Street Photography Walks in Antigua Guatemala: Hats and Umbrellas
Hats and umbrellas to protect from the harsh sunlight hitting Antigua Guatemala this fall season. This photograph was captured during a street …
Hats and umbrellas to protect from the harsh sunlight hitting Antigua Guatemala this fall season. This photograph was captured during a street …
I invite you to explore the city of Antigua Guatemala after dark with me through my night photography workshops. Master long exposure …
As I promised in December from last year, I was going to come back to take a better photograph of the Christmas …
The façade of the former Colegio Tridentino, right across from the cathedral ruins, is also under going restoration works. As I have …
Light-painting is another technique that can be used at night to enhanced or even create a different ambience Light-painted buildings are not …
Many of the illuminated buildings and ruins give you a completely different vista after sunset. The dramatic lighting creates contrasts that bring …
Here’s a night vista of Parroquia San José, the actual official name for the church located on the east side of the …
Starting next week, Antigua Photo Walks will be offering night photography walks. Explore the city of Antigua Guatemala after dark. Master long …
Sometimes we obviate things that we find on our normal routines. Take this abandoned house for instance, hundreds of buses go by …
Yes, believe it or not, you can find images like this one on the streets of Antigua Guatemala. Well, to be precise, …
The best places to photograph in Antigua Guatemala is among the most popular photo walks people take with me. I guess after …
The 17th International Jazz Festival of Guatemala is in full swing. Here’s the Thierry Lang Trio playing at as part of the …
Check out the new decorative spot lights on the side wall of the cathedral building in Antigua Guatemala. The restoration works of …
Oh what a wonderful combination of just the right ingredients is this charming and photogenic city we call now La Antigua Guatemala. …
Oh Antigua Guatemala, what a photogenic charming little town. Every block is filled with photogenic backdrops and natural frames, such as this …
Art should live free among us, in sitting rooms, cathedrals, palaces, town halls and cancer wards, in pubs and on gable ends. …
One more reason to visit Antigua Guatemala during the dry season: The golden light. This beautiful golden light is the perfect ingredient …
Over two years ago, I shared with you the new look of the square right across from the temple of Ciudad Vieja. …
Saturdays are the preferred day of the week to get married in La Antigua Guatemala. I am sure it is the same …
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Quinceañera We’ll begin this 15-day countdown with the picture of this very friendly quinceañera, 15-year-old …
If you would like to learn more about the Mayan weaving of Guatemala, make sure you visit Museo Casa del Tejido Antiguo …
As I have mentioned before, a handicraft market mushrooms on the outside of Ruinas Del Carmen on the weekends and holidays. The …
I believe I have mentioned a few times before through the years, we have the most beautiful and incredible light around Antigua …
We continue our focusing on rustic door knobs and knockers with this new version of the typical, simple and functional colonial style …
I have always called this monument Tanque de la Unión because that’s what everybody calls it. However, I learned during my Antigua …
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Andamio, which means scaffold. I don’t think I have shown andamios very often, although very …
I wonder if the Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala, city hall or the municipal government, should charge for filming within the city. I …
I was fortunate to accompany Guatemalan Architect José María Magaña Juárez, who specializes in conservation of monuments and historic centers and was …
I have said it before and I am repeating again here, both Panchoy and Almolonga valleys are surrounded by three volcanoes and …
Another series that I am working on is all the ruins, churches and landmarks of Antigua Guatemala taken at night and in …
Last night was the presentation of Vocal People at Ermita de la Santa Cruz ruins, Antigua Guatemala’s concert venue, as part of …
Ask yourself, when was the last time I visited Ciudad Vieja? If it’s been a while, perhaps it is time to put …
If there ever it was a place where abandonment looks great that would be La Antigua Guatemala, a city taken out of …
Antigua Guatemala is full of back roads and shortcuts that can take you to new scenery such as a bougainvillea-lined roadway, paths …
Pots and flowers are so typical of the rooftop terraces of Antigua Guatemala, present as often as you cupolas. Chayes are also …
There are many hangouts in Antigua Guatemala such cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs, parks, ruins, etc., but Parque Central or main plaza is …
In case you haven’t noticed, we embarked on a Rainy Season Vistas series starting a few days back. This whole week I …
Tonight we were very lucky in Antigua Guatemala because we had the rare opportunity to see the Ballet Nacional de Guatemala performed …
If there ever it was a place where abandonment looks good that would be La Antigua Guatemala, which by the way is …
“I have everything I ever wanted, nothing I ever really needed,” I read in Twitter. In Guatemala is quite the opposite most …
Today AntiguaDailyPhoto.com is celebrating its sixth anniversary. Also, the CityDailyPhoto community around the world is having the monthly theme day which is …
It had been a while since I visited Ciudad Vieja, the town about two miles from Antigua Guatemala. I was surprised to …
