and Drinks category. Bon Appetite!

Saint in Niche in San Lazaro Church

One aspect I forgot to mention was that there is full-size church inside the San Lazaro Cemetery in La Antigua Guatemala which I believe goes by the same name. There are some niches in the church façade, just like in many churches around Antigua Guatemala.

Huge Bougainvillea Tree at El Pensativo River

Believe it or not, the dry green river bed is El Pensativo River. The other day while driving on Calle Chipilapa, which takes you to La Ermita de la Santa Cruz Ruins, I saw this huge bougainvillea tree on the other side of El Pensativo River, dry now but soon it will have running water. I never seen a bougainvillea tree so big; my girlfriend and I saw a midget bougainvillea tree—about 1 meter in height— in Tapachula, Mexico.

Holy Week Elements: The Cross

Nevertheless, Good Friday is the culmination of the Holy Week Celebrations and the processions end at the Calvario Church (Calvario is the Spanish word for Calvary or Golgotha). The entrance of the Calvario Church in La Antigua Guatemala is a yellow façade with three arches, topped by three bells and three crosses —one larger than the other two— with a very large concrete cross in front. Can you see the obvious architectonic reference to Jesus’ crucifixion?

Lent Celebrations Began Today

In the Catholic realm the Holy Week Celebrations begin today with the Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Cuaresma, the Spanish …