The Panchoy Valley, where La Antigua Guatemala is located, used to be a lake at the time the Conquistadores arrived and when they founded the second Santiago de Guatemala in the Almolonga Valley, now Ciudad Vieja which is about two miles from Antigua. Then the Panchoy Lake basin was fed by the Pensativo River. The … Read more
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.
Day one of year four. On the first anniversary of La Antigua Guatemala I shared my goal with you: My idea was to show the good, the bad and the ugly of this colonial town. I did not want to make a touristic site for the most popular touristic destination in Central America. La Antigua … Read more
Every year, On January 15th, thousands of pilgrims from Guatemala, the United States, Europe and other Central American countries flock to pay homage to the dark wooden image of the crucified Christ, the most revered Catholic shrine in Esquipulas, the spiritual center of Central America. The image of the Black Christ dates back to March … Read more
Cielo is the Spanish word for heaven and sky. Cielo is also the word used for the ceiling, normally referred as cielo falso (false heaven). So this beam is holding up the heavens, if you can “think” in Spanish or Sosteniendo el cielo.
Believe it or not, the McDonald’s restaurant in La Antigua Guatemala is very nice place to meet for coffee with friends and family —I swear I haven’t sold my soul, yet—. In the patio, which runs along the length of the restaurant, there are tables all around the garden and fountain. The floors of the … Read more
There are still many walls in La Antigua Guatemala made from stones. The lucky owners of such wall choose to show the guts. What would you do if you had a wall made from stones? Tags: Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo / Antigua / Guatemala / wall / stones / doorway
Not all the walls in La Antigua Guatemala are made from stones, bricks or pumice blocks, some are actually made from organic recycled materials like the canes from the maize field. I am sure this doorway could not be admitted in MarieMc’s wonderful collection of Doorways Around the World. The fence is not as green … Read more
In 1492 the Spaniards came to the Americas and traded their tiny mirrors and beads for all the wealth available in gold, silver and precious metals and stones. The kings of Spain at the time never visited the “new” world. In 2007, today to be precise, the Kings of Spain, Don Juan Carlos (Charles) and … Read more
Architecture arose from man’s necessity to shelter from the environment. First, he used the caves where he left registered scenes from his daily life, to then build, with the materials found in nature, his home. As humankind organized socially and the jobs became specialties, the first masons appeared and transformed the natural materials such stone and wood, and invented others like adobes and bricks from clay. (fragment from La mano de obra en la arquitectura from JM Magaña in Recrearte Magazine, page 8, available in Spanish as a PDF download)