Los Bomberos Voluntarios (Voluntary Fire Deparment) were giving demonstration of equipment outside of the Capuchinas Ruins this weekend. It looks like the …
Even Google celebrated Guatemala’s Independence 2011 with a Doodle. Also, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent their congratulatory remarks …
Guatemala celebrates its Independence on September 15 and through the entire month student marching bands and parades are quite common. Students begin …
Nylon becomes ubiquituos in Guatemala during the rainy season. Nylon is quite possibly the cheapest protection one can buy against the rain. …
The Mayan arch is not often found in contemporary Guatemalan architecture, so it’s refreshing to find it at a friend’s home. In …
12. Colorful Guatemalan Balls, 11. Cathedral Spot Lights Zooming, 10. Sunday Mornings Begin with Coffee and Online Newspapers, 09. The Ages of …
Since Eric mentioned the fantasmas (ghosts) in the comments of San Agustín Ruins by Night, I figure I ought to share a …
I have been meaning to do a mini series about the churches and ruins which are beautifully lit by spot lights place …
Saturday, September 25, 2010 was the successful inauguration of the photo exhibition “Con sabor y aroma a café” by the members of …
An earthquake struck Guatemala on July 29, 1773 and had an estimated epicentral intensity magnitude of 7.5 Mi. It was followed by …
I am a lucky guy! I am so lucky to have among my friends and acquaintances movers and shakers of the Guatemalan …
Some of the former colonial churches are now used as venues for events like graduations, weddings, quinceañeras, etc. Such is the case …
I have been accused by some close friends of never showing the inside of churches in AntiguaDailyPhoto. Okay, they might be partially …
Today’s photo and Colonial Church Ruins Within My Fingers were the result of fortunate accident. Let me explain. I was playing around …
What’s inside this passageway? The largest fountain in Central America Ruins of a monastery Mayan arches used in colonial architecture Access to …
Visiting the El Carmen ruins folkart market is among the top things people do on the weekends and holidays in La Antigua …
Before you think of the largest pyramid in the world and the Mayan ruins complex known as El Mirador, El Petén, this …
Often during December or the Christmas season, there are several free concerts around La Antigua Guatemala. For instance, the photo above was …
The wonderful celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the National Council for the Protection of Antigua was held on Nov 20th at …
The entire property of Espacioce! or the Centro de Cooperación de la Formación Española is impressive. Yet, many never venture beyond the …
This year the first official rain of 2009 was reported on April 24 with a photograph of a woman with a green …
The whimsical, timeless allure of La Antigua’s colonial architecture, peacefully protected ruins and cobbled streets is a common theme of which I’ll …
In La Antigua Guatemala we are so lucky to have plenty of free culture. The Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua and …
The Panchoy Valley, where La Antigua Guatemala is located, used to be a lake at the time the Conquistadores arrived and when …
Well, almost a year ago, I presented you with the new paint job of the Iglesia de San Pedro Apostol San Juan …
Michele Woodey already so eloquently described the emotions La Antigua’s ruins evoke. In her Antigua Abstracted #3 post she wrote: “These are places …
If you walk around La Antigua Guatemala, quite regularly, you come across groups of tourists taking tours of the city to learn …
La Antigua Guatemala is quite small city, or town rather. It is about 10×10 block grid. Could you believe that with three …
I tell you, those Costa Ricans have no shame. First they made the entire world believe that Central America was them. Then, …
I don’t know how it happened, but I had lost this vista of the Jacaranda trees in bloom at La Antigua Guatemala’s …
I really like the Lent decorations you find over doorways and windows in La Antigua Guatemala. Lent or Cuaresma in Spanish is …
Boy, didn’t I tell you that the best time of the year to visit Antigua Guatemala, top city travel destination, is during …
Oh February, what a magnificent month to visit La Antigua Guatemala. First, you get to enjoy the Día del Cariño y Amistad …
Today is theme day for the City Daily Photo community around the world; 840 daily city web sites thus far. For the …
“I miss playing tenta, el botecito, escondite, kick-ball, cincos, trompos and all the good old games kids play…” —MO It was only …
Whenever you come across people riding horses or donkeys over the cobblestone streets of La Antigua Guatemala you feel like you are …
It seems like Claudia and I are synching our thoughts lately. She makes a comment regarding her nostalgia and memories and I …
La Antigua Guatemala is so full of antique signs that you can find while strolling around the ruins, buildings and parks. Today’s …
Last week, as we watch the delegations parade at the Beijing 2008 Olympics Inauguration, I was thinking how wonderful it was to …
During the rainy season (May thru October), every hill around La Antigua Guatemala gets a new emerald green dress. In the picture …
Honest, I don’t mean to brag. But I have to say sometimes life can be pretty good in La Antigua Guatemala. Let …
Yesterday’s photo was a close-up of the coffee bush in the lower left corner of today’s photo. If you click on the image above you can the coffee bushes (the small trees) being harvested under the shadows of the Gravilea trees in San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala. Around La Antigua Guatemala you can find coffee bushes everywhere, including as part of the hedges of La Compañía de Jesús ruins.
We continue our Guateflora series with the omnipresent coffee bush or tree, which has manage to leave the coffee plantation to become a hedge. The coffee bush is one the most often seen plants around La Antigua Guatemala, but not often I’ve seen it used as hedge. The above photograph was taken at the Compañía de Jesús building, with the ruins in the background.
Guatemala’s real culture is syncretism and thus death plays an important role in traditions and culture. Guatemala is the real ‘melting pot’ and the final product is called mestizo. A mestizo is an individual that comes in many shades of brown and she is made up from a combination of AmerIndian, European, African, Asian and Arab. Syncretism and mestizism go together well and that is why there is no conflict with including some or many Mayan rituals, including death rituals, in a everyday Catholic or Christian service. Obviously, a single entry is not enough to describe such a complex human being, but we have to start somewhere and since Patsy Poor mentioned that recent studies showed that the U.S. will be brown (mestizo) in 50 years. 😉
Papas fritas is the Guatemalan Spanish name for French fries. Here is the abbreviated history that gave us the Guatemalan french fries stall: first the Quechuas or Incas domesticated the potato (Solanum tuberosum) into a crop in southern Peru and northern Bolivia; the Spanish conquistadors took it to Europe where it was an instant hit and along with maize turned a famine-prone population into a healthy society; somewhere in one of the northern European states, quite possibly Germany, the potato lost its skin and got deep-fried; This Eurpean recipe crossed the Atlantic with the new immigrants that came to U.S. and since it was a foreign-looking recipe, they called it French fries (remember Coneheads); so the French fries came to Guatemala along one of the many incursions from the United Stateians (Americans they seem to call themselves 😉 ) as a side dish for the hamburger or the hot dog. Guatemalans thought that French fries were too good to be side dish and turned it into a meal by itself. That is how the papas fritas cart came to be.
Once again, La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo is participating in the theme day of the Daily Photo community. This time the theme is about the color red. Here you can see the Compañía de Jusús building under care of the Cooperación Española which is huge red building; one full block to be specific. This building has had many uses through history, like the home of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, home to the Jesuits of Central America in colonial times, thus its name, and more recently it houses a public library, culture center under the administration of Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional. You can see the big entrance of the building, the interior gardens and arches and one the side wall of the ruins. I decided to photograph this building because it’s the biggest red thing in La Antigua Guatemala, but I was lucky to have a red motorcycle and a red jeep enter the viewfinder at the moment I snapped the shot; how lucky, indeed.
For those who like to imagine what ruins were like and what people did around them I have todays photo of San Pedro Las Huertas Town fair with the church (not a ruin) in the background and all kind of food vendors around the town’s plaza. So this is what the ruins looked like when they were in used by the people of the past. If you would like to browse for other photos from San Pedro Las Huertas, just follow the white rabbit or if you only want to see a better shot of the church in the background just say we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Oops! I almost forgot about the photo above. These ruins belong to the church Our Lady of the Remedies, or Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Spanish. It is located on the left bank of El Pensativo river, on the south part of town, right on the street that takes you to El Calvario Church; just a few hundred feet from it. The processional figures in storage, shown yesterday, are pile on the front part of the atrium. There is a black bird in the picture, can you find it?
Above you can see the processional figures taking some time off from work in Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Church Ruins, near El Calvario in La Antigua Guatemala.
Not all the roads in La Antigua Guatemala are cobble-stoned, some side roads that travel the distance between villages or coffee plantations could be simple dirt path like the one shown above. But even this dirt road can sometimes lead you to jewels like that one I found the other day tucked, as Suzanne pointed out, between Santa Ana village and San Cristobal El Bajo. Thanks to Suzanne, now I know that the name of the ruins is Santa Isabel. The view you see in the photograph above is looking towards Santa Ana village from the Santa Isabel Ruins.
The Compañía de Jesús Building has to be one of my favorites building in La Antigua Guatemala. It is beautifully restored with …
Believe it or not, the McDonald’s restaurant in La Antigua Guatemala is very nice place to meet for coffee with friends and …
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.
The quality of the light has been fabulous. I feel the urge to re-shoot almost all the buildings, houses, churches and ruins …
We continue the music journey at Jamtigua International Music Festival with Ranferí Aguilar and his Rain Maker show. Hacedor de Lluvia or …
This outdoor folk-art market sets on the street outside the El Carmen Ruins on the weekends only, located about two blocks from …
Many ruins and churches dress up with spot lights at dusk. Here you can see Antigua Guatemala’s Cathedral illuminated with spot lights …